Kings I 18:26

26 And the servants of Saul report these words to David, and David was well pleased to become the son-in-law to the king.

Kings I 18:26 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:26

And they took the bullock which was given them
By such of them as made the choice:

and they dressed it;
slew it, and cut it in pieces, and laid it on the wood, but put no fire under it:

and called on the name of Baal, from morning even until noon, saying, O
Baal, hear us;
and send fire down on the sacrifice; and if the sun was their Baal, they might hope, as the heat he gradually diffused was at its height at noon, that some flashes of fire would proceed from it to consume their sacrifice; but after, their hope was turned into despair, they became and acted like madmen:

but there was no voice, nor any that answered;
by word, or by sending down fire as they desired:

and they leapt upon the altar which was made;
not by Elijah, but by themselves, either now or heretofore, and where they had formerly sacrificed; and they danced about it, and leaped on it, either according to a custom used by them; such as the Salii, the priests of Mars, used, so called from their leaping, because they did their sacred things leaping, and went about their altars capering and leaping F19; or rather they were mad on it, as the Targum renders it, and acted like madmen, as if they were agitated by a prophetic fury and frenzy.


FOOTNOTES:

F19 Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 8. "tum Salii ad cantus" Vid. Gutberleth. de Salii, c. 2. p. 9.

Kings I 18:26 In-Context

24 And the servants of Saul reported to him according to these words, which David spoke.
25 And Saul said, Thus shall ye speak to David, The king wants no gift but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to avenge himself on the kings enemies. Now Saul thought to cast him into the hands of the Philistines.
26 And the servants of Saul report these words to David, and David was well pleased to become the son-in-law to the king.
27 And David arose, and went, he and his men, and smote among the Philistines a hundred men: and he brought their foreskins, and he becomes the king's son-in-law, and gives him Melchol his daughter to wife.
28 And Saul saw that the Lord with David, and all Israel loved him.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.