1 Kings 19:1-8

Elijah Flees Jezebel

1 Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how ¹he had killed all the prophets with the sword.

2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ²"So may the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow."

3 Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to ³Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

4 But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. ⁴And he asked that he might die, saying, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers."

5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, "Arise and eat."

6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 And the angel of the LORD came again a second time and touched him and said, "Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you."

8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food ⁵forty days and forty nights to ⁶Horeb, the mount of God.

1 Kings 19:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 19

This chapter gives us a further account of Elijah, of his being obliged to flee for his life through the threats of Jezebel, 1Ki 19:1-4, of the care the Lord took of him, providing food for him, in the strength of which he went to Horeb, 1Ki 19:5-8, of the Lord's appearance to him there, and conversation with him, 1Ki 19:9-14, of some instructions he gave him to anoint a king over Syria, another over Israel, and a prophet in his room, 1Ki 19:15-18, and of his finding Elisha, and throwing his mantle over him, who left his secular employment, and followed him, and became his servant, 1Ki 19:19-21.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 18:40
• 2. [1 Kings 20:10]; See Ruth 1:17
• 3. See Genesis 21:31
• 4. [Numbers 11:15; Jonah 4:3, 8]
• 5. Exodus 24:18; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9, 18; Matthew 4:2; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:2
• 6. Exodus 3:1