1 Kings 18:40

40 And Elijah saith to them, `Catch ye the prophets of Baal; let not a man escape of them;' and they catch them, and Elijah bringeth them down unto the stream Kishon, and doth slaughter them there.

1 Kings 18:40 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 18:40

And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal
The four hundred and fifty that were upon the spot; for the number of the people of Israel, now gathered together, were equal to it; nor was it in Ahab's power to hinder it, and he might himself be so far surprised and convicted as not in the least to object to it:

let not one of them escape:
that there might be none of them left to seduce the people any more:

and they took them;
laid hold on them, everyone of them:

and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon;
which ran by the side, and at the bottom of Mount Carmel, into the sea; (See Gill on Judges 4:7) (See Gill on Judges 5:21).

and slew them there;
intimating, that it was owing to the idolatry they led the people into that rain had been withheld, and the brooks were dried up, as this might be; or, as Ben Gersom thinks, that the land might not be defiled with their blood, but be carried down the river after it: these he slew not with his own hand, but by others he gave orders to do it; and this not as a private person, but as an extraordinary minister of God, to execute justice according to his law, ( Deuteronomy 13:1 ) by which law such false prophets were to die; and the rather he was raised up and spirited for this service, as the supreme magistrate was addicted to idolatry himself.

1 Kings 18:40 In-Context

38 And there falleth a fire of Jehovah, and consumeth the burnt-offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and the water that [is] in the trench it hath licked up.

39 And all the people see, and fall on their faces, and say, `Jehovah, He [is] the God, Jehovah, He [is] the God.'

40 And Elijah saith to them, `Catch ye the prophets of Baal; let not a man escape of them;' and they catch them, and Elijah bringeth them down unto the stream Kishon, and doth slaughter them there.

41 And Elijah saith to Ahab, `Go up, eat and drink, because of the sound of the noise of the shower.'

42 And Ahab goeth up to eat, and to drink, and Elijah hath gone up unto the top of Carmel, and he stretcheth himself out on the earth, and he placeth his face between his knees,