Chapter Nineteen

1–8. Jezebel’s threat to the prophet Elijah and his departure from Jezreel to Beersheba and then to Horeb. 9–18. The theophany to the prophet at Horeb. 19–21. The anointing of Elisha for the prophetic ministry in place of Elijah.

1 Kings 19:1. And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. 1 Kings 19:2. And Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying: [if you are Elijah, and I am Jezebel, then] may the gods do this to me and more, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your soul like the soul of each of them. 1 Kings 19:3. Seeing this, he arose and went to save his life, and came to Beersheba, which is in Judah, and left his servant there. Ahab’s account to Jezebel of the Mount Carmel events, in particular the killing by the prophet Elijah’s word of the priests of Baal (1 Kgs 18:40), apparently was intended to dispose his wife toward the religion of Jehovah; but upon Jezebel, a stubborn and fanatical pagan, the account had the opposite effect; it aroused her fury, vengefulness, and intention to struggle decisively for the cult of Baal and against the chief representative of the religion of Jehovah – the prophet Elijah, who had become the cause of the destruction of her priests; and through a messenger she swears an oath (compare 1 Kgs 2:23) threatening him with death, apparently intending to compel him to flee (to kill the prophet Elijah as she had many other prophets (1 Kgs 18:4), Jezebel apparently did not find possible in view of his fame among the people, especially shortly after the happenings on Mount Carmel, when the impression of the power of the prophet of the true God upon the people was still fresh). The LXX and Slavonic in Jezebel’s words, verse 2, add εἰ σὺ εἶ Ἠλιοῦ, καὶ ἐγὼ Ἰεζάβελ, “if you are Elijah, I am [Jezebel],” that is, “I shall be able to oppose my authority as a queen, a devotee of Baal, to your authority and influence as a prophet.” Jezebel probably did this not without Ahab’s knowledge, who proved too weak to resist Jezebel: a feeling of repentance (compare note to (1 Kgs 18:45-46)) within him proved too shallow and fruitless. The prophet feared (LXX: ἐφοβήθη; Vulgate: timuit ergo, Slavonic: “and feared,” corresponding to the Hebrew verb yare, “to fear,” not yara – “to see,” as in the Hebrew and Russian Synodal, verse 3). “Why,” asks the blessed Theodoret (question 59), “did Elijah, having such power, fear one Jezebel?” And he answers: “because he was not only a prophet but also a man. On the other hand, the fear itself was the work of God’s providence. So that the greatness of the miraculous work would not puff up his thoughts, grace allowed nature to give itself a place for fear, and through this the prophet came to know his own weakness.” The prophet departs from the Israelite kingdom to Beersheba – in the Judahite kingdom. Beersheba belonged to the tribe of Simeon (Josh 19:2; 2 Sam 24:7), lay on the border of Edom, now Khirbet Bir es-Seba, Onomast 277; at the southern end of Judah and all of Canaan, as Dan formed its northern boundary; hence the well-known expression “from Dan to Beersheba” (Judg 20:1; 1 Sam 3:20; 2 Sam 3:10; 1 Kgs 4:25), compare Robinson, Palestinal, 337. Although this city belonged to the Judahite kingdom, yet even during the time of the division of kingdoms it attracted many pilgrims from the Israelite kingdom (Amos 5:5). At Beersheba the prophet leaves his servant (verse 3), compare (1 Kgs 18:43-44); in his sorrow the prophet naturally wished to be alone.

1 Kings 19:4. But he himself went into the wilderness a day’s journey and, coming, sat under a juniper bush, and asked for death and said: It is enough now, Lord; take my life, for I am not better than my fathers. 1 Kings 19:5. And he lay down and fell asleep under the juniper bush. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him: Rise, eat [and drink]. 1 Kings 19:6. And Elijah looked, and behold, at his head was a baked cake and a jar of water. He ate and drank and lay down again. 1 Kings 19:7. And the angel of the Lord returned a second time and touched him and said: Rise, eat [and drink], for a long journey is before you. 1 Kings 19:8. And he arose and ate and drank, and, strengthened by that food, he went forty days and forty nights to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. Stricken with sorrow, the prophet goes into the wilderness – that same Arabian wilderness through which once the people of God wandered, and here under one shrub of the plant drokah (Hebrew rothem, compare (Ps 119:4; Job 30:4); LXX: ὑποκάτω Ῥάθμέν; Vulgate: subter juniperum; Slavonic: “under a whirlwind”; Russian Synodal: “under a juniper bush”) – a plant frequently encountered in Arabia and yielding a useful charcoal there (Ps 119:4) – gave himself over to a feeling of deep sorrow and regret about the failures of his prophetic mission, and this feeling, in connection with his burning zeal for God (compare verses 10, 14), poured out for the prophet in a request or prayer to God for death – for the removal of the highest gift of God’s mercy – life (compare (Ps 60:7; Prov 3:2) and others): his life appeared to him as not fulfilling its purpose, and therefore by the example of his fathers he asks death from God. This desire and request of the prophet was not an expression of cowardice and murmuring on his part; otherwise he would not have been deemed worthy of the twofold sending of the angel 22 (verses 5, 7) for his strengthening and instruction. Strengthened by the food indicated by the angel, the prophet goes to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God, and in 40 days reaches it. Horeb (LXX: Σωρήβ; Hebrew Choreb; Vulgate: Horeb, (Exod 3:1; Deut 1:6; 1 Kgs 8:9) and others) is called the mountain of God and frequently in the Bible is identified with Sinai. Usually they are distinguished by the fact that Horeb is understood to be the whole mountain range between Wadi Shueib, Racha, and Ledja, while Sinai is understood to be a separate high peak rising above it to the south (Onomastic, 975). The relatively small distance from the wilderness adjoining Beersheba to Horeb in the land of Midian the prophet traversed in 40 days – probably with prolonged stops and deviations from the direct path (to avoid pursuers); the direct path in the indicated direction did not exceed 50 versts (according to (Deut 1:2) from Horeb to Kadesh-Barnea, lying somewhat south of Beersheba, – 11 days’ journey). The 40 days of Elijah’s journey to the mountain of legislation have an analogy with the 40-day stay of Moses on the mountain of legislation (Exod 24:18), and as Moses spent 40 days without food and drink (Exod 34:28; Deut 9:9), so it may be supposed that during the 40-day journey to Horeb the prophet Elijah too fasted (“strengthened by that food”; Slavonic: “went in the strength of that food”; Vulgate: ambulavit in fortitudine cibi illius), ardently desiring to have the Revelation of God about the fate of Israel and his own prophetic mission.

1 Kings 19:9. And he entered there into a cave and lodged in it. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him: What are you doing here, Elijah? 1 Kings 19:10. He said: I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword; I alone am left, but they seek my life to take it away. 1 Kings 19:11. And He said: Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, and behold, the Lord will pass by, and a great and strong wind, tearing mountains and breaking rocks in front of the Lord, but the Lord is not in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake; 1 Kings 19:12. after the earthquake fire, but the Lord is not in the fire; after the fire a gentle whisper, [and there the Lord]. 1 Kings 19:13. Hearing this, Elijah covered his face with his cloak, and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And there was a voice that said to him: What are you doing here, Elijah? 1 Kings 19:14. He said: I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword; I alone am left, but they seek my life to take it away. The question of God to Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (verse 9) does not have the meaning of a reproach to the prophet for faint-hearted flight into the wilderness from his mission in society, as some interpreters think, but is simply a call of divine love to the prophet exhausted in soul and body – to open his soul to Jehovah. And the prophet opens the inmost content of his thoughts and feelings: burning zeal and acute sorrow about Israel’s violation of the covenant with God, about the destruction or desecration of sacred altars, about the slaughter of prophets, so that of the latter only Elijah remains, but even his life is in danger from pursuers (verses 10, 14). Zeal for the covenant once violated, concluded at Sinai (Exod 34:1-10), and now prompting the prophet to address with complaints about Israel to God ((Rom 11:2): ἐντυγχάνει τῷ Θεῷ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰσραήλ) on that same mountain of covenant and legislation places the prophet Elijah in a parallel with the Lawgiver Moses (both great men later appeared to the Lawgiver of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ, on the Mount of Transfiguration), (Matt 17:3; Mark 9:4; Luke 9:30). With the name of a zealot, the prophet Elijah passed into history. The very speech of the prophet in verse 10, repeated after verse 14, is a question to God: what measures or means can be applied to the faithless Israel? Without prejudging this question, the prophet, however, might have wished a swift and decisive punishment. The answer of God to the words and thoughts of the prophet is, first, the special character of the theophany, verses 11–12, and then the command of God concerning the anointing of two kings and a prophet to execute God’s judgment upon Israel. The theophany to the prophet Elijah at Horeb, verses 11–12, closely recalls the theophany once having here to Moses (Exod 33:18-19) – also on account of Israel’s violation of the covenant at Sinai (Exod 32:1). As for the very character of the theophany, from the fact that Jehovah appeared not in a whirlwind and storm (compare Isa 17:13), not in an earthquake (compare Isa 24:18), not in an all-consuming fire (compare Isa 66:15) – the usual fearsome elemental forces of the punishing, wrathful power of God (compare Ps 17:8-18; Isa 29:5-6), but in a gentle whisper (compare Job 4:16; Ps 103:3), – the prophet was taught that Jehovah “considered it better to govern the human race with gentleness and patience, although it would not be difficult for Him to send upon the wicked both lightning and thunder, to shake the earth, quickly dig a pit for them and utterly destroy them with violent winds” (the blessed Theodoret, question 59). The words “and there the Lord” in the Slavonic and Russian translation of verse 12 are in neither the Hebrew text nor the accepted text of the LXX, yet they are read in many Greek codices (κἀκεῖ: Κύριος in codices 19, 44, 52, 64, 74, 92, 106, 119, 120, 123, 158, 236, 213, 246, in Holmes; and there Lord – in codices 59, 108, 121, 134, 245, 247, ibid) and fully express the meaning of the text. The Vulgate, however, does not have them either. In general, this theophany has very great significance for the whole theology of the Old Testament, testifying that, according to the teaching of the Old Testament, God is not an elemental force but a spiritual moral principle, for which elemental phenomena are merely means of manifestation, but whose actions are always stamped with a higher moral character, and the fundamental law of God’s action in the world in general and especially toward people is love and mercy (compare Exod 34:6). Feeling God’s presence in the gentle whisper, the prophet Elijah went out from the cave in which he had been during the shattering natural phenomena, and in reverent awe before the Inaccessible God covered his face with a cloak (the cloak, LXX: ἐν τῇ μιλωτῇ; Vulgate: pallio; Hebrew ‘adderet), as Moses did at the theophany that came to him also at Horeb (Exod 3:6; compare Isa 6:2).

1 Kings 19:15. And the Lord said to him: Go back by your way through the wilderness to Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Syria, 1 Kings 19:16. and Jehu son of Nimshi you shall anoint as king over Israel; and Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place; 1 Kings 19:17. and whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 1 Kings 19:18. Yet I have left seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and all the mouths that have not kissed him. If verses 11–12 contain a symbolic answer to the words of the prophet (verses 10, 14), then now another answer of God is given to that same question of the prophet – the command of God to him – to “anoint”: Hazael as king over Syria, Jehu as king over Israel, and Elisha as the successor of Elijah in the prophetic ministry (verse 15). These three such different actors are united here as those who are to serve to fulfill the will of God, the plans of God concerning Israel in particular: Hazael, king of Syria, subsequently became the scourge of God’s wrath upon Israel and constantly oppressed it from without (2 Kgs 8:12); Jehu accomplished difficult internal upheavals in the Israelite kingdom: he destroyed the house of Ahab and the cult of Baal introduced by him (2 Kgs 9:24); the prophet Elisha appeared as the direct successor of the prophet Elijah: the struggle against paganism in Israel, and was the instrument of God’s teaching and punishing action – of course, not by a material sword, as the first two (verse 17), but by the sword of the prophetic word (Isa 49:2) and his whole prophetic activity. The prophet Elijah personally fulfilled only the third command of God – concerning the appointment of Elisha as his successor (verses 19–21). But “if he anointed a prophet and imparted to him spiritual grace, then by this he also anointed the others, because Elisha, having received through him the prophetic grace, and transferred the gift upon them and imparted to them royal grace” (the blessed Theodoret, question 60). However, “anointing” here has a completely general meaning: appointment, designation, predication, calling: even Elisha was not called as a prophet by the prophet Elijah through anointing with oil (concerning the anointing of prophets with oil as a way of calling in the Old Testament in general there is no mention, except for the prophecy concerning the anointing of the supreme prophet the Messiah), (Isa 61:1; Luke 4:18), but through the laying on of him of the prophetic cloak or mantle (verse 19) compare (2 Kgs 1:8; Zech 13:4); nevertheless, speech can be concerning the “anointing” of Hazael to kingship in Syria: the prophet Elisha, executor of the testament of the prophet Elijah, simply conveyed to Hazael the will of God concerning him (2 Kgs 8:7-13); only Jehu, like other Hebrew kings (compare 1 Sam 10:1; 1 Kgs 1:34 and others), was actually anointed to kingship, though not by the prophet Elisha himself, but by one of the “sons of the prophets” (2 Kgs 9:1-10). Concerning the location of Abel-Meholah, the native city of the prophet Elisha (according to Eusebius-Jerome, 10 miles to the south of Scythopolis or Bethshan, Onomastic 5), see note to (1 Kgs 4:12). Along with the announcement of judgment upon the Israelite kingdom (verse 17), the prophet Elijah is granted a gracious consolation, that amid the widespread propagation of ungodliness in Israel there are and unknown to the world and even to the prophet, but known to God alone, bearers of true faith and piety: 7,000 [men], who did not bow their knees before Baal and did not kiss his statue (verse 18). Seven thousand – a round definite number instead of an indefinite multitude, as 144,000 sealed – in (Rev 7:4); 7 – a symbolic number of holiness, covenant, worship (K. Bahr. Symbolik des mosaisch. Kult. I, 5, 193) and here, naturally, was taken to designate the remnant of Israelites faithful to the covenant, as the “holy seed” of the people of the covenant (Isa 6:13; compare Rom 11:7). Concerning bowing of knees as an expression of religious feeling, see (1 Kgs 8:54); concerning the kissing of statues of golden calves see (Hos 13:2). Compare in M. Palmov, Idolatry among ancient Hebrews, p. 232.

1 Kings 19:19. And he departed from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, and he was plowing; twelve pairs [of oxen] were with him, and he himself was with the twelfth. And Elijah, passing by him, cast his cloak upon him. 1 Kings 19:20. And Elisha left [the oxen], and ran after Elijah, and said: Let me, I pray you, kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you. And he said to him: Go and return, for what have I done to you? 1 Kings 19:21. He turned back from him, and took a pair of oxen, and slew them, and with the plowing equipment of the oxen, cooked their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. And he arose and followed Elijah, and ministered to him. Although the voice of God commanded Elijah (verse 15) to go from Horeb through the wilderness to Damascus – the capital of Syria (Isa 7:8); Onomast 378, to anoint Hazael, he, deciding first of all to establish a successor in the future, and presently a necessary colleague, goes to the city Abel-Meholah, where Elisha lived. It is possible that the prophet Elijah had formerly known this young man (therefore directly fixed upon him), who apparently belonged to a wealthy family (12 pairs of working oxen). The symbolic action of the prophet Elijah, meaning the acceptance by him of Elisha into his spiritual communion (compare Ruth 3:9; Ezek 16:8), more particularly into collaboration in the prophetic ministry (compare 2 Kgs 2:13), was understood precisely thus by Elisha, who entirely, with full readiness, followed this calling, having only asked the permission of the prophet Elijah to take leave of his parents (verse 20; the words of the prophet Elijah “what have I done to you” point to the importance of the calling to prophecy and at the same time to the freedom in following this calling) and having arranged a farewell meal for his parents and acquaintances from those very oxen upon which he had been plowing. By this the prophet broke his worldly relations for the higher service to God in the office of a prophet (verse 21). * * * See A. Glagolev. Old Testament biblical doctrine concerning angels. Kiev, 1900, p. 302 Talmudists understand by the name “Covenant” (Hebrew berit) here, on the basis of (Gen 17:13-14), circumcision, and since circumcision was not actually abandoned in the time of the prophet, then, according to the belief of Talmudists, the prophet Elijah was punished for his incorrect condemnation of Israel by being forever obliged to be present at the operation of circumcision, for which a special chair is usually set for the prophet Elijah at circumcision ceremonies. See A. Alexeyev. Worship, festivals and religious rites of present-day Jews. Novgorod, 1861, p. 154–155