&c. The Sept. translates

It is enough, &c., do not mean: "I must, as a and I wish to die now" (Thenius), nor: "I have human being, fall a victim to death some time, already endured tribulations enough here below" (Keil), but: I have now lived long enough. This is imperatively demanded by the sentence: for I am not better than my fathers, which forms the ground of his request: Jehovah, take away my soul (life). Long life, old age, is looked on, under the old covenant, as a special gift of God (Ps. Ixi 7; cii. 25; Prov. iii. 2; iv. 10; ix. 11; x. 27); Elijah, therefore, means to say: for I do not deserve nor desire to be distinguished and favored above my fathers by a specially long life. It is an entirely mistaken view which supposes that Elijah made this request "from a weak-minded weariness of life" (Thenius), or "with a murmuring heart" (Krummacher). In that case he would have de

by kaì ¿poßýn; the Vulgate, timuit ergo; they read therefore 7, which Thenius explains as undoubtedly correct, because is used of mental vision only when a simple conclusion from outward circumstances is referred to. But this is exactly the case here, as the Targum also renders it by in. From the (outward) circumstance of the message, Elijah saw clearly how matters stood; he perceived that he could no longer remain here, as he had wished and hoped, and that he could not carry his work of reformation through to the end. Since he did not as on a former occasion (chap. xviii. 1) receive a divine command to hazard his life, i. e., to remain in spite of the threat, he arose and left the kingdom, as he had done once before. is therefore used here just as in 2 Kings v. 7; if , were the served a reproof or a correction; but instead of true expression, the person of whom he was afraid this the Lord sends a heavenly messenger, who would have to stand in connection with it, as in 1 strengthens and refreshes him, and speaks to him Sam. xviii. 12; xxi. 13. Moreover, how should the only animating, encouraging words. Elijah's whole man who had just been standing all alone over life and labor had no other aim than to bring Isagainst the whole people, the king, and 450 priests rael back to their God; to this end were directed of Baal (chap. xviii. 22), who especially appears as all the toils and privations to which he subjected an unequalled prophetic hero in the history of Is- | himself. When he believed himself to have finally rael, have become all at once afraid of a bad wo- reached this end on Carmel, suddenly there came man?— is used here just as in 2 Kings an incomprehensible turn of events; he saw himself deceived in his holiest and most blessed hopes, vii. 7, and can only mean: in consideration of his king and people abandoned him, the labor and soul, i. e., for the preservation of his (threatened) struggle of a lifetime appeared to him fruitless life; this meaning, moreover, is demanded by the and vain; the deepest, most bitter sorrow perconnection with v. 2, and we can hardly find ex-vaded his soul. In this frame of mind he began pressed here the thought: "in order to care for his soul in the way indicated in v. 4, i. e., to commend his soul or his life in the loneliness of the desert to God the Lord, as he should determine concerning him " (Keil). Decidedly incorrect is the translation of the Vulgate (quocumque eum ferebat voluntas), which Luther follows: "Whithersoever he would," which has led to the erroneous conception that Elijah fled in his own will and strength, without awaiting an intimation from the Lord. Equally incorrect is the explanation of Gerlach: without end or aim, and certainly that of Krummacher: He was only travelling off haphazard.—Beer-sheba lay on the border of the wilderness. Since it belonged to the tribe of Simeon (Joshua xix. 2), the clause: which 7, must mean that he betook himself out of the kingdom of Israel into the kingdom of Judah, to which at that time the tribe of Simeon also belonged. His servant he left behind in Beer-sheba, not perchance through fear of being betrayed by him, nor because "he expected to have no further need of him" (Thenius), nor because the wilderness afforded no sustenance, but: "he wished now to be entirely alone, as men often do in times of sorrow or discouragement; therefore he sought the wilderness." (Calw. B.)

the journey into the wilderness, and as he now sits down there wearied and exhausted by the journey, bowed down by sorrow and grief, what was more natural and human than for this man, who besides was already well-stricken in years, to pray his Lord and God to take from him the heavy burden and let him come to the longed-for rest; it was a holy sorrow and sadness, such as no common man is capable of, which filled him at that time and brought to his lips the prayer: It is enough," &c. (Menken.)

Vers. 5-9. An angel touched him. Although

in verse 2 is used of the messenger of Jezebel, yet here it denotes no human messenger, but a messenger of Jehovah (v. 7). The Sept. has in all three places ayyehog.—ay is a thin cake baked on a stone plate by means of hot ashes laid over it (chap. xviii. 13. Winer, R.-W.-B. 1, p. 95).—After the first awakening Elijah had eaten only a very little, on account of his great weariness, and had fallen asleep again.-The closing words of verse 7 Keil explains, after Vatablus: iter est majus, quam pro viribus tuis; but since ? (cf. 1 Sam. xx. 21) =75, we may better follow the Sept.: ör

is not =

Ver. 4. But he himself went a day's jour-πо22) àñò σov i ddòç, or the Vulgate: grandis enim ney into the wilderness, namely, the Arabian. tibi restat via. This moreover presupposes that through which the people had once been compelled Elijah had already determined to go to Horeb: for to wander. is not juniper-tree (Luther), but that he is not to be considered "as in a manner summoned thither" (Thenius) is shown by the "a kind of broom plant, that is the most longed- question of verse 9: What doest thou here ?— for and most welcome bush of the desert, abund- Horeb (Sinai) is here designated as "the mount of ant in beds of streams, and valleys where spots God," because God declared and revealed himself for camping are selected, and men sit down and upon it in a special manner as the God of Israel; sleep, in order to be protected against wind and it was here that he appeared to Moses in the fiery sun" (Robinson, Palestine I. p. 203). The words: bush and called him to bring forth Israel out of

Egypt (Ex. iii. 1-15); it was here also that he made the covenant with the chosen people, "talked" with them, and gave them through Moses the law, the testimony of the covenant, the foundation on which all further divine revelations rest. Horeb is the place of the loftiest and weightiest revelation for Israel (Deut. i. 6; iv. 10–15; v. 2; 1 Kings viii. 9; Mal. iv. 4). Elijah wished to go thither in the hope that in that spot Jehovah would grant a disclosure to him also, as he had once to his servant Moses, and make known to him what further he had to do.—The cave into which Elijah went was, according to most commentators, that in which Moses once tarried while the Lord passed by (Ex. xxxiii. 22); this view is favored also by the definite article. According to Ewald it must have been the cave "in which at that time wanderers to Sinai commonly rested."

Ver. 8. Forty days and forty nights. Since Horeb is not more than 40 geographical miles from Beer-sheba (according to Deut. i. 2, there are only eleven days journey from Kadesh Barnea, situated somewhat to the south, to Horeb), older commentators have assumed that Elijah, because old and weak, spent 19 or 20 days on this journey, remained 1 day on Horeb, and accomplished the journey back again in 19 or 20 days. But the text says very plainly that he went 40 days and 40 nights "unto Horeb." According to Thenius, "the legend" leaves the actual relations of space out of sight here, for by this reckoning Elijah would have accomplished in each 24 hours' time only 2 hours' distance. But even the legend could not arbitrarily make a distance, which every one knew and had before his eyes, three or four times too great; in any case the actual distance was not unknown to the author of our books. The text is not intended to make prominent the idea that Elijah kept on 40 days and 40 nights uninterruptedly, in order to reach Horeb, but that he was wonderfully preserved during this time which he spent in the wilderness before his arrival at Horeb. We must not overlook in this connection the reference to the 40 days and nights during which Moses was on Sinai without eating bread or drinking water (Ex. xxxiv. 28; cf. xxiv. 18; Deut. ix. 9, 18, 25; x. 10), and the indirect reference to the 40 years which Israel spent in the wilderness, where the Lord fed the people, when they had no bread, with manna, to make it known that man does not live by bread alone.

service of God must endure everything, had not waited for a divine intimation, but from fear of man had fled to save his life, and then, in weakminded weariness of life, had been able to wish himself dead." This conception is radically false, and leads to an erroneous understanding of the entire passage. For, if a censure were to be inflicted on Elijah, it would not have been delayed until now, but would have been given when he had fled a day's journey into the wilderness (ver. 4), and longed to die; but instead of this he was even tenderly encouraged by an angel and wonderfully strengthened, in order to be able to continue the journey still farther. Why does not the angel say to him there, what does not follow till ver. 15? Elijah had indeed no divine command to flee into the wilderness, but still less had he any command to remain in Jezreel and bid defiance to Jezebel, as formerly (chap. xviii.) he had the command to show himself to the irritated king. When now during his journey, weary in body and soul, bowed down with grief and sorrow, he prayed that his end might come, but this prayer was not listened to, he longed so much the more "for a revelation and disclosure of what might be God's will now, whither he should turn, what begin, whether and how God would employ him yet further in the service of Israel (Menken). This drove him to the "mount of God," i. e., to the place where, once before, his prototype Moses, the founder of the covenant, beheld the Lord and received comfort and strength; to the place where the Lord had spoken to his people and made with them the now broken

covenant.

If now he is asked: What doest thou

here? What desire has driven thee hither? this was "a question of tender kindness, to relieve the full, burdened heart of the prophet, that he, to whom the great privilege of being able to complain of his sorrow had so long been denied, might be moved to reveal his desire, to pour out his whole heart before the Lord. So the Lord, after his resurrection, asked Mary, as she stood at the grave and wept: Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou, that thou mayst change thy sorrow into joy" (Menken). So also this is connected with the question Rev. vii. 13.

Ver. 10. I have been very jealous, &c. As the question is not to be considered a censure or rebuke as against Elijah, so also his answer is not to be considered a justification or a reproach as against Jehovah; entirely mistaken is the assertion that there, is expressed in this answer "only the greatest despondency concerning his fate" (Theni

Ver. 9. And behold, the word of the Lord, &c. These words do not, as is commonly supposed, begin a new paragraph, but are rather to be), and "a carnal zeal that would at once call connected with the immediately preceding portion night in that spot, behold, the word of Jehovah of the same verse, while he was spending the came unto him." It cannot be maintained from ver. 13 that here means not: to spend the night, but to remain, as the Vulgate has it: cumque illuc venisset, mansit in spelunca. The question is, after the example of Josephus (τί παρείη, καταλελοιπὼς τὴν πόλιν, ἐκεῖσε): often taken as implying a censure, quasi Deus diceret, nihil esse Elia negotii in solitudine, sed potius in locis habitatis, ut illic homines ad veri Dei cultum adduceret (Le Clerc); also Thenius considers it intended "to remind Elijah how he, a prophet whom God would everywhere protect, and who in the

down the vengeance of the Almighty on all idolarather, as the Apostle expressly declares, an inters" (Keil), or that it bears witness to an "internal strife and murmuring" (rummacher); it is dictment of Israel (Rom. xi. 2: Evтvyxável To vεw Karà тov 'Iopańλ). "The prophet lays the facts, whose weight had fallen upon him with such fearful power, before the Lord, that He might see how therein presented to Him, for Him to explain they appear, and he leaves the riddle which is (Gerlach). He brings forward for weighty accusations; (1) they have fallen away from the covenant relation; (2) they have thrown down the altars still remaining here and there, dedicated to thee; (3) instead of listening to thy servants who admonished and warned them, they have slain them; (4) as for myself, the last one who has openly ap

peared and been zealous for thee, they are seeking concerning the dealings of Jehovah, which are my life. The words: I have been very jealous, dark and incomprehensible to him, the answer form the introduction to this fourfold accusation: thereupon imparted to him: Behold! ay ning, is designed to express the idea: Jehovah will reveal himself to thee as he did once to Moses, and show thee what he is in his essence, and with this thou shalt receive the desired disclosure.

I have used every means, but all in vain; what then is now to be done, what will and should be brought about? The complaint of the prophet was at the same time again a question to the Lord, to which he then receives a twofold answer (with signs, vers. 11, 12, and with words, vers. 14-18). He speaks of his zeal, moreover, not in order to boast or bother himself about his fate: "God's honor and Israel's welfare were of far greater value to him than his own honor or welfare; he mentions his own person and his own need only in so far as they stood in necessary and most intimate connection with the cause of God and the truth, and so his complaint was a holy one, as all his sorrow and sadness were holy" (Menken). He mentions his zeal in order thereby to confirm and strengthen his accusation against Israel.

Ver. 11. And he said, Go forth, &c. It is common to translate with Luther: "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind... before the Lord." According to this Elijah must have gone out of the cave before the wind, &c. But according to ver. 13 he did not go forth till he heard the gentle breeze; it is therefore absolutely necessary to consider the words

But

Ver. 11. And a great and strong wind, &c. Tempest, earthquake, and fire, as awe-inspiring natural phenomena, are in the Old Testament especially signs and attestations not only of the absolute power of God, but particularly of His anger, . ., of His penal justice against His enemies, the ungodly. Thus they appear in connection with one another Is. xxix. 5 sq. and Ps. xviii. 8-18, and they have the same significance here also. since they occur here separately, one after the other in regular succession, they plainly indicate a succession of punishments differing in degree and kind. The tempest points to the rending, scattering, and turning to dust (Is. xvii. 13; xl. 24; lvii. 13), the earthquake to the shaking of the foundations and the falling down (Is. xxiv. 18 sq.; Ps. xviii. 8, 16; Jer. x. 10), the fire to the complete consuming (Is. lxvi. 15 sq.; Ps. xviii. 9; xcvii. 3). In none of these three now was Jehovah, only out of the gentle whispering does He speak, i. e., the punishments come indeed from Him, pass before Him and bear witness of Him; but He Himself, that which he is, his essence (name) is not to be discerned in them; to this corresponds, rather in contrast with those destructive phenomena of nature, the gentle, soothing, refreshing, revivifying breeze after the storm. The word silent, in Poel to silence (Ps. cxxxi. 2), means properly stilling, and is used in both the other places where it appears, of the rest and refreshing which have followed pain, distress, and terror (Ps. evii. 29; Job iv. 16). When now Jehovah passes by" here in this, the same thing is expressed symbolically which Moses there heard in words, as Jehovali passed by; Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious, &c. The significance of the whole phenomenon is accordingly this: Jehovah, the God of Israel, will indeed display His punish

to be

as connected with the address to Elijah, and to begin the narrative portion with 7. That is, the participle is not preterit, but, as usual when it stands for the verbum finitum, present: Jehovah passes by, i. e., he is on the point of doing it; cf. Is. v. 5; vii. 14; x. 23 (Gesenius, Gram. (Conant) p. 240). The Sept. translates: Εξελεύση αύριον καὶ στήσῃ ἐνώπιον κυρίου ἐν τῷ ὄρει· ἰδοὺ παρελεύσεται κύριος. Καὶ ἰδοὺ пνεvμа μéуа к. T. 2. This division of the sentences is entirely correct, only aupov, which is not found in a single manuscript, is an unauthorized addition borrowed from Ex. xxxiv. 2. The nar rative in that place, moreover, serves in several ways to explain the one before us: especially the expression gives clear and definite evi-ing, destroying might to His despisers and enedence. Moses desires to see the glory (i, see above p. 76) of Jehovah, whereupon he receives the answer: "I will make all my goodness (1) pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of Jehovah "(i. e., what he is), and farther: "while my glory passeth by I will cover thee with my hand, until I have passed by;" then follows" And Jehovah passed by before him and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah is a God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but that will by no means clear," &c. (Ex. xxxiii. 18, 19, 22; xxxiv. 6). The expression is nowhere else used of Jehovah, and doubtless marks this highest revelation as one that is possible only for a moment, in distinction from a permanent, abiding revelation, for When now Elijah complains here of Israel that they have broken the covenant, as they did once in the wilderness through the golden calf, and desires a disclosure

...

.is used שָׁכָן שְׁכִינָה) which

For

mies, but His own true and innermost essence is
grace, rescuing, preserving, and quickening love,
and though the people have broken the covenant
of grace, yet He maintains this covenant, and re-
mains faithful and gracious as He promised.
the bowed down and accusing prophet this was
the well-attested divine answer, which contained
comfort and consolation as well as incitement to
carry on His begun work, and not to despair of
Israel, nor allow Himself to be wearied out or led
into error by the apparent fruitlessness of His
efforts thus far.

542) the words before us can "in the first place be
According to Ewald (loc. cit. p.
rightly conceived of only as describing how Jahve
will here appear to Elijah, and how He will talk to
him. His passing by announces itself first in the
most distant way by the fiercest storm; but that
is not He Himself; then more subtle and near by
thunder and earthquake; but this also is not He
Himself; then in the most subtle way by fire (as
in the tempest, according to Ps. xviii. 18 (16),
Hab. iii. 4); but this is not He Himself; only in
the soft whispering that then follows, in the most