1 Kings 18:29

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN MIDDAY WAS PAST, AND THEY PROPHESIED UNTIL THE TIME OF THE OFFERING OF THE EVENING SACRIFICE, THAT THERE WAS NEITHER VOICE, NOR ANY TO ANSWER, NOR ANY THAT REGARDED._ They prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, х_ WAYITNAB'UW_ (H5012)] - they imitated, at length, the manner of the true prophets, by shouting, and the singing of sacred music....

21-40 Many of the people wavered in their judgment, and varied in their practice. Elijah called upon them to determine whether Jehovah or Baal was the self-existent, supreme God, the Creator, Governor, and Judge of the world, and to follow him alone. It is dangerous to halt between the service of God and the service of sin, the dominion of Christ and the dominion of our lusts. If Jesus be the only Saviour, let us cleave to him alone for every thing; if the Bible be the world of God, let us reverence and receive the whole of it, and submit our understanding to the Divine teaching it contains. Elijah proposed to bring the matter to a trial. Baal had all the outward advantages, but the event encourages all God's witnesses and advocates never to fear the face of man. The God that answers by fire, let him be God: the atonement was to be made by sacrifice, before the judgment could be removed...

Verse 29. _THEY PROPHESIED_] They made incessant _prayer_ and _supplication_; a farther proof that _to pray_ or _supplicate_ is the proper ideal meaning of the word נבא _naba_, which we constantly translate _to prophesy_, when even all the circumstances of the time and place are against such a meaning. See what is said on the case of _Saul among the prophets_, in _Clarke's note on "_1 Samuel 10:5_"_....

AND THEY PROPHESIED - Compare 1 Kings 22:12. The expression seems to be used of any case where there was an utterance of words by persons in a state of religious ecstasy. UNTIL THE TIME OF THE OFFERING ETC - Rather, “Until toward the time.” Elijah had built his altar by the actual time of the offering 1 Kings 18:36....

EXPOSITION ELIJAH'S RETURN AND THE ORDEAL OF MOUNT CARMEL.—The preceding chapter having been exclusively occupied with the fortunes of Elijah during his enforced absence of three and a half years from the land of Israel, we are left to conjecture what the course of events in the northern kingdom during this period of drought and suffering must have been. But it is not difficult to picture in our minds the steadily increasing alarm and distress which the solemn ban he had pronounced must have occasioned. At one time, it may be, especially if the prophet up to that period had been unknown, both king and people, under the malign influence of Jezebel, professed to regard his threatening with contempt, the more so as the priests of Baal would not fail to assure them of the protection and blessing of "the Lord" of nature. But as the

AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN MIDDAY WAS PAST,.... And nothing done, no fire descended: AND THEY PROPHESIED UNTIL THE TIME OF THE OFFERING OF THE EVENING SACRIFICE; continued praying to Baal, and singing his praises, but all to no purpose; or they behaved like madmen, as the Targum; thus they went on until it was time to offer the evening sacrifice; so that they had no interruption in their service, and had all the time they could desire to have to importune their god to do the favour for them they requested: THAT THERE WAS NEITHER VOICE, NOR ANY TO ANSWER, NOR ANY THAT REGARDED; no voice was heard that returned them any answer; nor was any answer made by fire, nor any regard shown to their mad gestures, and barbarous actions; and very likely the people also, by this time, paid no regard unto them, perceiving they were not able, by all their cries and methods they took, to obtain an answer....

2. ELIJAH ON CARMEL: THE ANSWERED PRAYER CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The command to see Ahab (1 Kings 18:1)_ 2. Elijah's response (1 Kings 18:2) 3. Ahab and Obadiah (1 Kings 18:3) 4. Elijah and Obadiah (1 Kings 18:7) 5. Elijah meets Ahab (1 Kings 18:16) 6. Elijah's demand (1 Kings 18:19) 7. The events on Carmel (1 Kings 18:20

ELIJAH'S MEETING WITH AHAB AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE PRIESTS OF BAAL. The history of Ahab's reign must have been something like the following: On his marriage with Jezebel he must have allowed the worship of the Baal of Tyre and been met with the remonstrances of the prophets. Furious at their opposition, Jezebel had massacred a large number, but the king's steward had supported the cause of Yahweh (1 Kings 18:4); so Ahab cannot have been wholly ill-disposed to those who were faithful to the God of Israel. But he had no mercy for the leader of the whole movement, Elijah, who had prophesied the drought. He was sought in every neighbouring kingdom as the author of all the agitation, the troubler of Israel. In the meantime Jezebel had organised the worship of the Baal, and supported at her own. cost four hundred and fifty prophets ...

EVENING SACRIFICE. The usual meal offering. There was also. morning meal offering as well (Numbers 28:8). Compare 2 Kings 16:15....

_And it came to pass_[R.V. IT WAS SO], _when midday was past, and_[R.V. THAT] _they prophesied_ The word used for the wild raving of these heathen priests is the same which is employed for the most solemn utterances of the prophets of Jehovah (cf. Ezekiel 37:10). The thought which connects the two uses seems to be of a person acting under some influence which he cannot control. In both cases the external manifestation was in a degree alike, for Jehovah's prophets were moved at times by great outward excitement. In these Baal-prophets it appears to have been of the nature of raving. On the bodily agitations of the prophets Maimonides (_de Fundam. Legis_VII. 3) writes -The limbs of all the prophets, during the time of their prophetic inspiration, are agitated, their strength of body fails, their thoughts are snatched aside, and their intellect is left free to under