1 Kings 19:18

_AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT HIM THAT ESCAPETH THE SWORD OF HAZAEL SHALL JEHU SLAY: AND HIM THAT ESCAPETH FROM THE SWORD OF JEHU SHALL ELISHA SLAY._ NO JFB COMMENTARY ON THESE VERSES....

14-18 God repeated the question, What doest thou here? Then he complained of his discouragement; and whither should God's prophets go with their complaints of that kind, but to their Master? The Lord gave him an answer. He declares that the wicked house of Ahab shall be rooted out, that the people of Israel shall be punished for their sins; and he shows that Elijah was not left alone as he had supposed, and also that a helper should at once be raised up for him. Thus all his complaints are answered and provided for. God's faithful ones are often his hidden ones, Psalms 83:3, and the visible church is scarcely to be seen: the wheat is lost in chaff, and the gold in dross, till the sifting, refining, separating day comes. The Lord knows them that are his, though we do not; he sees in secret. When we come to heaven we shall miss many whom we thought to have met there; we shall meet many wh...

Verse 1 Kings 19:18. _SEVEN THOUSAND IN ISRAEL_] That is, _many_ thousands; for _seven_ is a number of perfection, as we have often seen: so, _The_ _barren has borne seven _- has had a _numerous_ off-spring; _Gold seven_ _times purified_-purified till _all the dross is perfectly separated_ from it. The court and multitudes of the people had gone after Baal; but perhaps the majority of the common people still worshipped in secret the God of their fathers. _EVERY MOUTH WHICH HATH NOT KISSED HIM._] Idolaters often _kissed_ _their hand_ in honour of their idols; and hence the origin of _adoration - bringing the hand to the mouth_ after touching the idol, if it were within reach; and if not, kissing the right hand in token of respect and subjection. The word is compounded of _ad,_ _to_, and os

YET I HAVE LEFT ME ... - Rather, as in the margin. “Seven thousand” faithful Israelites shall survive all the persecutions of Ahab and Jezebel, and carry down the worship of Yahweh to another generation. Elijah is mistaken in supposing that he only is left. The number is manifestly a “round” number, not an exact estimate. Perhaps it is, moreover, a mystical or symbolic number. Compare Revelation 7:5. Of all the symbolic numbers used in Scripture, seven is the most common. EVERY MOUTH WHICH HATH NOT KISSED HIM - Idolaters sometimes kissed the hand to the object of their worship Job 31:26; at other times they kissed the actual image (marginal reference)....

EXPOSITION ELIJAH'S FLIGHT THE THEOPHANY OF HOREB AND THE CALLING OF ELISHA.—We can readily understand with what a sense of humiliation and shame the weak and excited king, who must have been awed and impressed by the strange portent he had witnessed, would recount the day's proceedings to his imperious and headstrong consort, and with what intense mortification and rage she must have heard of the triumph of the proscribed religion and of the defeat and death of the priests of Baal. One might almost have expected that the testimony of an eyewitness, and that her husband, to the greatness and completeness of Elijah's victory; that his unprejudiced, and indeed unwilling, account of the sacrifices, of the descent of the heavenly fire, of the cries it wrung from the people, etc; w

YET I HAVE LEFT ME SEVEN THOUSAND IN ISRAEL,.... From perishing by the sword of either of them: ALL THE KNEES WHICH HAVE NOT BOWED TO BAAL; that is, had not worshipped him, which was signified by this gesture: AND EVERY MOUTH WHICH HATH NOT KISSED HIM; either the image of Baal itself, or the hand, in reverence of him; which rites, one or other, or both, were used by his worshippers; Hosea 13:2. This either refers, as some think, to the present time, and so is an answer to Elijah, who thought he was the only worshipper left with which seems to agree Romans 11:2, or to the times to come, when destruction should be made by the above persons, and when God would have some faithful worshippers, and would take care of them; so some render the words, "I will reserve", c. y....

3. ELIJAH IN THE WILDERNESS AND UPON MOUNT HOREB CHAPTER 19 _ 1. Elijah's flight and despondency (1 Kings 19:1)_ 2. Upon Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:9) 3. Elisha called (1 Kings 19:10) Elijah perhaps stopped at the very door of the palace where wicked Jezebel dwelt. He would remain with Ahab to the very last before he went in to face the queen. Should not Elijah have remained and gone even before Jezebel to bear his testimony? Instead he becomes terrified of wicked Jezebel. Had he hoped that what had taken place on Carmel would result in bringing not alone Ahab back to Jehovah, but also influence Jezebel? If such was his expectation he must have been bitterly disappointed. Jezebel s

1 Kings 19:1. ELIJAH'S FLIGHT TO HOREB. HIS COMMISSION. Jezebel, it will be noticed, can do no more than threaten Elijah: her power is limited. Elijah escapes to the southern extremity of Judah, to Beersheba, a sacred place of pilgrimage frequented (Amos 5:5; Amos 8:14) even by N. Israelites. In the desert, under a juniper or broom tree, he received his vision (1 Kings 19:5), and went to Horeb, the Mount of God. Horeb is Sinai: the name is employed in the N. Israelite Hexateuchal narrative E and in Deuteronomy. It was supposed to be Yahweh's special dwelling-place (Judges 5:4;

I HAVE LEFT, &C. Romans 11:4. BOWED. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), KISSED. for worshipping. Compare Hos 3:12. KISSED HIM. Hebrew kissed to him. Compare Job 31:26; Job 31:27....

_Yet I have left_me] R.V. (and margin of A. V.) YET WILL I LEAVE ME. And this is not only required by the Hebrew words, but for a true conception of the sense of the passage. Elijah had been witness of God's might and power to execute judgement, in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire, and subsequently of the true presence of God in the still small voice which spake of mercy. He is now sent to make known who the ordained ministers of vengeance shall be, Hazael and Jehu being the embodiment of what was portrayed in the elemental fury which had passed before him. But after all came the voice which bare witness of Jehovah's presence, and this Elijah is now told shall be made known hereafter in the multitude of those who, after all trials, shall still remain faithful. The LXX. renders -and thou shalt leave in Israel, &c." _seven thousand in Israel_ Used for an indefinite number. On this us...