1 Kings 19:9

_AND HE CAME THITHER UNTO A CAVE, AND LODGED THERE; AND, BEHOLD, THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME TO HIM, AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, WHAT DOEST THOU HERE, ELIJAH?_ He came thither unto a cave, х_ 'EL_ (H413) _ HAMª`AARAAH_ (H4631), to the cave; Septuagint, eis to speelaion; the identical cave in which Moses saw the Lord (Exodus 33:22)]. In the solitude of Sinai God appeared to instruct him. What doest thou here, Elijah? was a searching question addressed to one who had been called to so arduous and urgent a mission as his. By an awful exhibition of divine power he was made aware of the Divine Speaker who addressed him....

9-13 The question God put, What doest thou here, Elijah? is a reproof. It concerns us often to ask whether we are in our place, and in the way of our duty. Am I where I should be? whither God calls me, where my business lies, and where I may be useful? He complained of the people, and their obstinacy in sin; I only am left. Despair of success hinders many a good enterprise. Did Elijah come hither to meet with God? he shall find that God will meet him. The wind, and earthquake, and fire, did not make him cover his face, but the still voice did. Gracious souls are more affected by the tender mercies of the Lord, than by his terrors. The mild voice of Him who speaks from the cross, or the mercy-seat, is accompanied with peculiar power in taking possession of the heart....

Verse 1 Kings 19:9. _HE CAME THITHER UNTO A CAVE_] Conjectured by some to be the same cave in which God put Moses that he might give him a glimpse of his glory. See Exodus 33:22. _WHAT DOEST THOU HERE, ELIJAH?_] Is this a reproach for having fled from the face of Jezebel, through what some call _unbelieving_ _fears_, that God would abandon him to her rage?...

A CAVE - Rather, “the cave.” Some well-known cave must be intended - perhaps the “cliff of the rock” Exodus 33:22. The traditional “cave of Elijah” which is shown in the secluded plain immediately below the highest summit of the Jebel Mousa, cannot, from its small size, be the real cavern....

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

AND HE CAME THITHER UNTO A CAVE, AND LODGED THERE,.... This cave, some travellers say u, is to be seen at this day, not far from a church dedicated to the prophet Elijah, and that the cave itself has the appearance of a chapel; but a more particular account of it is given in a journal w lately published, which says, this cave exists to this very day, and is situated at the foot of Mount Sinai, and is now enclosed in a church built of red and white granite marble, the entrance into which is from the west; the dimensions of this cave are in length five feet, in depth four feet, and in height four and a half. The Jewish writers are of opinion that this was the cleft of the rock in which Moses was put, when the Lord passed before him; but, if so, there would have been no need of Elijah to have gone forth to and stand upon the mount when the Lord passed by, 1 Kings 19:11, and, b

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;

LODGED. passed the night. WHAT. ? Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia_ (App-6), as though He did not know....

God's revelation and direction to Elijah (Not in Chronicles) 9. _unto a cave_ The Hebrew has the article, and this is represented in the LXX. by τὸ σπήλαιον -the cave." It is very likely that by Elijah's time tradition had fixed on a definite place as that -cleft of the rock" in which Moses stood (Exodus 33:22) when Jehovah passed by. If this were so the place would be deemed very sacred, and would be most appropriate to that divine explanation now to be given to Elijah. For to him was to be presented another Theophany. Some have suggested, as an explanation of the definite description, that the cave had already become a resort of pilgrims to Horeb, but for this there appears no evidence. _What doest thou here?_ An opportunity is given to Elijah to open his whole heart. The question here must have a different force from that which it bears after the manifestation of God'