1 Kings 17:24

Nowby this R.V. omits the last two words. The italics of A.V. shew that there is nothing in the Hebrew for -by," and the word rendered -this" is only a particle to strengthen the adverb -now." The same two words are rendered in A.V. by -now" simply in Ruth 2:7 and should be so translated here. In 2 Kings 5:22 they are translated -even now."

I know that thouart a man of God She had so addressed him above in 1 Kings 17:18, but what she desires now to express is her firm assurance. The mercy of her son's restoration spake more surely of God's messenger than did the stroke of his death. Jewish tradition represents this boy as the servant who afterwards accompanied Elijah, and finally became the prophet Jonah. (See Jerome, Preface to Jonah.)

the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth This is more than to say that the word which the prophet speaks is truth; or than that the word of the Lord is in his mouth. It expresses a conviction that the Lord Jehovah in whose name Elijah speaks is the true God. Whatever stage her religious belief had before reached, she now advances beyond it, and acknowledges Jehovah as truth itself.