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Ahab, and said to him, that God foretold, he would not send rain nor dew in those years upon the country, but when he should appear. † And when he had confirmed this by an oath, he departed into the southern parts, and made his abode by a brook, out of which he had water to drink; as for his food, ravens brought it to him every day. But when that river was dried up, for want of rain, he came to Zarephrath, a city between Sidon and Tyre: and this at the command of God. For God told him that he should there find a woman. who was a widow, that should give him sustenance. So when he was not far off the city, he saw a woman gathering of sticks. So God informed him that this was the person who was to give him sustenance; so he came and saluted her, and desired her to bring him some water to drink. But as she was going so to do, he called to her, and asked her to bring him a loaf of bread also. She affirmed upon oath, that she had at home nothing more than one handful of meal, and a little eil: and that she was going to gather some sticks that she might knead it, and make bread for herself and her son; after which

his father's name was Sabaca, and his birth altogether miraculous: whilst others again will needs have it, that he was Phineas, the son of Aaron, who, after having lived a long while concealed, appeared again in the world under the name of Elijah. But where the Scripture is silent, all particulars of this kind are of small authority. This, however, may be said with safety of him, that he was one of the chief, if not the prince of the prophets of his age; a man of great and elevated soul, of a generous and undaunted spirit, a zealous defender of the cause of God, and a just avenger of the violation of his honour. Calmet's Comment. B.

St. James's words are these:-Elias was a man subject to the like passions as we are; and he prayed earnestly, that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth for the space of three years and six months. Our blessed Saviour makes mention of the like compass of time, Luke xiv. 25, and yet neither of these are contradictory to what the sacred history tells us, viz. That the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, 1 Kings xviii. 1. For we must remember, that as Egypt had usually no rain, but was watered by the river Nile; so the land of Canaan had generally none, except twice a year, which they called the early and latter rain. The former of these was in the month Nisan, which answers to our March; and the other in the month Marbeshvan, which answers to our October. Now, at the beginning of the draught, Ahab might very probably impute the want of rain to natural courses; but when, after six months, neither the former nor the latter rain fell in

she said, they must perish by the famine, for they had nothing for themselves any longer. Hereupon, he said, "Go on with good courage, and hope for better things: but first of all make me a little cake and bring it to me; for I foretel to thee, that this vessel of meal, and this cruse of oil shall not fail, until God send rain." When the prophet had said this, she came to him, and made the cakes; of which she had part for herself, and gave the rest to her son, and to the prophet also. Nor did any thing of this fail, until the drought ceased. I Now Menander mentions this drought, in his account of the acts of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians: where he says, " Under him there was a want of rain from the month Hyperberetous, till the month Hyperberetous of the year following. But when he made supplications, there came great thunders. This Ethbaal built the city Botrys in Phoenicia, and the city Auza in Libya.' By these words he designed this want of rain that was in the days of Ahab: for at that time it was that Ethbaal also reigned over the Tyrians, as Menander writeth.

Now the son of this woman, who sustained

their season, he then began to be enraged at Elijah, as the cause of the national judgment, and forced him, at God's command, to save his life by flight: and from that time the three years of the historian are to be computed, though from the first notice which Elijah, gave Ahab of this approaching calamity, to the expiration of it, were certainly three years and an half. This calamity is said to have been procured by Elijah's prayers: but we must not therefore imagine that his prayers were spiteful and malicious, but necessary rather, and charitable to the offenders; that by the sharp and long affliction which they produced, God's honour, and the truth of his word and threatenings (which was now universally contemned) might be vindicated; and that the Israelites (whose present impunity hardened them in their idolatry) might hereby be awakened to see their wickedness, their dependence upon God, and the necessity of their returning to his religion and worship. Bedford's Scripture Chronology, lib. 6, c. 2, and Pool's Annotations. B.

1 Kings xvii. 1.

The woman had sufficient reason to believe that Elijah was a prophet, or person sent from God when she saw the miraculous increase of the meal and oil; but upon bis not curing her son when he lay sick, but rather suffering him to die, her faith began to drop; whereas, upon seeing him revive, her faith revived with him; and through the joy of having him restored to her again, she accounted this latter miracle much greater than the former. Le Clerc's Com. B.

the prophet, fell into a distemper, till he gave up the ghost, and appeared to be dead. The mother, therefore came to the prophet, weeping and beating her breast, and uttering such expressions as her passions dictated to her, and complained to him, that he had come to reproach her for her sins, and that on this account it was that her son was dead. But he bade her be of good cheer, and deliver her son to him; for that he would restore him again to her alive. So when she had delivered her son up to him, he carried him into an upper room, where he himself lodged, and laid him down upon the bed; and cried unto God, and said that God had not done so well in rewarding the woman who had sustained him, by taking away her son; and be prayed that he would send again the soul of the child into him, and bring him to life again. Accordingly God took pity on the mother, and was willing to gratify the prophet; that he might not seem to have come to her to do her a mischief; and the child, beyond all expectation, came to life again. So the mother returned the prophet thanks, and said, she was then clearly satisfied that God did converse with him. †

After a little § while Elijah came to king Ahab, according to God's will, to inform him

* Some of the Hebrew doctors (and herein they are followed by some Christians) are of opinion, that this widow's son was the prophet Jonas; that after bis restoration, his mother gave him to Elijah; that after he attend. ed on the prophet, as long as he lived; and on a certain occasion was dispatched by him to Nineveh, as every one know. But besides that these traditions are destitute of any real proof, Jonah was an Hebrew, as he himself declares, chap. i. 9, and a native of Gath-hepher, as we read 2 Kings xiv. 25, whereas the widow's son was a native of Zarephtha, a town belonging to the kingdom of Sidon, and by birth a stranger to the race of Israel. Calmet's Com. B.

+ See Kings xvii. 17-24.

Josephus, in his present copies, says, that a little while after the recovery of the widow's son Sarepta, God sent rain upon the earth; whereas, in our other copies, it is after many days, 1 Kings xviii. 1. Several years are also intimated there, as belonging to this drought and famine. Nay we have the express mention of the third year which I suppose was reckoned from the recovery of the widow's son, and the ceasing of this drought in Phoenicia, which, as Menander informs us here, lasted one whole year. And both our Saviour and St. James affirm, that this drought lasted in all three years and six months, as their copies of the Old Testament then informed them. Luke iv. 25, Jam. v. 17. I suspect, therefore,

that rain was coming. Now the famine had seized upon the whole country; and there was a great want of what was necessary for sustenance insomuch that it was not only men that wanted it, but the earth itself also which did not produce enough for the horses, and the other beasts of what was useful for them to feed on, by reason of the drought. So the king called for Obadiah, who was steward over his cattle, and said to him, that he would have him go to the fountains of water, and to the brooks: that if any herbage. could be found for them they might mow it down, and reserve it for the beasts. And when he had sent persons all over the ¶ habitable earth to discover the prophet Elijah, and they could not find him, he bade Obadiah accompany him. So it was resolved they should make a progress; and divide the ways between them; and Obadiah and the king went the one one way, and the other another. Now it had happened, that the same time when Queen Jezebel slew the prophet's, that this Obadiah had concealed a hundred prophets, and had fed them with bread and water.** But when Obadiah was alone, and absent from the king, the prophet Elijah met him, and asked him who he was? And when he had learned it from him, he worshipped him. Elijah then that Josephus's original reading was no small time afterward.

§ About An. 913.

There are some Jewish doctors who think that this Obadiah was the same with him whose writings we have among the twelve minor prophets. They pretend that he was married to that woman of Shunem, where Elisha used to lodge; that he was a disciple of the prophet Elijah, and the last of the three captains whom king Abaziah sent to apprehend him; and that for this reason he had compassion on him, though he had destroyed the others that came before him, with fire from heaven, 2 Kings i. 9, &c. but all these things are pure apocrypha. Obadiah bimself, in his discourse with Elijah, sufficiently tells us who he was, viz. a person truly religious, who worshipped God alone, had a singular affection for his servants; enough, one would think, to have made Ahab discard, if not persecute him, had he not found him so highly useful in the management of his domestic affairs, as to connive at his not worshipping Baal, or the calves; especially as we read nothing of his going up to Jerusalem, which was a defect that God might perhaps think proper to dispense Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries. B.

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bade him go to the king, and tell him, that he was ready to wait on him. But Obadiah, replied, What evil have I done to thee, that thou sendest me to one who seekest to kill thee; and hath sought over all the earth for thee? Or art thou so ignorant as not to know, that the king hath left no place untouched, into which he hath not sent persons to bring thee back, in order if they could take thee, to have thee put to death?" He also acknowledged he was afraid lest God should appear to him again, and he should go away into another place; and that when the king should send him for Elijah, and he should not be able to find him, he should be put to death. He desired him, therefore, to take care of his preservation, and told him how diligently he had provided for those of his own profession, and had saved a hundred prophets, when Jezebel slew the rest of them, and had kept them concealed; and that they had been sustained by him. But Elijah bade him fear nothing, but go to the king, assuring him upon oath, that he would certainly shew himself to Ahab that very day.

So when Obadiah had informed the king that Elijah was there, Ahab met him, and asked him in anger; "If he were the man that afflicted the people of the Hebrews, and was the occasion of the drought that they lay under?" but Elijah, without any flattery, said, that Ahab was himself the man, and his house, which brought such sad afflictions upon them and that by introducing strange gods into their country, and worshipping them; and by leaving their own, who was the only true God; and having no manner of regard to him. However, he bade him go his way,

* This was the ancient way of God's declaring himself pleased with sacrifices. See Gen. xv. 17.

This is not the first time, wherein God had declared his approbation of his worshippers, by sending down fire to consume the sacrifices, Lev. ix. 24, and Judg. vi. 21. and though perhaps it may be possible for evil spirits, who may have great knowledge how to manage meteors and exhalations to their purposes, to make fire descend from the clouds; yet, since they can do nothing without a divine permission, it is absurd to think, that, in a matter of competition between him and false gods, he should give evil spirits any licence to rival him in his miracles. Le Clerc's Commentary. B.

Mr. Spanheim takes notice here, that in the worship of Mithra, the god of the Persians, the priests cut them

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|| and gather together all the people to Mount Carmel, with his own prophets, and those of his wife; telling him how many there were of them; as also the prophets of the groves. about four hundred in number. And as all the men whom Ahab sent for ran away to the aforenamed mountain, the prophet Elijah stood in the midst of them, and said: "How long will ye live thus in uncertainty of mind and opinion ?" he also exhorted them, that in case they esteemed their own God to be the true and the only Deity, they would follow him and his commandments; but in case they esteemed him to be nothing, but had an opinion of the strange gods, and that they ought to worship them, his counsel was that they should follow them. And when the multitude made no answer to what he said, Elijah desired, that for a trial of the power of the strange gods, and of their own God, he, who was his only prophet, while they had four hundred, might take an heifer, and kill it, as a sacrifice, and lay it on pieces of wood, and not kindle any fire; and that they should do the same things, and call upon their own gods to set the wood on fire: for if that were done, they would thence learn the nature of the true God. † This proposal pleased the people. So Elijah bade the prophets chuse out an heifer first and kill it, and to call on their gods. But when there appeared no effect of the prayer, or invocation of the prophets upon their sacrifice, Elijah derided them, and bade them call upon their gods with a loud voice; for they might either be on a journey, or asleep. And when these prophets had done so from morning till noon, and ‡ cut themselves with swords and lances, § accord

selves in the same manner as did these priests in their invocation of Baal, the god of the Phoenicians.

§ A strange method one would think, to obtain the favour of their gods! And yet, if we look into antiquity we shall find, that nothing was more common in the religious rites of several nations than this barbarous custom. To De this purpose we may observe, that (as Plutarch, superstitione, tells us) the priests of Bellona, when they sacrificed to that goddess, were wont to besmear the victim with their own blood: that the Persian Magi (according to Herodotus, lib. 7. c. 191.) used to appease tempests, and allay the winds, by making incisions in their flesh; that they who carried about the Syrian goddess, (as Apuleius, lib. 8. relates,) among other mad pranks, were, every now and then, cutting and slashing themselves

ing to the custom of their country, and he was about to offer his sacrifice, he bade the prophets go away, but desired the people to come near, and observe what he did, lest he should privately hide fire among the pieces of wood. So upon the approach of the multitude, he took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the people of the Hebrews; and built an altar with them, and dug a very deep trench. And when he had laid the pieces of wood upon the altar, and upon them had laid the pieces of the sacrifice, he ordered them to fill four barrels with the water of the fountain, and to pour it upon the altar, till it ran over it; and till the trench was filled with the water poured into it. When he had done this, he began to pray to God, and to intreat him to manifest his power to a people that had been in an error a long time. Upon which words a fire came on a sudden from heaven, in the sight of the multitude, and fell upon the altar, and consumed the sacrifice, till the very water was set on fire, and the place was become dry.

Now when the Israelites saw this, they fell down upon

men.

God, and called him the only great and the the only true God but they called the others mere names, framed by the wild opinions of So they caught their prophets; and, at the command of Elijah, slew them. Elijah also said to the king, that he should go to dinner, without any farther concern; for that in a little time he would see God send them rain. Accordingly Ahab went his way but Elijah went up to the highest top of Mount Carmel, and sat down upon the ground, and leaned

with knives, till the blood gushed out; and that even to this day some modern travellers tell us, that in Turkey, Persia, and several parts of the Indies, there are a kind of fanatics, who think they do a very meritorious thing, and what is highly acceptable to the Deity, in cutting and mangling their own flesh. Dii autem nullo debent colli genere' (says Seneca, as he is quoted by St. Austin De Civ. Dei, 6. c. 10.)si et hoc volunt. Tantus est perturbatæ mentis, et sedius suis pulse furor, ut sic dii placentur, quemadmodum ne homines quidem sæviunt teterrimi, et in fabulas tradita crudelitatis,' &c. Calmet's and Le Clerc's Commentaries. B.

* For Izar, we may here read with Hudson and Cocceius, Isachar, i. e. of the tribe of Isachar, for to that tribe did Jezreel belong: and presently, chap. xv. we may read for Izar, with one MS. nearly, and the Scrip

his head upon his knees; and bade his servant go up to a certain elevated place, and look towards the sea: and when he should see a cloud rising any where, he should give him notice of it; for till that time the air had been clear. When the servant had gone up, and had said many times that he saw nothing; at the seventh time of his going up he said, that he saw a small black thing in the sky, not larger than a man's foot. When Elijah heard that, he sent to Ahab, and desired him to go away to the city before the storm of rain came down. So he came to the city Jezreel. And in a little time the air was all obscured, and covered with clouds ; and a vehement storm of wind came upon the earth, and with it a great deal of rain. And the prophet was under a divine fury, and ran along with the king's chariot unto Jezreel, a city of Izar. *

her

When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, understood what signs Elijah had wrought, and how he had slain the prophets, she was angry, and sent messengers to him; and by them threatened to kill him, † as he had destroyed net prophets. At this Elijah was affrighted, and fled to the city called Beersheba; which is situate at the utmost limits of the country belonging to the tribe of Judah, towards the land of Edom. And there he left his servant, and went away into the desert. He prayed also that he might die: for that he was not better than his fathers; nor therefore need be very desirous to live when they were dead; and he lay and slept under a certain tree. And when somebody awakened him, and he was risen up, he found food set by him, and wa

ture, Jezreel; for that was the city meant in the History of Naboth.

This certainly was the effect of her blind rage, and not of any prudence in her; for prudence would have advised her to conceal her resentment, until she had been ready to put her designs in execution; whereas this sending him word was giving him notice of his danger, and admonishing him to avoid it. But, since he had the confidence to come where she was, she might think perhaps, that he was as courageous as she was furious; that, upon this notice he would scorn to fly; and she too, in her pride, might scorn to kill him secretly or surreptitiously, resolving to make him a public sacrifice. Patrick's Commentary and Pool's Annotations. B.

1 Kings xix. 3, 4.

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