TEXT [Commentary]

5. Elijah flees to Sinai (19:1-9a)

1 When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. 2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”

5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 Then the angel of the LORD came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”

8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai,[*] the mountain of God. 9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.

But the LORD said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

NOTES

19:1 the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. This is the most extreme of Elijah’s actions in the previous chapter, and the one that would surely spur Jezebel to take action.

19:2 So Jezebel sent this message. This is a reciprocal threat, made even more evident by the LXX’s opening phrase for the message, “as you are Elijah, so I am Jezebel,” which does not appear in the MT but may well have been original (cf. Cogan 2001:450). Jezebel’s threat is underscored by a typical oath formula, “may the gods strike me” (see note on 2:23; cf. 20:10; 2 Kgs 6:31).

19:3 Elijah was afraid. This reading follows LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; the MT reads “Elijah saw” (a very slight change in vocalization of the Hebrew).

Beersheba. This is the famous patriarchal town (Gen 21:31), located 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Hebron. Beersheba was proverbially the southernmost city of the kingdom of Solomon (see note on 4:25).

left his servant there. See the first note on 18:43; Elijah’s servant is mentioned only twice in the Elijah/Elisha cycles. Seemingly Elijah preferred to work alone.

19:4 a solitary broom tree. As Jones (1984:329-330) notes, the “broom tree” (rothem [TH7574, ZH8413]) is well-known in the Sinai, Petra (southern Jordan), and Dead Sea areas; it is a shrub that can grow to a height of over 3 meters (10 ft). Sweeney (2007:231) notes affinities between this text and Jonah 4, where the disaffected prophet there sits under a qiqayon [TH7021, ZH7813] plant and likewise expresses his desire to die (cf. Moses’s strong words in Num 11:15).

no better than my ancestors. Elijah saw himself as not having any unique relationship with God, but just as any other mortal. But it is not for any man to decide when he should die. Wiseman (1993:172) says, “To ask God to take my life will always get a sure reply. But God will take his servant to himself in his own time and manner (2 Kg. 2:11).” Hens-Piazza (2006:187) points out that “Elijah wants to die but he does not want to be killed.”

19:5 an angel touched him. The “angel” (mal’ak [TH4397, ZH4855]) is mentioned here and also in 19:7. The MT has the same term for “a messenger [from Jezebel]” in 19:2. God knows when to answer laments and when not to—sometimes, all we need is a good nap and some food.

19:6 bread. Heb., ‘ugah [TH5692, ZH6314], also found in 17:13, where the Zarephath widow is asked to make the same thing. There are a number of other parallels between the present text and God’s supernatural provisions for Elijah in ch 17, whether it be by the ravens or by the Phoenician widow.

19:8 forty days and forty nights. Commentators have often noted the parallels between Elijah and Moses, and here is one of the most vivid ones (cf. Exod 24:18; 34:28). For more on this, see the commentary on 19:9b-18.

Mount Sinai. Lit., “Horeb” (so NLT mg). “Horeb” is a standard variant for designating Mount Sinai in the Pentateuch (see Exod 3:1; 33:6; Deut 1:2; 4:10; cf. Sweeney 2007:231).

COMMENTARY [Text]

Elijah’s story rolls on from one scene to the next. We have had the public ecstasy, now we get the private agony. Seemingly, whenever individuals undertake great things for God, they can expect renewed opposition, often quite vicious in nature. So it is here in the narrative of Elijah. Elijah hardly expected Queen Jezebel to respond passively to his taunts in the previous chapter, still less to his commissioning the execution of her prophets! But her quick and decisive response surely unnerved the man of God. “The best defense is a good offense” is a maxim Jezebel seemingly understood well. She was evidently a devout, religious woman, and such effrontery to her god, Baal, simply could not be tolerated. Religion is a very dangerous thing—if it does not make a person very much better, it will make that person very much worse (cf. C. S. Lewis, writing to his friend and former student Dom Bede Griffiths, dated December 20, 1961 [Lewis 1966:301]).

Jezebel was determined to kill Elijah. This so depressed Elijah that he wanted to die. What a change of emotions—from the elation of victory in the previous chapter to the depression of defeat in the next. But this chapter (ch 19) can be very instructive to the many would-be Elijahs in the world who have just had (literal or metaphoric) mountaintop experiences, but then are, as it were, quickly and cruelly blindsided by the enemy. We all have been there, I suspect. Fortunately, God took care of Elijah’s depression by speaking to Elijah and encouraging his downcast spirit (see next section).