Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword (v. 1). Ahab reports what Elijah did; he says nothing, in the narrator's summary, of what the LORD did with the fire. Jezebel answers with an oath: So let the gods do to me, and more also — a common form of curse on oneself (compare Ruth 1:17; 1 Samuel 3:17), here sworn by her gods. The day of fire has not moved her. Some note that she sends a messenger rather than soldiers, and suggest she wanted Elijah gone more than she wanted a martyr; the text does not say.

And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life (v. 3). The Hebrew consonants behind saw can also be read he was afraid, and many translations take it that way; the study notes both. He goes to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah — the far south, outside Ahab's kingdom — and leaves his servant there. James' words fit the scene: Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are (James 5:17). The man who stood alone on Carmel runs from one woman's threat.

He himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree. The plant is often taken to be the broom bush of the southern desert, which gives a little shade; the study offers that sense as likely. He requested for himself that he might die. Elijah is not the only servant of God to ask for death: Moses said, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand (Numbers 11:15), and Jonah, take, I beseech thee, my life from me (Jonah 4:3). Scripture records these prayers honestly.

It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. After the height of Carmel comes the depth of the wilderness. Perhaps he had hoped Carmel would turn the nation, and now Jezebel still ruled; the text does not explain his despair, and the study does not diagnose it. It shows instead what God does: there is no rebuke at the juniper tree. Prayer that says It is enough is still prayer; Elijah brought his exhaustion to God rather than hiding it.

As he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat (v. 5). There is a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head (v. 6). He eats, drinks and lies down again. Before any word about his mission, God gives him sleep, food and water. Readers may recall the widow's cake and cruse in 17:12-13: the prophet who was fed by ravens and a widow is fed now by an angel. Psalm 103:14 says of the LORD, he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

The angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. The words Arise and eat are said twice (vv. 5, 7), and the second time a reason is given. God does not tell Elijah that his strength is enough; He tells him the journey is too great, and feeds him for it. Jesus once said to weary disciples, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while (Mark 6:31). Rest and food are not unspiritual; here they are the LORD's own care.

He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God (v. 8). Horeb is the name Deuteronomy often uses for Sinai (compare Exodus 3:1), where the covenant was given. Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights (Exodus 24:18; 34:28); Elijah travels forty days and nights to the same mountain. He came thither unto a cave — the Hebrew has the cave, and some have wondered whether it means the clift of the rock where Moses was hidden as the LORD passed by (Exodus 33:22); the study offers that as a possibility only.

What doest thou here, Elijah? The question is asked twice in this chapter (vv. 9, 13). It need not be read only as a rebuke; it gives Elijah room to say what is in him. And he does: I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts... and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away (v. 10). His words are partly true — altars thrown down, prophets slain — and partly not, as verse 18 will show. Paul quotes this complaint in Romans 11:3. God listens to the whole of it before He answers.

Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by (v. 11). Then come a great and strong wind that rent the mountains, an earthquake, and a fire — and three times the text says the LORD was not in them. These were the signs of Sinai, where the LORD descended upon it in fire and the whole mount quaked greatly (Exodus 19:18). On Carmel God had answered by fire. Here He shows Elijah that He is not bound to the spectacular. He can use fire; He is not contained by it.

And after the fire a still small voice. The Hebrew is unusual and has been rendered in several ways — a gentle whisper, a low murmur, or, quite literally, a sound of thin silence; the study does not press one. Job 4:16 joins similar words: there was silence, and I heard a voice. when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle (v. 13), as Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God (Exodus 3:6). The quiet, not the storm, brings him to the cave mouth. Then the same question comes again, and Elijah gives the same answer, almost word for word (vv. 13-14).

The LORD answers Elijah's despair with work: Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria (v. 15), and Jehu over Israel, and Elisha to be prophet in thy room. Elijah is not dismissed; he is given a future beyond himself. Jehu is called the son of Nimshi; 2 Kings 9:2 names him the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi, so son here means descendant. Abelmeholah lay in the Jordan valley, though its exact site is debated.

What does the text record afterwards? Elijah casts his mantle on Elisha (v. 19); no oil is mentioned. Hazael is told by Elisha that thou shalt be king over Syria (2 Kings 8:13), and Jehu is anointed by one of the children of the prophets sent by Elisha (2 Kings 9:1-6). Many read the commission as carried out through Elijah's successor; the study notes this without forcing it. Verse 17 speaks of judgment through the swords of Hazael and Jehu (2 Kings 8:12; 10:32; 10:11); how Elisha would slay the text does not specify, and many take it of his prophetic word.

Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. Elijah had said, I, even I only, am left; the LORD answers that He has kept for Himself thousands. Kissing an idol was an act of worship (compare Hosea 13:2, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves). Whether seven thousand is an exact count or a full, round number the text does not say; either way, Elijah was never as alone as he felt. Obadiah and his hundred prophets had already hinted as much (18:4).

Paul takes up this verse in Romans 11:2-5. Asking whether God has cast away His people, he recalls Elijah's complaint and God's answer, and concludes that at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5). The point is not that faithfulness is rare and lonely, but that God keeps His own, often unseen. Discouraged servants of God tend to count too few; the LORD knows them that are His (2 Timothy 2:19).

He departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. Twelve yoke suggests a family of some means, with Elisha at the last pair behind the others. Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. A mantle seems to have marked the prophet (compare Zechariah 13:4, a rough garment), and the gesture seems to have been understood at once as a call to follow. That same mantle will one day fall to Elisha when Elijah is taken up (2 Kings 2:13-14).

Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee (v. 20). Elijah answers, Go back again: for what have I done to thee? The words are brief and have been read in more than one way: as permission, or as a reminder that the call is serious and the choice his own. Jesus once heard a similar request — to bid farewell to those at home first — and answered that no man who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:61-62). Elisha did go back, but, as verse 21 shows, not to stay.

He returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. He burns the plough-gear to cook the oxen that pulled it. Whatever it cost his family, Elisha leaves himself no way back to the field. The meal is shared with the people — a farewell feast, perhaps, and a public sign that his life has turned.

Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. The future prophet begins as a servant. Ministered is the word used of Joshua as Moses' minister (Exodus 24:13), and 2 Kings 3:11 remembers Elisha as the one which poured water on the hands of Elijah. Elijah at the juniper tree thought his work had failed; within the same chapter God has shown him seven thousand faithful and given him a successor. The despair of verse 4 is answered by a man walking behind him.