1 Kings 19:7-8

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 19:7

" Arise and eat ." Though this was supernatural food, so far as we can see miraculously provided, and in any case of preternatural efficacy, yet it must be taken and eaten in the ordinary way. Elijah might have been endued with strength for his desert journey without the aid of any material elements. The angel's touch or even the word of the Lord would surely have sufficed ( 6:21 ; Ezekiel 2:2 ; Ezekiel 3:24 ; Luke 7:7 ). Instead of which a cake is baken on the coals, and he must... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 19:8

And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights [Cf. Exodus 24:18 ; Exodus 34:28 ; Deuteronomy 9:9 , Deuteronomy 9:25 ; Jonah 3:4 ; Matthew 4:2 ; Acts 1:3 . But the primary reference is perhaps to the "forty days and forty nights" which Moses spent in Horeb, during which he "neither did eat bread nor drink water" ( Deuteronomy 9:9 ), or to the forty years during which Israel was sustained in this same desert with "angels'... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Kings 19:8

" Went in the strength of that meat, " etc . It is very noticeable how many miraculous feedings we have in Holy Scripture. Not only does the New Testament record a feeding, now of five thousand with five loaves, now of four thousand with seven loaves ( Matthew 15:9 , Matthew 15:10 ); not only is one or other of these mentioned by all four evangelists; but the Old Testament, in addition to such narratives as those of 1 Kings 17:14 sqq.; 2 Kings 4:1-6 , 2 Kings 4:42 sqq; tells of... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Kings 19:7

Arise and eat ... - i. e., “Eat a second time, for otherwise the journey will be beyond thy powers.” “The journey” was not simply a pilgrimage to Horeb, which was less than 200 miles distant, and might have been reached in six or seven days. It was to be a wandering in the wilderness, not unlike that of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt; only it was to last forty days instead of forty years. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Kings 19:8

The old commentators generally understood this to mean that Elijah had no other food at all, and compared this long fast with that of Moses and that of our Lord (marginal references). But the words do not exclude the notion of the prophet’s having obtained such nourishment from roots and fruits as the desert offers to a wanderer, though these alone would not have sustained him. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - 1 Kings 19:7

1 Kings 19:7. Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee Above thy strength; now especially, when thou art faint, weary, and fasting. God knows what he designs us for, though we do not; what services, what trials; and will take care for us, when we, for want of foresight, cannot for ourselves, that we be furnished for them with grace sufficient. He that appoints what the voyage shall be, will victual the ship accordingly. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - 1 Kings 19:8

1 Kings 19:8. He went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights Observe here, how many different ways God took to keep Elijah alive: he was fed by ravens, by a miraculous increase of meal and oil, by an angel, and now, to show that man lives not by bread alone, he is kept alive forty days without meat, while in the mean time he was not resting and sleeping, which might have made him the less to crave sustenance, but continually traversing the mazes of the desert, a day for... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - 1 Kings 19:1-21

God reassures Elijah (19:1-21)When Jezebel heard that Elijah had killed her prophets, she threatened to do the same to him. She still had great power over the people, who, despite Elijah’s victory at Mt Carmel, soon returned to their idolatrous ways (19:1-2; cf. v. 10). Elijah fled south through the barren regions of Judah where, overcome with despair, he wanted only to die. But God sustained him, enabling him to keep moving south till he reached Mt Sinai, the place where God had made his... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - 1 Kings 19:8

forty. The number of Probation. See App-10 . Horeb. About 180 miles. read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - 1 Kings 19:8

1 Kings 19:8. Went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights— From Beer-sheba to mount Horeb is at the most not above a hundred and fifty miles, and the prophet, it seems, had advanced one day's journey into the wilderness; so that he had not now more to finish than any active man might have done in four or five days. How came the prophet then to make forty of it? To this some reply, that he, like the Israelites of old, was kept wandering up and down this pathless wilderness... read more

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