1 Kings 19:1

EXPOSITION

ELIJAH 'S FLIGHT THE THEOPHANY OF HOREB AND THE CALLING OF ELISHA .—We can readily understand with what a sense of humiliation and shame the weak and excited king, who must have been awed and impressed by the strange portent he had witnessed, would recount the day's proceedings to his imperious and headstrong consort, and with what intense mortification and rage she must have heard of the triumph of the proscribed religion and of the defeat and death of the priests of Baal. One might almost have expected that the testimony of an eyewitness, and that her husband, to the greatness and completeness of Elijah's victory; that his unprejudiced, and indeed unwilling, account of the sacrifices, of the descent of the heavenly fire, of the cries it wrung from the people, etc; would have brought conviction to her mind and taught her how useless it was to kick against the pricks. But there are eyes so blinded ( 2 Corinthians 4:4 ) and hearts so steeled against the truth that no evidence can reach them, and this fierce persecutor of the prophets had long been given over to a reprobate mind. She listens to his story, but her one thought is of revenge.

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain [Heb. and all which he had slain . The construction, if it were not for the כָל would be usual enough. As that word is omitted in some MSS . and versions, it is possible it has been inserted by a transcriber, mechanically, from the אֵת כָל־אֲשֶׁר preceding] all the prophets, [sc; of Baal, all who were present] with the sword.