1 Kings 19:4

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness [Cf. Genesis 21:14 , Genesis 21:21 ; Jeremiah 9:2 ; Revelation 12:6 . Beer-sheba stands on the fringe of the desert of Et-Tih . It was not for the sake of security alone that the prophet plunged into the "great and terrible wilderness." It is probable that from the first, "Horeb, the mount of God," was in his thoughts. He may well have seen that he was destined to be a second Moses; that he was raised up to assert and enforce the covenant of which Moses was the mediator. We have seen already that he cites the words spoken to Moses at the bush ( 1 Kings 18:36 ); that to him as to Moses there was granted an apparition of fire; we now find him rejected as Moses had been before him ( Acts 7:25 , Acts 7:35 ). How natural that, like Moses, he should flee into the land of Midian, to the place where God had spoken With Moses face to face. Wordsworth reminds us that the Jewish Church, by its cycle of lessons, suggests a comparison between the Law Giver and the Law Restorer], and came and sat down under a [Heb. one ; see note on 1 Kings 13:11 ] juniper tree [The רֹתֶם , here found with a feminine numeral (Keri, masculine), in 1 Kings 13:5 with a masculine, is not the juniper, but the plant now known to the Arabs as retem, i.e; the broom ( genista monosperma, or G. raetam ), "the most longed for and most welcome bush of the desert, abundant in beds of streams and valleys, where spots for camping are selected, and men sit clown and sleep in order to be protected against wind and sun". It does not, however, afford a complete protection. Every traveller remarks on its abundance in the desert; it gave a name, Rithmah, to one of the stations of the Israelites. Its roots are still used by the Bedouin, for the manufacture of charcoal (cf. Psalms 120:4 , "coals of rethern "), which they carry to Cairo]: and he requested for himself [Heb. asked as to his life, accusative of reference] that he might die [Again like Moses, Numbers 11:15 ; Exodus 32:32 ]; and said, It Is enough [or, Let it be enough . LXX . ἱκανούσθω . See note on 1 Kings 12:28 ]; now, O Lord, take away my life ["Strange contradiction! Here the man who was destined not to taste of death, flees from death on the one hand and seeks it on the other." Kitto]; for I am not better than my fathers. [These words clearly reveal the great hopes Elijah had formed as to the result of his mission, and the terrible disappointment his banishment had occasioned him. Time was when he had thought himself a most special messenger of Heaven, raised up to effect the regeneration of his country. He now thinks his work is fruitless, and he has nothing to live for longer. Keil concludes from these words that Elijah was already of a great age, but this is extremely doubtful.]