1 Kings 19:10

And he said, I have been very jealous [Cf. Numbers 25:11 , which the prophet may have had in his mind. But the jealousy of Phinehas was in harmony with that of God ( Numbers 25:13 )] for the Lord God of hosts ["The title of Lord God of hosts is first heard in the mouth of Elijah the prophet, who had been very jealous for Jehovah in opposition to Baal and Ashtaroth [Ash-toreth?] the Phoenician deifies; of. 2 Kings 23:5 , 'Baal, the sun, and moon, and planets, and all the host of heaven'" (Wordsworth)]: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant [he had memories of the covenant all around him], thrown down thine altars [cf. 1 Kings 18:30 , note. It is clear that many altars, similar to that on Carmel, had been built, and had been overturned], and slain thy prophets with the sword [If the "hundred prophets" of 1 Kings 18:15 escaped, of which we cannot be certain, others did not]; and I, even I only, am left [See note on 1 Kings 18:22 . It must be confessed that the prima facie view is that the prophets had been well nigh exterminated. But we must take into account the deep despondency with which Elijah spoke, and remember the correction which his words received ( 1 Kings 18:18 )]; they seek my life, to take it away. [The commentators are hopelessly divided as to the spirit and temper with which these words were spoken. Bähr, as before, is very positive that there is no complaint or murmuring against God on Elijah's part. He contends that the prophet has been led to Sinai simply by the earnest longing for a disclosure concerning the dealings of God, and for instructions as to his future conduct; and this view has the support of other weighty authorities. But it is extremely difficult to resist the conclusion that we have here at the least a "tacit reproof that God had looked on so quietly for such a length of time, and had suffered things to come to such an extremity" (Keil). St. Paul speaks of him as pleading with God against Israel ( ἐντυγχάνει τῷ θεῷ κατὰ τοῦ ἰσραὴλ . Romans 11:2 ), said certainly represents the χρηματισμός he received as a connection. And the ides which this verse, taken in connexion with the prophet's flight ( 1 Kings 18:3 ) and his prayer ( 1 Kings 18:4 ), leaves on the unbiassed mind certainly is that in his zeal for God he resented not only the growing corruption of the age, but above all the frustration of his efforts to stay it. What burdened and vexed his righteous soul was that in the very hour of victory, when the people had confessed that Jehovah alone was God, he, the one solitary witness for the truth, should be driven from his post to escape as best he might, and to leave the covenant people to the baneful influence of Jezebel and her army of false prophets. It is the cry which we hear over and over again in the Old Testament, the complaint of the silence and apparent indifference of God, of the persecution of the righteous, and the impunity of evil doers.]