1 Kings 18:42

42. Cast himself down Elijah’s attitude in prayer has been understood in two ways. Some maintain that he placed himself in a sitting posture, thus bringing his knees near his chin, and making it comparatively easy for him to put his face between his knees. Chardin and Shaw observed certain Orientals in this posture while engaged in devout meditation. This attitude, however, though suitable for meditation, would be less appropriate for prayer. Others therefore think that he first kneeled down, and then bowed his head forward, so that his face would have been brought near to the ground, and may have even touched it. This latter view is favoured by the word יגהר , here rendered cast himself down, which implies prostration, not sitting. The word occurs again only in 2 Kings 4:34-35, where it is used of Elisha’s stretching himself upon the dead child of the Shunammite. This prostrate attitude of Elijah’s was in keeping with that earnestness in prayer of which St. James speaks. James 5:17. Both king and prophet returned to the top of Carmel, the one to feast, the other to pray. The prophet, “while he was praying, withdrew himself from the very highest point of the summit, leaving Ahab to take his meal at the place where the sacrifice had been consumed. Elijah needed to retire only a short distance to the west, and there, on the slope just below the summit, sequestered by bushes and trees, such as are still to be found there, poured out his petitions for rain.” Mead.