GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat!”
He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. Yahweh’s angel came again the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain.
1 Kings 19:5-8 sits inside this longer paragraph.
He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat!”
He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. Yahweh’s angel came again the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain. He came to a cave there, and camped there; and behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat!”
He looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.
Yahweh’s angel came again the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
He arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s Mountain.
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
And he lay down and slept under a broom-tree; and, behold, an angel touched him, and said unto him: 'Arise and eat.'
And he looked, and, behold, there was at his head a cake baked on the hot stones, and a cruse of water. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said: 'Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.'
And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meal forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v7 He declareth that except God had nourished him miraculously,…
He declareth that except God had nourished him miraculously, it had not been possible for him to have gone this journey.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–8 1Ki 19:5 And as he lay and slept under…
1Ki 19:5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise [and] eat.
Ver. 5. And slept under a juniper tree.] See on 1Ki 19:4.
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An angel touched him.] Holding himself happy in such an office. {Heb 1:14}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–8 i.e. Above thy strength, now especially when thou art…
i.e. Above thy strength, now especially when thou art faint, and weary, and fasting.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–8 And as he lay and slept under a juniper…
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree,.... Being weary and fatigued with his journey, the same under which he sat; for there was but one, as that is said to be in the preceding verse:
behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, arise, and eat; so far was the Lord from granting his request to take away his life, that he made provision to preserve it; so careful was he of him, as to give an angel charge to get food ready for him, and then awake him to eat of it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7–8 Angel of the Lord, &c. - He needed not…
Angel of the Lord, &c. - He needed not to complain of the unkindness of men, when it was thus made up by the ministration of angels. Wherever God's children are, they are still under their father's eye.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–8 Verse 5. As he lay and slept] Excessive anguish…
Verse 5. As he lay and slept] Excessive anguish of mind frequently induces sleep, as well as great fatigue of body.
An angel touched him] He needed refreshment, and God sent an angel to bring him what was necessary.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 8 1Ki 19:5-6. He lay and slept under a juniper…
1Ki 19:5-6. He lay and slept under a juniper tree — But he is wakened out of his sleep, and finds himself not only well provided for with bread and water, but, which is more, attended by an angel, who guarded him when he slept, and called him to his victuals once and again when they were ready for him. “He needed not complain of the unkindnesses of men, when it was thus made up by the ministration of angels: thus provided for he had reason to think he fared better than the prophets of the groves that ate at Jezebel’s table. Wherever God’s children are, as they are still upon their Father’s ground, so they are still under their Father’s eye and care. They may lose themselves in a wilderness, but God has not left them; there they may look at him, that lives and sees them, as Hagar, Gen 16:13.” — Henry.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–8 An angel touched him - The friendly ministration of…
An angel touched him - The friendly ministration of angels, common in the time of the patriarchs Gen 18:2-16; 19:1-22; Gen 28:12; Gen 32:1, Gen 32:24-29, and known also under the Judges Jdg 6:11-21; 13:3-20, was now extended to Elijah. Any other explanation of this passage does violence to the words. It is certainly not the intention of the writer to represent Elijah as relieved on this occasion by a human “messenger.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Cake, baked in a hollow stone, covered with fire.…
Cake, baked in a hollow stone, covered with fire. The Arabs call such cakes, Ridpha. An angel brought this nourishment. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–8 5. An angel touched him — Though his flight…
5. An angel touched him — Though his flight into the desert was not authorized by any Divine command, like that which sent him to the brook Cherith or to Zarephath, still the angel of the Lord guards him in the way. Jehovah has not yet done with him, and he miraculously cares for him as he did for Jonah when he fled from duty.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–8 5. And as he lay and slept] Better, with…
5. And as he lay and slept] Better, with R.V., ‘And he lay down and slept.’ The verb is the same as that which is so rendered at the close of the next verse. The description is of what Elijah did, not only of something which happened ‘as he lay.’
behold then] R.V. and behold. A change made necessary by the previous alteration.
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an angel touched him] The LXX. omits ‘an angel,’ and so does the narrative of Josephus, which merely has διεγειράντος δʼ αὐτόν τινος.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 8 (5)An angel touched him.—The word may signify simply “a…
(5)An angel touched him.—The word may signify simply “a messenger,” human or super-human; but the context suggests a miraculous ministration of some unearthly food. It is notable that, except as ministers of God in the physical sphere (as in 2Sa_24:16-17; 2Ki_19:35), the angels, whose appearances are so often recorded in earlier days, hardly appear during the prophetic period, as though the place of their spiritual ministry, as messengers of God, to the people had been supplied by the prophetic mission. Here, and in 2Ki_6:17, the angel is but auxiliary to the prophet, simply ministering to him in time of danger and distress, as the angel of the Agony to the Prophet of prophets.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–8 And as he lay and slept "While death was…
And as he lay and slept "While death was called for, the cousin of death comes unbidden" (Hall) under a Heb. one Juniper tree, behold, then Heb. hz, this; "behold here," siehe da, Gesen., an angel Heb. messenger; the same word as in ver. 2, but explained in ver. 7 to be a messenger of God. (Cf. Gen_16:9 Gen_21:17) touched Heb. touching him and said unto him, Arise and eat. Probably he had eaten little or nothing since leaving Jezreel. Food was now what he most needed. This circumstance suggests that the profound depression betrayed in his prayer (ver. 4) was largely the result of physical weakness.
Behold, an angel touched him." So that he was watched and guarded, even while he slept. His impatience and faithlessness have not diminished the loving care and tenderness of God. "He knoweth our frame." His very sleep was ordained in mercy. Observe the contrast between the pity and love of God and the childish repining and discontent of the man of God! Observe, too, how God uses the ministry of angels! Compare Mat_4:11; Luk_22:43; Act_27:23 Act_5:19 Act_12:8. "Are they not all ministering spirits?" (Heb_1:14) "No wilderness is too solitary for the attendance of those blessed spirits." "While he slept, his breakfast is made ready for him by those spiritual hands.
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How oft do they their silver bowers leave To come to succour us that succour want! How oft do they with golden pinions cleave The flitting skyes, like flying pursuivant, Against fowle fiendes to ayd us militant! They for us fight, they watch, and dewly ward, And their bright squadrons round about us plant; And all for love and nothing for reward. O why should heavenly God to men have such regard?
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 8 As he lay and slept under a juniper tree,…
1Ki_19:5
As he lay and slept under a juniper tree, then an angel touched him.
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Loving-kindness better than life
We have, in this incident, four thoughts of the love of God.
I. Gods love in its constancy. It is a fact which we all admit; hut which we seldom realise in the moments of depression and darkness to which we are all exposed. It is not difficult to believe that God loves us, when we go with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, and stand in the inner sunlit circle; but it is hard to believe that He feels as much love for us when, exiled by our sin to the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites, our soul is cast down within us, and deep calls to deep, as His waves and billows surge around. It is not difficult to believe that God loves us when, like Elijah at Cherith and on Carmel, we do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word; but it is not so easy when, like Elijah in the desert, we lie stranded, or, as dis-masted and rudderless vessels, roll in the trough of the waves. It is not difficult to believe in Gods love when with Peter we stand on the mount of glory, and, in the rapture of joy, propose to share a tabernacle with Christ evermore; but it is well-nigh impossible when, with the same Apostle, we deny our Master with oaths, and are abashed by a look in which grief masters reproach. Yet we must learn to know and believe the constancy of the love of God.
II. Gods love manifested in special tenderness because of special sin. Where ordinary methods will not avail, God will employ extraordinary ones. There is one memorable instance of this, which has afforded comfort and hope to multitudes who have sinned as Peter did, and who will bless God for ever for the record of the Masters dealings with His truant servant. The Lord sent a general message to all His disciples to meet Him in Galilee. But He felt that Peter would hardly dare to class himself with the rest; and so He sent to him a special message, saying: Go tell My disciples, and Peter. It is thus that Jesus is working still throughout the circles of His disciples.
III. Gods love in its unwearied care. None of us can measure the powers of endurance in the love of God. It never tires. It fainteth not, neither is weary. It does not fail, nor is it discouraged. It bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things. It clings about its object with a Divine tenacity, until the darkness and wandering are succeeded by the blessedness of former days. It watches over us during the hours of our insensibility to its presence; touching us ever and anon; speaking to us; and summoning us to arise to a nobler, better life, more worthy of ourselves, more glorifying to Him.
IV. Gods love anticipating coming need. This always stands out as one of the most wonderful passages in the prophets history. We can understand God giving him, instead of a long discourse, a good meal and sleep, as the best means of recruiting his spent powers. This is what we should have expected of One who knows our frame and remembers that we arc dust, and who pities us as a father pitieth his children. But it is very wonderful that God should provision His servant for the long journey that lay before him: Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v5 "Why art thou so vexed, O my soul? and…
HOW GOD DEALS WITH DESPONDENCY
1Ki_19:5-8
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"Why art thou so vexed, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me? O put thy trust in God; for I will yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
- Psa_42:11
"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."
The despondency was deeper than personal. It was despair of the world; despair of the fate of the true worship; despair about the future of faith and righteousness; despair of everything. Elijah, in his condition of pitiable weariness, felt himself reduced to entire uncertainty about all Gods dealings with him and with mankind. "I am not better than my fathers"; they failed one by one, and died, and entered the darkness; and I have failed likewise. To what end did Moses lead this people through the wilderness? Why did the Judges fight and deliver them? Of what use was the wise guidance of Samuel? What has come of Davids harp, and Solomons temple and magnificence, and Jeroboams heaven-directed rebellion? It ends, and my work ends, in the despotism of Jezebel, and a nation of apostates!
God pitied His poor suffering servant, and gently led him back to hope and happiness, and restored him to his true self, and to the natural elasticity of his free spirit.
1. First, he gave His beloved sleep. Elijah lay down and slept. Perhaps this was what he needed most of all. When we lose that dear oblivion of "natures soft nurse, and sweet restorer, balmy sleep," then nerve and brain give way. So God sent him
"The innocent sleep,
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care,
Balm of hurt minds great natures second course,
Chief nourisher in lifes feast."
And doubtless, while he slept, "his sleeping mind," as the Greek tragedian says, "was bright with eyes," and He, who had thus "steeped his senses in forgetfulness," spoke peace to his troubled heart, or breathed into it the rest over which hope might brood with her halcyon wings.
2. Next, God provided him with food. When he awoke he saw that at his head, under the rhotem plant, God had spread him a table in the wilderness. It was a provision, simple indeed, but for his moderate wants more than sufficient-a cake baked on the coals and a cruse of water. A Maleakha "messenger"-"someone," as the Septuagint and as Josephus both render it, someone who was, to him at any rate, an angel of God-touched him, and said, "Arise and eat." He ate and drank, and thus refreshed lay down again to make up, perhaps, for long arrears of unrest. And again Gods messenger, human or angelic, touched him, and bade him rise and eat once more, or his strength would fail in the journey which lay before him. For he meant to plunge yet farther into the wilderness. In the language of the narrator, "He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights."
3. Next God sent him on a hallowed pilgrimage to bathe his weary spirit in the memories of a brighter past.
It does not require forty days and forty nights, nor anything like so long a period, to get from one days journey in the wilderness to Horeb, the Mount of God, which was Elijahs destination. The distance does not exceed one hundred and eighty miles even from Beersheba. But, as in the case of Moses and of our Lord, "forty days"-a number connected by many associations with the idea of penance and temptation-symbolizes the period of Elijahs retirement and wanderings. No doubt, too, the number has an allusive significance, pointing back to the forty years wanderings of Israel in the wilderness. The Septuagint omits the words "of God," but there can be little doubt, that Sinai was selected for the goal of Elijah s pilgrimage with reference to the awful scenes connected with the promulgation of the law. It is well known that the Mount of the Commandments is as a rule called Sinai in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, though the name Horeb occurs in Exo_3:1; Exo_33:6. To account for the double usage there have been, since the Middle Ages, two theories:
(1) that Horeb is the name of the range, and Sinai of the mountain;
(2) that Horeb properly means the northern part of the range, and Sinai the southern, especially Jebel Mousa. Horeb is the prevalent name for the mountain in Deuteronomy; Sinai is the ordinary name, and occurs thirty-one times in the Old Testament.
After his wanderings Elijah reached Mount Sinai, and came to "the cave," and took shelter there. The use of the article shows that a particular cave is meant, and there can be little reason to discredit the almost immemorial tradition that it is the hollow still pointed out to hundreds of pilgrims as the scene of the theophany which was here granted to Elijah. Perhaps in the same cave the vision had been granted to Moses, in the scene to which this narrative looks back. It is not so much a cave as, what it is called in Exodus, a "cleft of the rock." {Exo_33:22} From the foot of the mountain, the level space on which now stands the monastery of Saint Katherine, a steep and narrow pathway through the rocks leads up to Jebel Mousa, the southernmost peak of Sinai, which is seven thousand feet high. Half-way up this mountain is a little secluded plain in the inmost heart of the granite precipice, in which is an enclosed garden, and a solitary cypress, and a spring and pool of water, and a little chapel. Inside the chapel is shown a hole, barely large enough to contain the body of a man. "It is," says Dr. Allon, "a temple not made with hands, into which, through a stupendous granite screen, which shuts out even the Bedouin world, Gods priests may enter to commune with Him."
If, indeed, Elijah had heard by tradition the vision of Moses of which this was the scene, he must have been filled with awful thoughts as he rested in the same narrow fissure, and recalled what had been handed down respecting the manifestation of Jehovah to his mighty predecessor.
4. And as God had pointed out to him the way to restore his bodily strength by sleep and food, so now He opened before the Prophet the remedy of renewed activity. The question of the Lord came to him-it was re-echoed by the voice of his own conscience-"What doest thou here, Elijah?"
"What doest thou?" He was doing nothing! He had, indeed, fled for his life; but was all the rest of his life to be so different from its beginning? Was there, indeed, no more work to be done in Israel or in Judah, and was he tamely to allow Jezebel to be the final mistress of the situation? Was one alien and idolatrous woman to overawe Gods people Israel, and to snatch from Gods prophet all the fruits of his righteous labors?" What doest thou here, Elijah?" Is not the very significance of thy name "Jehovah, He is my God"? Is He to be the God but of one fugitive? "What doest thou here?" This is the wilderness. There are no idolaters or murderers, or breakers of Gods commandments here; but are there not multitudes in the crowded cities where Baals temple towers over Samaria, and his sun-pillars cast their offensive shadows? Are there not multitudes in Jezreel, where the queens Asherah-shrine amid its guilt-shrouding trees flings its dark protection over unhallowed orgies committed in the name of religion? Should there not have been inspiration as well as reproof in the mere question? Should it not mean to him, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me? Put thy trust in God, for I will yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
5. The question stirred the heart of Elijah, but did not yet dispel his sense of hopelessness and frustration, nor did it restore his confidence that God would govern the world aright. As yet it only called forth the heavy murmur of his grief. "I have been very jealous for Jehovah the God of Hosts": I, alone among my people; "for the children of Israel"-not the wicked queen only, with her abominations and witchcrafts, but the renegade people with her-"have forsaken Thy covenant," which forbids them to have any God but Thee, and have "thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." It was as it were an appeal to Jehovah before whom he stood, if not almost a reproach to Him. It was as though he said, "I have done my utmost; I have failed: wilt not Thou put forth Thy power and reign? I am but one poor hunted prophet alone against the world. There is no prophet more: not one is there among them that understandeth any more. I can do no more. Of what use is my life? Carest Thou not that Thy people have revolted from Thee? Behold they perish; they perish, they all perish! Of what use is my life? My work has failed: let me die!"
6. God dealt with this mood as He has done in all ages, as He had done before to Jacob, as He did afterwards to David and to Hezekiah, and to Isaiah and Jeremiah; and as the Son of God did to the antitype of Elijah-the great forerunner-when his faith failed him. He let the conviction steal into his mind that the ways of God are wider than mens, and His thoughts greater than mens. He unteaches His prophet the delusion that everything depends on him. He shows him that though He works for men by men, and though
"God cannot make best mans best
Without best men to help him,"
still no living man is necessary, nor can any man, however great, either hasten or understand the purposes of God.
Elijah had need to be taught that man is nothing-that God is all in all. Instead of answering his complaint, the voice said to him: "Go forth tomorrow, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. Behold, the Lord is passing by."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angel
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 will be too much for you
will be too much for you
"will be too difficult for you."
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he traveled in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights
"that food gave him energy to travel for 40 days and 40 nights" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
angel
Yahweh
Horeb
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 8 19:5-7 The angel of the Lord provided Elijah with…
19:5-7 The angel of the Lord provided Elijah with precisely what he needed at the moment (17:2-6, 10-12). God often sent an angel to minister to one of his servants (Ps 34:7; Heb 1:14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.