The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 375

It is clear, then, that the was borne hither and thither by the Spirit of usual interpretation is by no means to be God (eh. xviii. 12), and men of a later time lightly set aside. It is certainly preferable caught this as one of his prominent charac- to the rendering, 11 Elijah the stranger," &c., teristics (Ecclus. xlviii. 1-12). Hence, too, the traditions of a still later period, for we have no proof that '.;lf?il:lv can bear according to which he was '' the fiery this meaning. In favour of the alternative Phinehas returned to earth, or an angel rendering "the Tishbite of Tishbe," it may hove1-i.ng on the outskirts of the world," be said that it has the support of the LXX., Stanley], As the Lord God of Israel llveth o ;,. 0E11/3wv, and of Josephus (Ant. viii. [This formula here occurs for the fi rat 13. 2), ;,c 'lrOAfWt 0E11/3wv11, T11!; raAaaoir,ooi: time, and it is full of meaning. It asserts xwpa,. Nor is it any weighty objection to first that Jehovah, not Baal, is the God of this view that we now here read of a Tishbe Israel, and it suggests, in the second place, in Gilead: as for the matter of that, we have that he is the living God, such as Baal was no undoubted traces of any such place west not, and that though ordinarily He keeps of the Jordan; the po.ssage in '!'obit (eh. i. 2, silence, He is one who can make His·power LXX.), which is often alleged as proving felt], before whom I stand [i.e., 11 Whose I that there was a Tishbe in Galilee, and from am and whom I serve" (Acts x.xvii. 23). Cf. which Gesenius, Bahr, Keil, &c., conclude eh. xviii. 15. The slaves of the Eo.st stood that this must be the Tishbi here referred before their masters. See note on eh. i. 28, to, being too uncertain to permit us to build o.nd of. I Sam. iii. 1 ; Luke i. 19. Elijah claims any positive conclusions thereupon. See to speak in God's name, o.nd as His o.mbas- Diet. Bib. iii. pp. 1489, 1516. In any case sador], there shall not be dew nor ra.1n -and it is perhaps impossible to decide [Observe the order of the words. Dew is positively between this and the rendering of perhaps put first as more essential to vege- the A. V.-it is clear that Elijah, eyen if table life. Elijah only denounces a plo.gue born in Galilee (but see John vii. 62, for the already threatened in the law as the punish- belief of the Jews), wo.s trained for bis work ment of idolatry (Dent. xi. 16, 17 ; x.xviii. in Gilead. It was, therefore, a rugged, un- 23; Levit. x.xvi. 13). He came forward as settled, half-civilized, tro.ns-Jordanic region the vindicator and restorer of the law] these gave to the world the greatest of its pro- years [An indefinite period. Its duration phets. In this respect he was like Moses depended on Elijah's word, and that again (Exod. iii. 1), and his antitype the Baptist on the penitence, &o., of the people. It (Luke i. 80). 11 The fact that this mission was because of the obduracy of king and was entrusted not to 11, dweller in royal city people that it lasted so long] but according or prophetic school, bot to 11, genuine child to my word. [The idolatrous priests no of the deserts and forests of Gilead, is in doubt claimed for Baal the dominion over exact accordance with the dispenso.tions of nature and absolute control over the clouds Providence in other times" (Stanley)] saJd and ro.in-a power which, it may be worth unto Ahab [The abrupt way in which Elijah observiI:g, the monks of the convent of St. appears upon the scene without a word of Katherine at Sinai, where Elijah was, are introduoti.on or explanation is certainly re- thought to possess by the Arabs of ihe markable. Ewald observes that "bis first Sinaitic peninsula.. Elijah directly chal- ~ntry within the province of the history lenges them to a trial of strength. It was aeems almost e.s unique and inexplicable as as if he had said, " The God that answereth hid final disappeart\lloe," "Elijah comes ill by riun, let him be God." 011 the fitneBI 882 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [en. xvu. 1-24.