The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 376

of this miracle, both as a. sign a.nd a.s a. fact th~t the torrents of the East a.re for the punishment, see" Homil. Qua.rt." v.100, 101. most pa.rt d~ied up during the greater pa.rt "To Eastern and Southern nation~ where of the year,_1ts common mea.ning is to1Te-nt- life a.nd water go always together,' where bed, or r&Vlile, valley. Both meanings are vegetation gathers round the slightest brought out here. Elijah should dwell in particle of moisture and dies the moment e.nd drink of the 'IJ)_. Cf. eh. xv. 3] Cherith it is withdrawn, . . . the withholding of re.in is the withholding of pleasure, of :The word means separation, a name which @ustena.nce, of life itself" (Stanley). "My may possibly indicate that it was extremely wurd" is somewhat emphatic, "Nisi ego, et s_ecluded, or it may bave been a boundary non alius vir . . . di.xero" (Seb. Schmidt). line of some sort. Tradition identifies the No doubt there is a special reference to the brook Cherith with the Wady-el-kelt, i.e., prophets of Be.al. Their inability to remove the great valley, west of the Jordan which the ban would prove the impotency of their debouches into the Ghor, half e. mil~ south god. Elijah he.d asked for the supernatural of Jericho, and Robinson and Porter pro- powers which he here claims (James v. nounce in its favour. Van de Velda (ii. 17, 18).J 310, 311) suggests the Wady Fasael a, Ver. 2.-And the wor4 of the Lord came few miles to tlle north. But it is m..;_ch unto him, sayillg [cf. ver. 8; eh. xvili. 1; more probable that it is to be sought in xxi. 17 ; 2 Kings i. 3] , the region east of the Jordan, where, indeed, Eusebins and Jerome place it. Ver. 3.-Get thee hence, and tum thee It is extremely doubtful whether the [for the construction (dat. commodi) cf. WAdy-el-kelt, or any Cis-Jorda.nio re.vine, Gen. xii. 2; xxii. 2; Cant. ii. 11] eastward would afford sufficient privacy. Probably [This he must do, whichever side of the Jericho was already rebuilt. As we cannot Jordan, east or west, the brook Cherith was decide with certainty, we may reasonably for his interview with Ahab ha.d probably conjecture that it is to be sought in Elija.h's taken place a.t Sa.maria. But the word own country of Gilead, and probably in the would be specially appropriate, if the Wady Alias, i.e., at no great distance from Cherith was beyond Jordan. Ewald, in- 'Abara (Conder, "Tent-work," p. 230), the deed, holds that our text is decisive on Jordan ford nearly opposite Bethshan, where, this point], a.nd hide thyself [Heh. be hid, indeed, a.n old tradition places it] that is i.e., lie hid, Niphe.l. It does not seem to before [Nothing positive can be concluded ha.ve occurred to the prophet that such e. calamity a.s he had denounced against the from ''-~ ,p. In Gen. xvi. 12; uiii. 19; country almost made his disappearance :uv. 18 i Josh. xviii. 14, &o., it means east- from the scene e. necessity, or if it did, he ward. But this meaning is gathered from still waited for instructions. CL ver. 9 ; the context] Jorda.ll. [The Cherith was eh. xviii. 1, &c. Not merely we.a his flight clearly one of the lateral valleys which run necessary in order to escape persecution or into the Ghor, It is just possible that the punishment-the sea.rch which Ahab insti- na.me may be recovered by the survey of the tuted for him in part explains his disappear- country east of the Jordan, which is now ance-but to a.void importunity. It would (1880) being organized.] have been morally impossible for him, Ver. 4.-And it shall be that thou &halt though e. man of inflexible will (Bii.h.r) to drink of the brook [There was clearly dwell among the people, while the land nothing miraculous a.bout the supply of groaned under the terrible burden which water. No miracle was wrought even to he had laid upon it, and which he e.lone continue the supply, ver. 7) ; and I have wa.s able to remove. His life would not commanded [cf. ver. 9; Isa. v. 6; A.mos have be8n safe-see eh. xviii. 4-a.nd the ix. 3, &c.] the ravens to feed thee there. ordeal would have been intolerable. And [Despite the general agreement of scholars eh. xiL 2 shows that the prophet's na- that by C1:11l,I we must understand" ravens," ture had its weaker side. Wordsworth I think probability favours the meaning observes that Elijah's escapes and de- Orbitea, i.e., inhabitants of Orbo. In sup- partures into unknown places a.re "faint port of the received rendering is the very resemblances of the mysterious vanishings powerful consideration, that it is the inter- Df our blessed Lord, after He ha.d delivered pretation of e.11 the versions (except the aome of His Divine messages which excited Arabic) and of Josephus, who, beyond all the anger of the people ; " Luke iv. 29; question, represented the belief current· in lohn viii. 59; L 39) by [Heb. in] the brook his own time (Ant. viii. 13. 2). It is also certain that elsewhere in Sonpture we find (Heh. ?m; i.e., watercouru, wady. This some of the inferior animals supernnturally !Vot~ ha.a two meanings. Its primary mean- constrained to effect God's purposes, both mg 18 ion-en& ; its 110co11da.ry and, fro111 the of mercy and or judgment (1 Kings mi. 24; CB. XVII, 1-24.J THE FIRST BOOK OF 11INGB. 888