The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 448

possible it has been inserted by e. tran- instant death, to give him an opportunity scriber, mechanically, from the i~!_f~f r,~ for flight. But this view hardly takes suffi.. ciently into account the exasperation, the preceding] all the prophets, [sc., of Bae.I, blind unreasoning hate, or the reckless and all who were present] with the sword. desperate character of the queen. It must Ver. 2.-Then Jezebel sent & messenger be remembered that this message was unto Elljah [The prophet, wre.pped in bis despatched, not after she had hacl time for abba, was seemingly about to spend the thought and calculation, but on the spur of night in the open air, possibly at the gate, the moment, as soon as she had heard of or in the plain. There, in the darkness, the massacre of the priests of Baal. That the messenger found him, Bahr assumes night she could do nothing, nor perhaps that this message had Ahab's sanction; i.e., could she see her way clearly to compass that he must have known of it and was too his death on the morrow. But she will weak to prevent it. But it is just as likely have him know that he is not going to that it we.a sent without his privity. On eece.pe her, and that, whatever the effect on the evening of that day he would be afraid her husband, she is unconquered and un- to threaten one vested with such tremendous relenting. She does not stop to argue that powers as Elijah had just proved himself to he may take the alarm and flee. But she possess), saying [Here the LXX. inserts must gratify her impotent rage forthwith " If thou art Eliou and I Jezebel"], So let by threatening him wiLh death the next the gods [As c1;:,,~ is here found with e. day.] plural verb, it is rightly assumed that the Ver. 3.-And when he sa.w that [Heb. reference is to the divinities of Phoenicia or and he saw and arose, &c. But the LXX. of paganism generally. Besides, Jezebel has r<:ai l,po{3h911, and the Vulgllte timuit, would hardly swear by the one God of and it is to be observed that this meaning, Elijah and of Israel. The LXX., however, "and he feared," can be extracted from this has o 0E,'>!;] , do to me, and more also [Heb. word ~,11 witho ,t any change o[ radicals, for and so let them add. See on eh. ii. 23. the full form~~': is occasionally e.bbrenated Stanley appositely recalls to our minds " the tremendous vows which mark the into ~)~ ; see 1 Sam. xviii. 12 ; x::ri. 13 ; 2 history of the Semitic race, both within and Kings xvii. 28. A few l\ISS. have here without the Jewish pale, the vow of Jeph- ~,• 11 and it certainly suits the context the.h, the vow of Saul, the vow of Hanni- better. Bahr, who interprets, "he saw how boJ." Rawlinson remarks that this oath matters stood," i.e., that she meant him to was " familiar in the mouths of kings about flee, is not j usti6 ed in asserting that this this time" (1 Kings xx.10; 2 Kings vi. 31). expmssion would require an accusative of But it we.a 11, standing formula in Israel at the person feared. (See, e g., Gen. iii. 10 ; all times. Bee Ruth i. 17 ; 1 Sam. iii. 17 ; xv, 1.; xviii.15.) Both he n.nd Keil further- &c.] , if I make not thy life as the life of more object to this interpretation that it is one of them by to-morrow about th1s time. contrary to actual fact, neither of them [" That queen consort, it seems, was, in being willing to allow that Elijllh was effeot, queen regent " (Henry). What in. afraid, Biihr says it is inconceivable that auced the queen to send this message? For the man who had that day faced alone king it is obvious that if she really meant to slay and priests and the entire people should have Elijah, she took the very means to defeat become all at once afraid of a hall woman, her purpose by thus forewarning him of and he explains Elijah's flight as caused by her intentions, Some of the older exposi- tbo discovery that ho could not carry on his tors (see, e.g., Hall, vol. ii. p. 3!!6) have work of reformation, and by the absence of seen m the act a proof of her blind infa.tua- any intimation (like that of eh. xviii. 1) that tion, of thn.t infatuation which God often he was to stay and hazard his life. But employs to defeat the machinations of apart from tho fact that we are distinctly wicked men, and this view is not to be told that he "went for his life" (cf. vers. lightly rejeoted. That she fully meant what 4, 10), and that his flight seems to havo she said is hardly to be doubted. But later been instant and hurried, history tells et writers, including Keil, Biibr, and Words- many great souls, ha.rd.Jy less brave them worth, see in the threat nothing moro than Elije.h's, which have succumbed to a sudden a scheme for ridding herself of the presence panic. Anyhow, it is evident that for the of Elijah. They argue that, finding herself moment Elijah had lost faith in God, unable to put him to death, partly because otherwise be would certainly have waited of the impression he had made upon the tor the "word of the Lord," which had people, and partly, too, because of the hitherto invariably guilled his movements ascendancy ho had just gained over the (oh. xvii. 2, 8; xviii. 1). No doubt other king, she resolved, by threatening him with emotiouB besides th11t of fear were struggling 458 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [en. xrx. 1-21.