to see · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Elijah
אֵלִיָּ֑הוּ'e.li.Ya.hu
H452
Elijah · proper noun, a man's name
Ahab
אַחְאָב֙'ach.'Av
H256
Achab · proper noun, a man's name
said
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
troubleth
עֹכֵ֥ר'o.Kher
H5916
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵֽלYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 7:25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them wit…
1 Kings 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil i…
Acts 16:20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
Acts 17:6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world ups…
Amos 7:10 Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-el sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Is…
Acts 24:5 For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect…
Jeremiah 26:8-9 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the pr…
Jeremiah 38:4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war t…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 18:17-20
We have here the meeting between Ahab and Elijah, as bad a king as ever the world was plagued with and as good a prophet as ever the church was blessed with. 1. Ahab, like himself, basely accused Elijah. He durst not strike him, remembering that Jeroboam's hand withered when it was stretched out against a prophet, but gave him bad language, which was no less an affront to him that sent him. It was a very coarse compliment with which he accosted him at the first word: Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Kg1 18:17. How unlike was this to that with which his servant Obadiah saluted him (Kg1 18:7): Art thou that my lord Elijah? Obadiah feared God greatly; Ahab had sold himself to work wickedness;…
Art thou he that troubleth Israel--A violent altercation took place. Ahab thought to awe him into submission, but the prophet boldly and undisguisedly told the king that the national calamity was traceable chiefly to his own and his family's patronage and practice of idolatry. But, while rebuking the sins, Elijah paid all due respect to the high rank of the offender. He urged the king to convene, by virtue of his royal mandate, a public assembly, in whose presence it might be solemnly decided which was the troubler of Israel. The appeal could not well be resisted, and Ahab, from whatever motives, consented to the proposal. God directed and overruled the issue.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 18:13
When Jezebel slew the prophets - This persecution was probably during the dearth, for as this bad woman would attribute the public calamity to Elijah, not being able to find him, she would naturally wreak her vengeance on the prophets of Jehovah who were within her reach.
John Gill on 1 Kings 18:17
And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah,.... As soon as he came up to him, and knew who he was; Abarbinel thinks, because his hair was grown so long that Ahab did not know him certainly, and therefore put the following question:
that Ahab said unto him, art thou he that troubleth Israel? by opposing the religion of Baal, which prevailed among them; but chiefly rain being withheld from them according to his word, and at his prayer.
The Church Fathers
Were Elijah and John then lacking in boldness? Did not the one reprove Ahab, and the other Herod? The latter said, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother Philip's wife." And Elijah said to Ahab with boldness: "It is not I that trouble Israel, but you and your father's house." You see that this poverty especially produces boldness? For while the rich person is a slave, being subject and in the power of every one wishing to do him hurt, one who has nothing fears no confiscation or fine. So, if poverty had made people to lack in boldness, Christ would not have sent his disciples with poverty to a work requiring great boldness.
"When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" He answered, "I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father's house." "It is you and your father Omri who ruined this people, because through your abominable customs and your evil commandments you corrupted their spirit and their worship and ridiculed the holy law that God had given them, and for that reason rain and dew stopped falling from heaven, and people were overwhelmed by starvation. Therefore it is not my words, which are good, but it is your actions, which are disgusting and trouble Israel." And this freedom of speech torments Ahab greatly, but he does not fight back or rebuke Elijah about anything, as is related in the two histories of the kings, so that you may know the authority that the Lord had given Elijah over the spirit of the king and the fear toward his prophet that he had put in [Ahab's] heart. This is what [God] had done in the ancient times to Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron, when they spoke with harshness and afflicted him [with their actions] even more than with their words.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Carmel — A park; generally with the article, “the park.” (1.) A prominent headland of Central Palestine, consisting of several connected hills extending from the plain of Esdraelon to the sea, a distance of…
Elijah — Whose God is Jehovah. (1.) “The Tishbite,” the “Elias” of the New Testament, is suddenly introduced to our notice in 1 Kings 17:1 as delivering a message from the Lord to Ahab. There is mention made…
Accusation, False · .Against Elijah by Ahab — .Against Elijah by Ahab
Ahab · .Reproved by Elijah; assembles the prophets of Baal — .Reproved by Elijah; assembles the prophets of Baal
Carmel · prophets — prophets
Elijah · .Meets Ahab and directs him to assemble the prophets of Baal — .Meets Ahab and directs him to assemble the prophets of Baal
Revivals · .Elijah — .Elijah
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 18:1-19
As the judgment of drought and famine did not bring king Ahab to his senses and lead him to turn from his ungodly ways, but only filled him with exasperation towards the prophet who had announced to him the coming judgment; there was no other course left than to lay before the people with mighty and convincing force the proof that Jehovah was the only true God, and to execute judgment upon the priests of Baal as the seducers of the nation.
Kg1 18:1-6
Elijah's meeting with Ahab. - Kg1 18:1, Kg1 18:2. In the third year of his sojourn at Zarephath the word of the Lord came to Elijah to show himself to Ahab; since God was about to send rain upon the land again. The time given, "the third year,"…
troublemakers: Although Elijah announced the onset of the drought (17:1), it was Ahab and his family who brought God’s judgment upon Israel by their violations of the covenant and their sponsorship of Baal worship (see Lev 26:19; Deut 28:15, 23; 2 Chr 7:13; Jer 14:1-7; Amos 4:7-8).
Rashi on 1 Kings 18:10
That they did not find you. For the nation was unable to find you.2Below v. 12.
