1 Kings 18:42 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Kings 18:42
So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,
to ascend · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
eat
לֶאֱכֹ֣לle.'e.Khol
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
drink
וְלִשְׁתּ֑וֹתve.lish.Tot
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Elijah
וְאֵ֨לִיָּ֜הוּve.'E.li.Ya.hu
H452
Elijah · conjunction + proper noun, a man's name
up
עָלָ֨ה'a.Lah
H5927
to ascend · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
top
רֹ֤אשׁrosh
H7218
the head (as most easily shaken) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Carmel
הַכַּרְמֶל֙ha.kar.Mel
H3760
Karmel · definite article + proper noun, a place name
down
וַיִּגְהַ֣רvai.yig.Har
H1457
to prostrate oneself · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
earth
אַ֔רְצָה'Ar.tzah
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute + directional suffix
put
וַיָּ֥שֶׂםvai.Ya.sem
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
face
פָּנָ֖יוpa.Nav
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
knees
בִּרְכָּֽיוbe.ra.khov
H1290
a knee · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Luke 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.
Genesis 24:52 And it came to pass, that, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth.
Joshua 7:6 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel,…
2 Samuel 12:16 David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.
1 Kings 18:19-20 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the…
1 Kings 19:13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, be…
Ezra 9:6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our tresp…
Psalms 89:7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 18:41–end
Israel being thus far reformed that they had acknowledged the Lord to be God, and had consented to the execution of Baal's prophets, that they might not seduce them any more, though this was far short of a thorough reformation, yet it was so far accepted that God thereupon opened the bottles of heaven, and poured out blessings upon his land, that very evening (as it should seem) on which they did this good work, which should have confirmed them in their reformation; see Hag 2:18, Hag 2:19.
I. Elijah sent Ahab to eat and drink, for joy that God had now accepted his works, and that rain was coming; see Ecc 9:7. Ahab had continued fasting all day, either religiously, it being a day of prayer, o…
ELIJAH, BY PRAYER, OBTAINS RAIN. (Kg1 18:41-46)
Ahab went up to eat and to drink--Ahab, kept in painful excitement by the agonizing scene, had eaten nothing all the day. He was recommended to refresh himself without a moment's delay; and, while the king was thus occupied, the prophet, far from taking rest, was absorbed in prayer for the fulfilment of the promise (Kg1 18:1).
put his face between his knees--a posture of earnest supplication still used.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 18:42
Put his face between his knees - He kneeled down, and then bowed his head to the earth, so that, while his face was between his knees, his forehead touched the ground.
John Gill on 1 Kings 18:42
So Ahab went up to eat and to drink,.... Up to his chariot, as some think, or rather to some place higher than that in which he now was:
and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; higher still, where he both might be alone, and have the opportunity of observing the clouds gathering, and the rain coming:
and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees; expressive of his humility, and of his earnestness, and vehement desire, and continued importunity, that rain might fall; for this was a posture of prayer he put himself into, and continued in; and it is certain that it was through his prayer that rain came, James 5:18 and from hence came the fable of the Grecians co…
The Church Fathers
Now in other places it is written that faith prayed and was afterwards heard, according to that which is written, "And he bowed himself, and put his face between his knees, and he sent his disciple to look by the way of the sea." And the reason why in one case they prayed, and in another gave commands with authority is manifest; in the one their feebleness was apparent, and in the other the power of God towards them was revealed. For while they were praying and making entreaty they appeared like the feeble children of men; but while they were giving commands and being obeyed without prayer, it was recognized that it was the power of God which was with their command. In the one place they spoke like children of men, and in the other like the servants of God, that is to say like gods of flesh, for the faith which was in them made them heavenly gods.
"And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel." He does not go to Jerusalem in order to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, even though he knows the commandment of the law, which prevents the Jews from sacrificing outside the place that God had appointed as holy for them. He goes up to top of the Carmel in order to ask for rain, even though he knows that Solomon had mentioned the rain in his prayer for the people and the Lord had promised him that he would have given rain to those who prayed to him inside the temple of Jerusalem. Therefore Elijah prayed, so that they might see the miracle, because many of them still had not realized that the famine that overwhelmed them had been sent by the Lord through Elijah, who had prayed to him. In order that the word might confirm that Elijah had bound the heavens and now opened them, it was necessary that the people saw the prophet kneeling down in prayer, in the act of causing the rain to come down through his prayer.
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…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Ahab · .Reproved by Elijah; assembles the prophets of Baal — .Reproved by Elijah; assembles the prophets of Baal
Carmel · prophets — prophets
Miracles Wrought Through Servants Of God · Elijah: Rain brought — Elijah: Rain brought
Rain · .By Elijah — .By 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).
Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal. - Ahab sent through all Israel and gathered the prophets (of Baal) together upon Mount Carmel. According to Kg1 18:21, Kg1 18:22, and Kg1 18:39, a number of the people ("all the people") had also come with them. On the other hand, not only is there no further reference in what follows to the 400 prophets of Asherah (cf. Kg1 18:25 and Kg1 18:40), but in Kg1 18:22 it is very obvious that the presence of the 450 prophets of Baal alone is supposed. We must therefore assume that the Asherah prophets, foreboding nothing good, had found a way of evading the command of Ahab and securing the protection of Jezebel.
(Note: It is true that in Kg1 18:22 the lxx…
The servant . . . saw a little cloud on the horizon that appeared to be the size of a hand. Yet it heralded the approach of a terrific rainstorm.
Rashi on 1 Kings 18:42
He bowed to the ground. [Targum Yonoson rendered,] “and he crouched on the ground,” to pray for rain.28He put his face between his knees with the intention of remaining in this cramped position until a sign of rain appeared.—Radak
