properly · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
seven
שִׁבְעַ֣תshiv.'At
H7651
seven (as the sacred full one) · noun, common both genders singular construct
thousand
אֲלָפִ֑ים'a.la.Fim
H505
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · noun, common both genders plural absolute
Israel
בְיִשְׂרָאֵ֖לve.Yis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · preposition + proper noun, a place name
knees
הַבִּרְכַּ֗יִםha.bir.Ka.yim
H1290
a knee · definite article + noun, common feminine dual absolute
bowed
כָֽרְעוּ֙kha.re.'U
H3766
to bend the knee · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
Baal
לַבַּ֔עַלla.Ba.'al
H1168
Baal · preposition with the article + noun, masculine singular absolute
mouth
הַפֶּ֔הha.Peh
H6310
the mouth (as the means of blowing) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
kissed
נָשַׁ֖קna.Shak
H5401
to kiss · verb, qal perfect, 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
Romans 11:4-5 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Isaiah 1:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isaiah 10:20-22 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay u…
Hosea 13:2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it…
Psalms 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trus…
Philippians 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon…
Job 31:27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 19:9-18
Here is, I. Elijah housed in a cave at Mount Horeb, which is called the mount of God, because on it God had formerly manifested his glory. And perhaps this was the same cave, or cleft of a rock, in which Moses was hidden when the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed his name, Exo 33:22. What Elijah proposed to himself in coming to lodge here, I cannot conceive, unless it was to indulge his melancholy, or to satisfy his curiosity and assist his faith and devotion with the sight of that famous place where the law was given and where so many great things were done, and hoping to meet with God himself there, where Moses met with him, or in token of his abandoning his people Israel, who hated…
Abel-meholah--that is, "the meadow of dancing," in the valley of the Jordan.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 19:18
Seven thousand in Israel - That is, many thousands; for seven is a number of perfection, as we have often seen: so, The barren has borne seven - has had a numerous off-spring; Gold seven times purified - purified till all the dross is perfectly separated from it. The court and multitudes of the people had gone after Baal; but perhaps the majority of the common people still worshipped in secret the God of their fathers.
Every mouth which hath not kissed him - Idolaters often kissed their hand in honor of their idols; and hence the origin of adoration - bringing the hand to the mouth after touching the idol, if it were within reach; and if not, kissing the right hand in token of respect and su…
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel,.... From perishing by the sword of either of them:
all the knees which have not bowed to Baal; that is, had not worshipped him, which was signified by this gesture:
and every mouth which hath not kissed him; either the image of Baal itself, or the hand, in reverence of him; which rites, one or other, or both, were used by his worshippers; See Gill on Hosea 13:2. This either refers, as some think, to the present time, and so is an answer to Elijah, who thought he was the only worshipper left with which seems to agree Romans 11:2, or to the times to come, when destruction should be made by the above persons, and when God would have some faithful w…
The Church Fathers
Through these words it is clear that seven thousand people remained faithful to the true religion of the ancestors, while the others had turned away from it, even though at the time of Jeroboam, king of the ten tribes, it is written that 800,000 men came out with him to fight. But it is wonderful how this small troop was precious in the eyes of the Lord, and how, because of it, he gave a double victory to the sons of their people and to Ahab, their king, who were absolutely unworthy of it. The Scripture says that in those days Ben-hadad, king of Aram, came against Samaria with thirty-two kings. Now 7,000 men with 232 youths, who preceded the troop, came out of the city, and fought against the Arameans, and killed them and defeated that great army.
[The apostle Paul], treating of those who belong to the circumcision, says, "Those who serve to the example and shadow of heavenly things." Now perhaps, through these illustrations, no doubt will be entertained regarding the five books of Moses by those who hold the writings of the apostle as divinely inspired. And if they require, with respect to the rest of the history, that those events that are contained in it should be considered as having happened for an example to those of whom they are written, we have observed that this also has been stated in the epistle to the Romans, where the apostle adduces an instance from the third book of Kings, saying, "I have left me seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal"; which expression Paul understood as figuratively spoken of those who are called Israelites according to the election, in order to show that the advent of Christ had not only now been of advantage to the Gentiles but that very many even of the race of Israel had been called to salvation.
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
Abelmeholah — (meadow of the dance), in the northern pat of the Jordan valley, (1 Kings 4:12) to which the routed Bedouin host fled from Gideon, (Judges 7:22) Here Elisha was found at his plough by Elijah…
Adoration — The acts and postures by which the Hebrews expressed adoration bear a great similarity to those still in use among Oriental nations. To rise up and suddenly prostrate the body was the most simple…
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…
Elisha — God his salvation, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, who became the attendant and disciple of Elijah (1 Kings 19:16-19). His name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint him as his…
Hand — Called by Galen “the instrument of instruments.” It is the symbol of human action (Ps. 9:16; Job 9:30; Isa. 1:15; 1 Tim. 2:8). Washing the hands was a symbol of innocence (Ps. 26:6; 73:13; Matt.…
Kiss — Of affection (Gen. 27:26, 27; 29:13; Luke 7:38, 45); reconciliation (Gen. 33:4; 2 Sam. 14:33); leave-taking (Gen. 31:28, 55; Ruth 1:14; 2 Sam. 19:39); homage (Ps. 2:12; 1 Sam. 10:1); spoken of as…
Shaphat — Judge. (1.) One of the spies. He represented the tribe of Simeon (Num. 13:5). (2.) The father of Elisha (1 Kings 19:16-19). (3.) One of David’s chief herdsmen (1 Chr. 27:29).
Baal · .Un — .Un
Calves Of Jeroboam · God’s people refused to worship — God’s people refused to worship
Appearance of God at Horeb. - Kg1 19:9. When Elijah arrived at Horeb, he went into the cave (the definite article in המּערה, with the obvious connection between the appearance of God, which follows here, and that described in Exo 33:12., points back to the cleft in the rock, נקרת הצּוּר) in which Moses had stood while the glory of Jehovah passed by (see at Exo 33:22), and there he passed the night. And behold the word of the Lord came to him (in the night): "What doest thou here, Elijah?" This question did not involve a reproof, as though Elijah had nothing to do there, but was simply intended to lead him to give utterance to the thoughts and feelings of his heart.
Kg1 19:10
Elijah answered:…
The Lord corrected Elijah’s thinking; the prophet was not alone. Earlier he had forgotten the 100 prophets protected by Obadiah (18:4, 13). Now he learned that there were 7,000 others who remained faithful to the Lord. • bowed down . . . or kissed him: These common forms of submission in the ancient Near East (2 Kgs 21:3; Isa 46:6; 60:14; Hos 13:2) are often mentioned in the annals of victorious kings or in the ancient epics. Ashurbanipal reported that on his sixth campaign, an Elamite king kissed his royal feet and tidied up the ground with his beard. In the Mesopotamian creation epic (Enuma Elish, V 86), even the great gods bowed down and kissed the feet of Marduk, the victorious head of t…
Elisha will kill. We do not find that Elisha killed anyone but the forty-two children through the bears in Yericho.11See II Melochim 2:24. Alternatively, the hunger in Shomron was initiated by Elisha’s curse, as implied in II Melochim 6:31.—Ralbag
Idolatry · Saints preserved by God from — Saints preserved by God from
Jews, The · A spiritual seed of true believers always among — A spiritual seed of true believers always among
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).
