1 Kings 19:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Kings 19:4
But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
to walk (in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
day’s
י֔וֹםYom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
journey
דֶּ֣רֶךְDe.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular construct
wilderness
בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ba.mid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
came
וַיָּבֹ֕אvai.ya.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
down
וַיֵּ֕שֶׁבvai.Ye.shev
H3427
properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
a
אֶחָ֑ד'e.chat
H259
properly · noun, common feminine singular absolute
tree
רֹ֣תֶםRo.tem
H7574
the Spanish broom (from its pole-like stems) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
requested
וַיִּשְׁאַ֤לvai.yish.'Al
H7592
to inquire · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
himself
נַפְשׁוֹ֙naf.Sho
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
die
לָמ֔וּתla.Mut
H4191
to die (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
said
וַיֹּ֣אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
enough
רַ֗בRav
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine singular absolute
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
away
קַ֣חkach
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
life
נַפְשִׁ֔יnaf.Shi
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
better
ט֥וֹבTov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · adjective, masculine singular absolute
fathers
מֵאֲבֹתָֽיme.'a.vo.Tai
H1
father · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
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
Jonah 4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Numbers 11:15 And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
Jonah 4:8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainte…
Jeremiah 20:14-18 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
Genesis 21:15-16 And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
1 Kings 13:14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And…
1 Kings 19:3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 19:1-8
One would have expected, after such a public and sensible manifestation of the glory of God and such a clear decision of the controversy depending between him and Baal, to the honour of Elijah, the confusion of Baal's prophets, and the universal satisfaction of the people - after they had seen both fire and water come from heaven at the prayer of Elijah, and both in mercy to them, the one as it signified the acceptance of their offering, the other as it refreshed their inheritance, which was weary - that now they would all, as one man, return to the worship of the God of Israel and take Elijah for their guide and oracle, that he would thenceforward be prime-minister of state, and his directi…
HE IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL. (Kg1 19:4-18)
went a day's journey into the wilderness--on the way from Beer-sheba to Horeb--a wide expanse of sand hills, covered with the retem (not juniper, but broom shrubs), whose tall and spreading branches, with their white leaves, afford a very cheering and refreshing shade. His gracious God did not lose sight of His fugitive servant, but watched over him, and, miraculously ministering to his wants, enabled him, in a better but not wholly right frame of mind, by virtue of that supernatural supply, to complete his contemplated journey. In the solitude of Sinai, God appeared to instruct him. "What doest thou here, Elijah?" was a searching question addresse…
A day's journey into the wilderness - Probably in his way to Mount Horeb. See Kg1 19:8.
Juniper tree - A tree that afforded him a shade from the scorching sun.
It is enough - I have lived long enough! I can do no more good among this people; let me now end my days.
John Gill on 1 Kings 19:4
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness,.... Of Paran, which began near Beersheba, and was the wilderness of Arabia, in which the Israelites were near forty years; this day's journey carried him about twenty miles from Beersheba southward, as the above writer reckons:
and came and sat down under a juniper tree; Abarbinel supposes that Elijah chose to sit under this tree, to preserve him from venomous creatures, which naturalists say will not come near it; and Pliny (o) indeed observes, that it being burnt will drive away serpents, and that some persons anoint themselves with the oil of it, for fear of them; and yet Virgil (p) represents the shade of a juniper tree as noxious…
The Church Fathers
"He came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die." He hopes for death, but not for the one with which Jezebel had threatened him, that is, the one that would have given the prophets of Baal the pretext to say that Baal had defeated the God of Israel, otherwise he would have never abandoned his servant in such a danger: therefore he had forsaken him by force.
To be sure, it was not a woman that such a great prophet was fleeing, but it was this world. And it was not death that he feared, for he offered himself to the one that searched for him and said to the Lord, "Take my soul." He endured a weariness of this life, not a desire for it, but he was fleeing worldly enticement and the contagion of filthy conduct and the impious acts of an unholy and sinful generation.
Elijah, whom John the Baptist followed in spirit and virtue and who caused fire to fall from heaven and the waters of the Jordan to part by his prayers, was afraid of Jezebel and fled, and exhausted, he sat down in the wilderness under a tree, and, wearied from walking, he prayed for death, saying, "It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul, for I am no better than my ancestors." Who can deny that he was a just man? And yet fear, not to mention of a woman, but of a human being, proceeds from a disturbance of the soul, which cannot be faultless, as David says: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what people can do to me."
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
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…
Juniper — (Heb. rothem), called by the Arabs retem, and known as Spanish broom; ranked under the genus genista. It is a desert shrub, and abounds in many parts of Palestine. In the account of his journey from…
Weights And Measures — A. WEIGHTS.—The general principle of the present inquiry is to give the evidence of the monuments the preference on all doubtful points. All ancient Greek systems of weight were derived, either…
Death · .Elijah — .Elijah
Deserts · Mentioned in scripture: Beersheba — Mentioned in scripture: Beersheba
Despondency · the juniper tree, and wanted to die — the juniper tree, and wanted to die
Elijah · .Es — .Es
Juniper · A tree — A tree
Life · .Elijah — .Elijah
Murmuring · .Elijah — .Elijah
Prudence · .Elijah, in his es — .Elijah, in his es
Trees · Mentioned in scripture: Juniper — Mentioned in scripture: Juniper
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).
The hope of completing his victory over the idolaters and overthrowing the worship of Baal, even in the capital of the kingdom, with which Elijah may have hastened to Jezreel, was frustrated by the malice of the queen, who was so far from discerning any revelation of the almighty God in the account given her by Ahab of what had occurred on Carmel, and bending before His mighty hand, that, on the contrary, she was so full of wrath at the slaying of the prophets of Baal as to send to the prophet Elijah to threaten him with death. This apparent failure of his ministry was the occasion of a severe inward conflict, in which Elijah was brought to a state of despondency and fled from the land. The…
Though technically a shrub, the broom tree can reach a height of ten feet. Its leaves are small, but it provides adequate shade for a weary traveler in the wilderness. Like Jonah (Jon 4:3), Elijah had successfully carried out his commission, but he felt a sense of defeat with the results. • no better: God’s refugee prophet felt that he had accomplished little and would be better off dead.
Rashi on 1 Kings 19:4
Juniper. Genevrier, in O.F.
And he said, “It is enough.” [Targum Yonoson rendered,] “My long life is enough,1According to the opinion that Eliyahu is Pinchos, Aharon’s grandson, he was over 500 years old at this time. until when will I be confused like this?”
