--- title: "1 Kings 17 - Study King James Bible with the church pulpit commentary" description: "Read 1 Kings 17 with the church pulpit commentary commentary. 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17" --- [ Read](/kjv/1-kings/17)[ Commentary](/study/1-kings/17)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/1-kings/17) Audio 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, *who was* of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, *As* the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.* 2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that *is* before Jordan. 4 And it shall be, *that* thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that *is* before Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. 7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.* 8 ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, 9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which *belongeth* to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.* 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman *was* there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11 And as she was going to fetch *it*, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. 12 And she said, *As* the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I *am* gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. 13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go *and* do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring *it* unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day *that* the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.* 15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat *many* days.* 16 *And* the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.* 17 ¶ And it came to pass after these things, *that* the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son? 19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. 20 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son? 21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.** 22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. 24 ¶ And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou *art* a man of God, *and* that the word of the LORD in thy mouth *is* truth. [1 Kings 16](/study/1-kings/16) [1 Kings 18](/study/1-kings/18) ## Commentary To verse 1 *A STERN MESSAGE* **‘And Elijah … said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before Whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.’** ** [1 Kings 17:1](/kjv/1-kings/17/1)** ** This miracle of the drought is one of the few which have received the countersign and imprimatur of our Blessed Lord. The statement that ‘the heaven was shut up three years and six months’ ‘in the days of Elias’ (St. [Luke 4:25](/kjv/luke/4/25)) does not rest on the unsupported authority of the compiler of the Books of Kings, or the unknown writer from whom he derived it. We are told that this history is largely fabulous, but this part of the ‘fable’ at any rate has been accepted by Him Who is ‘the Truth.’ What are the uses of this narrative? **I. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.**—It was in the fullness of time that Moses, the founder of the Law, appeared. It was also in the fullness of time that Elijah, the restorer of the Law, came upon the scene. The darkness is greatest just before the dawn. ‘The greatest prophet is reserved for the worst age. Israel had never such an impious king as Ahab, nor such a miraculous prophet as Elijah. The God of the spirits of all flesh knows how to proportion men to the occasion.’ **II. The weak confound the strong.**—‘*God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty*’ ( [1 Corinthians 1:27](/kjv/1-corinthians/1/27)). ‘*Elijah the Tishbite … of Gilead*.’ ‘Can any good thing come out of Gilead?’ the men of Israel might contemptuously ask. It was from the wild uplands, not from the Holy City, not from the schools of the prophets, that the greatest of the prophets came. How often are we taught this lesson, ‘that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty are called’! The vessels of God are cast ‘in the clay ground’ ( [1 Kings 8:46](/kjv/1-kings/8/46)). **III. Those who honour God, He will honour.**—For why is he, the Gileadite peasant, chosen to this high distinction? Was it not because he had chosen the Lord to be his God? Surely the name ‘*Elijahu*,’ ‘*My God, Jehovah is He*,’ is not without significance. His choice was made (cf. [1 Kings 18:21](/kjv/1-kings/18/21)). The cry he would wring from Israel, ‘The Lord, He is the God’ (*v.* 39) was the echo of his own heart’s cry. He had avouched the Lord to be his God, and the Lord had avouched him to be His prophet. **IV. The dominion over nature belongs to God.**—It was claimed for Him by Elijah; it is everywhere claimed for Him in scripture (see e.g. [Leviticus 26:4](/kjv/leviticus/26/4); [Deuteronomy 11:17](/kjv/deuteronomy/11/17); [Psalms 147:8](/kjv/psalms/147/8); [Jeremiah 5:24](/kjv/jeremiah/5/24); [Acts 14:17](/kjv/acts/14/17)). **V. National sins are punished by national calamities.**—Nations, as such, have no existence except in this world. In the life to come nationalities will be fused into one great brotherhood. Consequently, if national sins are to be punished at all, they must be punished *now*. And so they are, by famine, and sword, and pestilence ( [Ezekiel 14:21](/kjv/ezekiel/14/21)). Witness the United States in 1860. Witness France in 1870. Witness Turkey in 1880, and in more recent times, witness Russia—the nation which has persecuted God’s ancient people. —Rev. Joseph Hammond. **Illustrations** (1) ‘The R.V. suggests that Elijah was of a pilgrim race, and certainly he learnt to stand by himself in fellowship with the living God. He was ever standing in His presence chamber, like the archangel Gabriel, who uses the same words of himself in his address to the mother of our Lord. Oh, that we might always stand in the presence of the living God! The God of an undivided Israel, the ideal Israel.’ (2) ‘I must not be all sternness. The “wild north-easter” is one of the winds of God, and it has its necessary and beneficent uses. But garden and field would be blighted if it blew from the outset of January to the close of December. I must allow “the sweet south” to breathe through my heart, my speech, my behaviour. Yet neither must I be all gentleness. “Temper, sir,” said Edmund Burke, once in the House of Commons to Lord Grey, “is the state of mind suited to the occasion.” There are times when I do well to be angry and I must not forget that I read even of *the wrath of the Lamb*.’ ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","width":672,"height":448,"caption":"Real Bible Believers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17","name":"1 Kings 17 - Study King James Bible with the church pulpit commentary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17#primaryimage"},"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Read 1 Kings 17 with the church pulpit commentary commentary. 1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","name":"Study Bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary","name":"the church pulpit commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings","name":"1 Kings"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/the-church-pulpit-commentary/1-kings/17","name":"17"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```