prophet therefore proceeds at once to action, to restore the boy to life.
Verse 21
He stretched himself (יתמדד) three times upon him, not to ascertain whether there was still any life left in him, as Paul did in Act 20:10, nor to warm the body of the child and set its blood in circulation, as Elisha did with a dead child (2Ki 4:34), - for the action of Elisha is described in a different manner, and the youth mentioned in Act 20:10 was only apparently dead, - but to bring down the vivifying power of God upon the dead body, and thereby support his own word and prayer.[1]
He then cried to the Lord, “Jehovah, my God, I pray Thee let the soul of this boy return within it.” על־קרבּו, inasmuch as the soul as the vital principle springs from above.
Verses 22-23
The Lord heard this prayer: the boy came to life again; whereupon Elijah gave him back to his mother.
Verse 24
Through this miracle, in which Elijah showed himself as the forerunner of Him who raiseth all the dead to life, the pious Gentile woman was mightily strengthened in her faith in the God of Israel. She now not only recognised Elijah as a man of God, as in 1Ki 17:18, but perceived that the word of Jehovah in his mouth was truth, by which she confessed implicite her faith in the God of Israel as the true God. 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.
Chap. 18
Verses 1-6
1Ki 18:1-6Elijah's meeting with Ahab. - 1Ki 18:1, 1Ki 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,” is not to be reckoned, as the Rabbins, Clericus,
- ↑ “This was done, that the prophet's body might be the instrument of the miracle, just as in other cases of miracle there was an imposition of the hand.” - Seb. Schmidt.
