Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 17

Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead. —The most probable rendering of this disputed passage is that of the Septuagint, and virtually of Josephus, “Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe in Gilead,” the last words being added to distinguish the place from a Tishbe (or Thisbe) in Naphtali, referred to, though the reading is rather doubtful, in Tobit 1:2. The word here rendered “inhabitants” (properly “sojourners”) is evidently of the same derivation as the word rendered “Tishbite.” The only alternative would be to render “the stranger of the strangers of Gilead,” which has been adopted by some, as suggesting a startling and impressive origin of the great prophet. But it is doubtful whether the Hebrew will bear it.

Gilead —properly “the rocky region” that lay east of the Jordan, between the Hieromax and the valley of Heshbon (although the name is often more widely used). Open to the desert on the east, and itself comparatively wild, with but few cities scattered through it, it suited well the recluse dweller in the wilderness.

The Lord God of Israel before whom I stand. —This adjuration (repeated in 1 Kings 18:15, and with some alteration by Elisha in 2 Kings 3:14; 2 Kings 5:16) is characteristic. Elijah is the servant of God standing to be sent wherever He wills.

This is evidently not the first appearance of Elijah. In James 5:17, the withholding of rain, foretold again and again as a penalty on apostasy (see Leviticus 26:19, Deuteronomy 11:17; and compare to 1 Kings 8:35), is noted as an answer to the prophet’s prayer, calling down judgment on the land. Evidently there had been a struggle against the Baal-worship of the time, and, no doubt, previous warnings from Elijah or from some one of the murdered prophets. This chapter introduces us suddenly to the catastrophe.

The brook Cherith —properly “the torrent (or valley) Cherith, facing the Jordan”; evidently one of the ravines running into the Jordan valley, probably on the east from the prophet’s own land of Gilead.

The ravens. Of the accuracy of this rendering, which is that of almost all the ancient versions and of Josephus, there can be little doubt. The singularly prosaic interpretations, substituted for this striking and significant record of miracle by some ancient and modern writers (adopting slight variations of the Hebrew vowel points)—such as “Arabs,” “merchants,” “inhabitants of a city Orbi or the rock Oreb”—seem to have arisen simply from a desire to get rid of what seemed a strange miracle, at the cost (it should be noted) of substituting for it a gross improbability; for how can it be supposed that such regular sustenance by human hands of the persecuted prophet could have gone on in the face of the jealous vigilance of the king?

But it is idle to seek to explain away one wonder in a life and an epoch teeming with miracles. It is notable, indeed, that the critical period of the great Baal apostasy, and of the struggle of Elijah and Elisha against it, is the second great epoch of recorded miracle in the Old Testament—the still more critical epoch of Moses and Joshua being the first. It is hardly less idle to determine that this or that miracle is so improbable as to introduce any difficulty of acceptance which does not apply to miracles in general.

Zarephath —the Sarepta of the Septuagint and of the New Testament (Luke 4:26). It is said by Josephus to have lain between Tyre and Sidon, and by St. Jerome to have been on the great coast-road. Hence it has been identified with a modern village, Surafend, in that position. The words, which belongeth to Zidon, appear to be emphatic, marking the striking providence of God, which, when the land of Israel was apostate and unsafe, found for the prophet a refuge and a welcome in a heathen country, which was moreover the native place of his deadliest enemy.

I have not a cake. —The famine may have already extended to Phoenicia; for there, according to Menander, it lasted for a year; or, since the country depended upon Israel for supplies, the distress may have been only the reflex effect of the famine in Israel.

As the Lord thy God liveth. —The phrase indicates a recognition of Elijah as a prophet of Jehovah, the God of Israel, but probably (as, indeed, seems to be implied by the use of the words “thy God”) no acknowledgment of Him yet by the woman herself, such as the neighboring Gentiles (for example, Hiram in the days of Solomon) often acknowledged.