Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 19:5

"And he lay down and slept under a juniper-tree; and, behold, an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat." — 1 Kings 19:5 (ASV)

An angel touched him. —The word may simply signify “a messenger,” human or superhuman, but the context suggests a miraculous ministration of some unearthly food.

It is notable that, except as ministers of God in the physical sphere (as in 2 Samuel 24:16–17; 2 Kings 19:35), angels, whose appearances are so often recorded in earlier times, hardly appear during the prophetic period. This is as if the place of their spiritual ministry to the people, as messengers of God, had been supplied by the prophetic mission.

In this instance, and in 2 Kings 6:17, the angel is merely auxiliary to the prophet, simply ministering to him in time of danger and distress, as the angel of the Agony did to the Prophet of prophets.