Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 19:8

"And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God." — 1 Kings 19:8 (ASV)

Forty days and forty nights. — Unless this time includes, as some have supposed, the whole journey to and from Horeb and the sojourn there, it is far more time than would be recorded for a journey of some two hundred miles. It may, therefore, be thought to imply an interval of retirement for rest and solitary meditation, like the sojourn of Moses in Horeb and the sojourn of our Lord in the wilderness (Exodus 24:18; Matthew 4:2), during which the prophet's spirit might be calmed from the alternations of triumph and despondency, to receive the spiritual lesson which awaited him. During all that time he went in the strength of the Divine food, so that he might know that man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3).