John Gill Commentary 1 Kings 19

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done
What miracles he had wrought, how that not only fire came down from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice, but even the stones and dust of the altar, and licked up great quantities of water in the trench around it; and that it was at his prayer that rain came down from heaven in such abundance, of which she was sensible; by all which he got the people on his side, so that it was not in his power to seize him and slay him; and this he said to clear himself, and make her easy:

and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword ;
the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal he had gathered to Carmel; the Targum calls them false prophets, but Ahab would scarcely use that epithet to Jezebel; as for the four hundred prophets of the grove, they were not present, and so not included. Jezebel knew they were safe, being with her, she not suffering them to go to Carmel.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah
In Jezreel, or near it, to frighten him away; not caring to seize him, and dispatch him, for fear of the people, in whom he had now a great interest.

Otherwise it is not easy to account for it that she should give him notice of it; unless she scorned to do it privately, as some think, and was determined to make a public example of him; but being not as yet prepared for it, sends him word what he must expect, imagining that as he had the courage to appear, he would not flee.

No doubt there was an hand of Providence in it, be it which it will, that he might have time to make his escape:

saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also ;
the gods she served, Baal and Ashtaroth, and by whom she swore:

if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about
this time ;
as one of the prophets Elijah had slain; she swore by her gods, and wished the greatest evils might befall her, if she did not lodge him in the state of the dead where they were in the space of twenty four hours; though Abarbinel thinks it is not an oath, but that the words and meaning of them are, so the gods do; it is their usual way, and they will go on to do so for the future, because of the holiness of their name; and therefore do not boast of slaying the prophets, or make use of that as an argument of their falsehood, for they will do the same by thee by tomorrow this time.

And when he saw that
That her design and resolution were to take away his life; the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions read, "and he was afraid"; or frightened; he that has such courage as not to be afraid to meet Ahab, and contend with four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, and in the face of all Israel, who at first were not inclined to take his part, is now terrified at the threats of a single woman; which shows that the spirit and courage he had before were of the Lord, and not of himself; and that those who have the greatest zeal and courage for religion, for God, and his worship, his truths and ordinances, if left to themselves, become weak and timorous; and whether this is the true reading, or not, it was certainly his case by what follows:

he arose and went for his life ;
fled to save his life, at a time when he was much wanted to encourage and increase the reformation from idolatry, and to preserve the people from relapsing who were converted; and through the miracles that had been wrought by him, and for him, he had great reason to trust in the Lord: or "he went unto", or "according to his own soul" ^F13 ; according to his own mind and will, not taking counsel of God, or any direction from him; and so Abarbinel interprets it:

and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah ;
to the tribe of Judah; for though it was in the inheritance of Simeon, yet that was within the tribe of Judah, (Joshua 19:1Joshua 19:2) , or to the kingdom of Judah, over which Jehoshaphat reigned, and so might think himself safe, being out of the dominions of Ahab, and reach of Jezebel; but yet he did not think so, his fears ran so high that he imagined she would send some after him to search for him, and slay him privately, or make interest with Jehoshaphat to deliver him up, there being friendship between him and Ahab; for though this place was eighty four miles from Jezreel, as Bunting ^F14 computes it, he left it:

and left his servant there ;
he took him not with him, either lest he should betray him, or rather out of compassion to him, that he might not share in the miseries of life that were like to come upon him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: (wvpn la) (kata thn quchn autou) , Sept. "secundum animam suam", Vatablus, Pagninus.
• F14: Travels, ut supra. (p. 204.)

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness
Of Paran, which began near Beersheba, and was the wilderness of Arabia, in which the Israelites were near forty years; this day's journey carried him about twenty miles from Beersheba southward, as the above writer reckons:

and came and sat down under a juniper tree ;
Abarbinel supposes that Elijah chose to sit under this tree, to preserve him from venomous creatures, which naturalists say will not come near it; and Pliny ^F15 indeed observes, that it being burnt will drive away serpents, and that some persons anoint themselves with the oil of it, for fear of them; and yet Virgil ^F16 represents the shade of a juniper tree as noxious; hence some interpreters take this to be a piece of carelessness and indifference of the prophet's, where he sat:

and he requested for himself that he might die ;
for though he fled from Jezebel to preserve his life, not choosing to die by her hands, which would cause her prophets to exult and triumph, yet was now desirous of dying by the hand of the Lord, and in a place where his death would not be known:

[it is] enough, now, O Lord, take away my life ;
intimating that he had lived long enough, even as long as he desired; and he had done as much work for God as he thought he had to do; he supposed his service and usefulness were at an end, and therefore desired his dismission:

for [I am not] better than my fathers
that he should not die, or live longer than they; but this desire was not like that of the Apostle Paul's, but like that of Job and of Jonah; not so much to be with God and Christ, as to be rid of the troubles of life.

FOOTNOTES:

• F15: Nat. Hist. l. 24. c. 8.
• F16: "Juniperi gravis umbra----" Bucol. Eclog. 10. ver. 76.

And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree
Being weary and fatigued with his journey, the same under which he sat; for there was but one, as that is said to be in the preceding verse:

behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, arise, and eat ;
so far was the Lord from granting his request to take away his life, that he made provision to preserve it; so careful was he of him, as to give an angel charge to get food ready for him, and then awake him to eat of it.