1 Kings 18:39

1Ki 18:39 And when all the people saw [it], they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he [is] the God; the LORD, he [is] the God.

Ver. 39. The Lord, he is the God.] This was to give God a testimonial; this was to "set to their seals that God was true." {Joh 3:33}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki_18:39

All the people . . . said, The Lord, He is the God.

Christianity acknowledged supreme

In the Introduction to his Analogy of Religion, Bishop Butler says: It has come to pass--I know not how--that Christianity is discovered to be victorious. Why, that was nearly two hundred years ago! I wonder how many books have been written against the Bible since then, and handed up, one after the other, to the cobwebs of the upper shelves in the library, while the old Book still lies before us, saying with a conscious sense of superiority to all the other books--

Books may come and books may go,

But I go on for ever.

A reformers temporary successes

There was a time, towards the close of the fifteenth century, when the devoted monk and martyr, Savonarola, seemed to have set up the kingdom of Christ in his beloved city of Florence. How he remodelled the Republican government; how he tamed the mischievous boys of the city; how at his bidding the people kindled in the great Piazza, during the Carnival of 1496, the strange Bonfire of Vanities; how the watchword of Florence became, Viva Gesu Cristo, nostro Re--Long live Jesus Christ, our King: there are few histories like it. It was an Italian theocracy. It was a day of heaven on the earth. So much joy was there in all hearts, one of the chroniclers tells us, that the glory of Paradise seemed to have descended to this lower world. The pity is that the Golden Age of Florence was so transient and brief-lived. (Sunday School Teacher.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki 18:39. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces — In acknowledgment and adoration of the true God; and all, as one man, cried out, Jehovah, he is the God — He alone; and Baal is a senseless idol. And they repeated the words to signify their abundant satisfaction, and assurance of the truth of their assertion. And some, we may hope, had their hearts so turned back as to be determined that he should be their God, and that they would serve him only, Jos 24:24. But it is certain the generality of them were convinced only, not converted; they yielded to the truth of God, that he is the God, but consented not to his covenant that he should be their God. Blessed are they, who have not seen what they saw, and yet have believed, and been influenced more than they that saw it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 39. Fell on their faces] Struck with awe and reverence at the sight of this incontestable miracle.

And they said] We should translate the words thus: JEHOVAH, He is the God! JEHOVAH, He is the God! Baal is not the God; Jehovah alone is the God of Israel.

As our term Lord is very equivocal, we should every where insert the original word יהוה, which we should write Yeve or Yeheveh, or Yahvah or Yehueh, or, according to the points, Yehovah.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(39) They fell on their faces.—Exactly as in Lev_9:24, at the inauguration of the sacrifices of the new Tabernacle by the fire from heaven, with the characteristic addition of the cry, “Jehovah; He, and He only, is God.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

39. And when all the people saw it, they fell] The LXX. simply says ‘And all the people fell.’ Josephus describes the reaction thus, ‘They fell upon the ground and worshipped the one God, calling Him most mighty and true, while the others were but names devised by wrong and senseless opinion.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Elijah said unto Ahab, get thee up,.... From the brook and valley where the execution of the prophets had been made; either up to his chariot, or to the tent or pavilion erected on the side of the mount, where the whole scene of things was transacted;

eat and drink; which he had no leisure for all the day, from the time of the morning sacrifice to the evening sacrifice, which was taken up in attending to the issue of the several sacrifices; but now he is bid to eat and refresh himself, and that in token of joy and gladness, as became him, both for the honour of the true God, which had been abundantly confirmed, and for the near approach of rain, of which he assures him:

for there is a sound of abundance of rain; the wind perhaps began to rise, and blow pretty briskly, which was a sign of it (f); besides, according to the Tyrian annals (g), there were loud claps of thunder at this time, at least when the heavens became very black, as in Kg1 18:45.

(f) "Fit fragor, hinc densi----nimbi", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. Fab. 8. v. 269. (g) Apud Joseph, Antiqu. l. 8. c. 13. sect. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Lord, he is the God - The people thus pronounced the matter to be clearly and certainly decided. Baal was overthrown; he was proved to be no god at all. The Lord Yahweh, He, and He alone, is God. Him would they henceforth acknowledge, and no other.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They fell on their faces, in way of acknowledgment and adoration of the true God.

He is the God; he alone; and Baal is a dull and senseless idol. And they double the words, to note their abundant satisfaction and assurance of the truth of their assertion.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

39. Fell on their faces — Overwhelmed with the convincing display of Divine power and glory.

The Lord, he is the God — Better, Jehovah, he is the God! The God; that is, the only God, for Baal had failed to prove himself a god at all.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces As Lev_9:24; 2Ch_7:3; cf. Num_22:31; Jos_5:14; :Rev_11:16. They recognized in the fire, that is to say, the token of the Divine Presence and they said, The Lord Jehovah. The connexion of this verse with the three verses preceding is obscured by our translation, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God. The echo of ver. 24. The Hebrew words are the same. Stanley remarks that it is as if (by a slight inversion) they turned "the name of the prophet himself into a war-cry, "Eli-Jah-hu.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They fell - In acknowledgment of the true God. He is God - He alone; and Baal is a senseless idol. And they double the words, to note their abundant satisfaction and assurance of the truth of their assertion.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Adonoy He is God. And the Baal is not God.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.