1 Kings 18:40

1Ki 18:40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

Ver. 40. And they took them.] The recent miracle had made them submissive.

To the brook Kishon.] Haply, to testify that because of their idolatry God’s hand was upon the brooks and rivers.

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_18:40

Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.

The true narrowness

Elijah was intolerant--narrow, as some would call it. Dr. Cadman says that some things must be narrow in order to do their work. You want a narrow edge on your razor. About the broadest thing in the world is the Desert of Sahara. No Christian should attempt a compromise between wrong and right.

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

1Ki 18:40. Elijah said, Take the prophets of Baal — He takes the opportunity of ordering the execution of these idolaters, while the people’s hearts wore warm with the fresh sense of this great miracle. And they took them — For the people, in that fit of zeal wherein they now were, readily obeyed Elijah’s command, and executed the sentence he pronounced. And Ahab could make no opposition, being himself also, it is likely, astonished at the stupendous miracle. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon — That their blood might be poured into that river, and thence conveyed into the sea, and might not defile the holy land. And slew them there — Or, ordered them to be slain by the people. As these idolatrous priests were manifestly under a sentence of death, passed upon such by the sovereign Lord of life and death, so Elijah had authority to execute it, being a prophet, and an extraordinary minister of God’s vengeance. The four hundred prophets of the groves, it seems, did not attend, and so escaped, which perhaps Ahab rejoiced in: but it proved, they were reserved to be the instruments of his destruction, by encouraging him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead.

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

He commanded them that as they were truly persuaded to confess the only God: so they would serve him with all their power, and destroy the idolaters his enemies.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 40. Let not one of them escape.] They had committed the highest crime against the state and the people by introducing idolatry, and bringing down God's judgments upon the land; therefore their lives were forfeited to that law which had ordered every idolater to be slain. It seems also that Ahab, who was present, consented to this act of impartial justice.

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

(40) Slew them.—This ruthless slaughter of Baal’s prophets, as a judgment on their idolatry and perversion of the people, belongs alike to the fierce righteousness of the character of Elijah, and to the spirit of the old Law. (See, for example, Deu_13:6-18; Deu_17:2-7.) The law was adapted (as in the terrible crucial example of the slaughter of the Canaanites) to the “hardness of men’s hearts.” In the imperfect moral and religious education of those times, it did not recognise the difference between moral and political offences punishable by human law, and the religious sin or apostasy which we have been taught to leave to the judgment of God alone; and it enjoined an unrelenting severity in the execution of righteous vengeance, which would be morally impossible to us, who have been taught to hate the sin, and yet spare, as far as possible, the sinner. The frequent quotation of such examples by Christians—of which Luk_9:54 is the first example—is a spiritual anachronism. In this particular case, however, it is also to be remembered that those slain were no doubt implicated in the persecution headed by Jezebel, and that the Baal-worship was a licentious and perhaps bloody system. Elijah, presiding over the slaughter which dyed the waters of the Kishon with blood, felt himself the avenger of the slaughtered prophets, as well as the instrument of the judgment of God.

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

40. Take the prophets of Baal] Elijah avails himself of the newlykindled enthusiasm to put an end, as far as he may, to the false worship. Josephus explains ‘they seized and slew the prophets, Elijah exhorting them so to do.’ Although the text may be taken to signify that Elijah put the priests to death with his own hand, we can hardly suppose this to have been so. He is only said to do himself what he caused others to do.

the brook Kishon] This is at the foot of Mount Carmel on the side towards the sea. It was the spot where Sisera was overthrown by Barak (Jdg_4:7) and the stream then was pictured as sweeping away the dead bodies of those who had been slain by the Israelite forces (Jdg_5:21).

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.

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink,.... Up to his chariot, as some think, or rather to some place higher than that in which he now was:

and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; higher still, where he both might be alone, and have the opportunity of observing the clouds gathering, and the rain coming:

and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees; expressive of his humility, and of his earnestness, and vehement desire, and continued importunity, that rain might fall; for this was a posture of prayer he put himself into, and continued in; and it is certain that it was through his prayer that rain came, Jam 5:18 and from hence came the fable of the Grecians concerning Aeacus praying for rain in a time of drought, when it came (h). So the Chinese writers (i) report that at the prayers of their emperor Tangus, after a seven years' drought, great rains fell.

(h) Pausan. Attica, sive, l. 1. prope finem. Isocrat. Evagoras, p. 373. (i) Martin. Sinic. Hist. l. 3. p. 60.

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

Elijah required the people to show their conviction by acts - acts which might expose them to the anger of king or queen, but which once committed would cause them to break with Baal and his worshippers forever.

Elijah is said to have slain the “prophets of Baal,” because the people killed them by his orders. Why they were brought down to the torrent-bed of Kishon to be killed, is difficult to explain. Perhaps the object of Elijah was to leave the bodies in a place where they would not be found, since the coming rain would, he knew, send a flood down the Kishon ravine, and bear off the corpses to the sea. Elijah’s act is to be justified by the express command of the Law, that idolatrous Israelites were to be put to death, and by the right of a prophet under the theocracy to step in and execute the Law when the king failed in his duty.

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

Cison, at the foot of Carmel. (Adrichomius) --- Achab durst not protect his prophets, being confounded by the evidence of the miracle, (Menochius) and the unanimity of the people’s cry. (Haydock) --- Killed them, by God’s inspiration, (Calmet) as impostors, who had deluded the people, and were worthy of death.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Elijah said unto them; he takes the opportunity, whilst the people’s hearts were warm with the fresh sense of this great miracle.

Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, that their blood might be poured into that river, and thence conveyed into the sea, and might not defile the holy land.

Slew them there.

Quest. How could Elijah do this, seeing he was but a private person?

Answ. First, he had no doubt the consent of all the heads of the people, who were there assembled; and of the king too, who durst not resist the universal torrent, and could not deny that they were impostors, and worthy of death; and probably was by the prophet assured of rain when this was done.

Answ. Secondly, As these idolatrous priests were manifestly under a sentence of death, passed upon such by the sovereign Lord of life and death, Deu 13; Deu 17; so Elijah had sufficient authority to execute it, as being a prophet, and an extraordinary minister of God’s vengeance against sinners, now especially when the magistrate so grossly neglected his duty therein.

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

40. Take the prophets of Baal — Take them prisoners; lay hold upon them as criminals worthy of immediate death. The order was addressed to the obedient multitude, now all enthusiasm to vindicate Jehovah’s honour.

Down to the brook Kishon — Which flows along the very base of Carmel. See note on 1Ki_18:35. “With regard to the place where the slaughter took place, there is general agreement. The path down the mountain, after passing the fountain,… continues with no great windings almost directly towards Tell Kussis, a commanding hill on the opposite side of the Kishon, but very near it. It is a spur from the hills which bound the plain of Esdraelon on the north, close by where the plain contracts into the narrow valley which connects it with the plain of Akka. Its name, signifying hill of the priests, is not improbably derived from the fact of the slaughter of the prophets of Baal, which must have taken place near it.” — PROF. MEAD, in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1873, p. 685.

Slew them there — Here we may see some retaliation for Jezebel’s slaughter of the prophets of Jehovah. See 1Ki_18:4. But we must not judge this act of Elijah on the principles of Christian ethics, but by the spirit and letter of the Mosaic economy. The law commanded that the devotees of idolatry should be punished with death. See Deu_13:1-15; Deu_17:2-4; Deu_18:20. And so great was the passion with which the people, at the order of Elijah, helped to execute the law in this case, that Ahab, who was present, had no power or apparent disposition to interfere. On the moral principle involved in this slaughter of the Baal prophets, see notes on 1Ki_2:24; 2Sa_12:31.

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

And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. Elijah"s promptitude is extremely striking. The people had hardly recovered from their terror and awe before he proceeds to judgment. The narrative has the air of truth, and was doubtless reduced to writing by an eye-witness. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down Heb. caused them to go down, i.e., had them brought down. He could but lead the way, as they numbered 450 to the brook Wady. "Like most of the so called "rivers of Palestine," the perennial stream forms but a small part of the Kishon" (Grove) Kishon "Tortuous," now called Nahr el Mukatta, the "river of slaughter." See Thomson, L. and B. 2. pp. 140, 141; Porter, pp. 383-4; Dict. Bib. 2.p.45. It flows directly underCarmel, and slew them there. Obviously, he merely superintended the slaughter. That he slew them all with his own hand is altogether out of the question. Nor is it clear that" sword in hand he stood over them" (Stanley). Josephus rightly explains: "they slew the prophets at Elijah"s instigation." It is almost certain, from their resorting to the Kishon for this purpose, that it was not quite dry at the time. Their blood would mingle with its waters, and the flood which the "great rain" would presently produce (cf. Jud_1:5:21) would carry their corpses down to the sea. It has often been supposed that the mound near the Kishon, known as Tell el Cassis, "the mound of the priests," derives its name from this slaughter of the prophets of Baal. But Conder (p. 90) remarks that "Kassis is the word applied to a Christian priest, and the word Kohen or Kamir would more naturally be expected if there was any real connexion with the idolatrous priests of Baal.

This action of the prophet Elijah in instituting this wholesale slaughter in the hour of his triumph has been repeatedly arraigned and denounced, but most unjustly. According to some, it was an act of gross fanaticism and cruelty; others have seen it in a wild and terrible vendetta for the murder of the Lord"s prophets. By some, indeed, it has been justified on the principles of the lex talionis; (Exo_21:24, etc.) on the ground, that is to say, that the men who had instigated Jezebel in her attempted extermination of the prophetic schools had merited extermination in their turn. But it is a fatal objection to their view, first, that we not only have no proof, but no reason for thinking, that it was at their instigation that the queen "cut off the prophets of the Lord;" and, secondly, that it is not clear that she succeeded in her sanguinary purpose, or that many lives were sacrificed to her fury. And Elljah"s action needs no such lame apologies. As the Lord"s prophet, as the vindicator and restorer of the law, there was no other course open to him. If the Mosaic law was then written, and this very incident is one of the proofs that it was then written; if, however it had fallen into contempt or desuetude, it was still binding upon Israel; and if Elijah was justified in executing its provisions, and was required to execute them, however repugnant they might be to his inclinations (Deu_27:26; Gal_3:10) then he could not have done otherwise than he did. For it was an essential part of that law, it was an obligation that was laid, not once or twice, but on three separate occasions, (Exo_22:20 Deu 13:17:2-7) on the Jewish people, it was a duty they were to perform, however distressing and harrowing it might be, (Deu_13:6-9) to provide that the worshipper of false gods, and especially the teacher of such worship, should be put to death. It was primarily, of course, the duty of the authorities, of the theocratic king and his subordinates, to execute these injunctions. But the king of that age was corrupt and powerless nay, was himself idolatrous. So great was the depravity of the time that the false prophet enjoyed the favour and protection of the court, and the true prophet was everywhere being hunted to death. The execution of this law, consequently, could not be expected from the king. It must be executed, if at all, in spite of him, and in disregard of his protests. It was only Elijah, therefore, could put it into force, and Elijah only in the hour of his triumph. And the jus zelotyparum, the right claimed by every faithful Jew to execute vengeance, after the example of Phinehas, (Num_25:11) upon any gross breach of the Divine law committed in his presence, was not his only warranty; he held a commission, higher than the king"s, as the prophet of the Most High. He had just proved that the Lord He was God. It was now for him to prove that God"s law was no dead letter. It was for him to cut off the men some of them renegades from the faith of Israel, some of them foreign emissaries introduced into the land who had corrupted his countrymen, and threatened the very existence of the true religion. It is necessary, therefore, for those who challenge his conduct in this respect, who call him sanguinary, vindictive, etc., to settle their account with the law which he obeyed, and, indeed, with Him who has approved this deed, and has forewarned us that He too will act in like manner. (Luk_19:27) For this terrible retribution is by no means an exceptional or isolated act, in contrast to the general spirit of that dispensation; on the contrary, it is in thorough accord with the system out of which it sprung. We gain nothing, therefore, by repudiating this one transaction. For clearly, in the first place, it was allowed and approved of God, who otherwise would hardly have answered the prayer which Elijah presently offered, and (2) other similar acts have distinctly received Divine commendation (Exo_32:25-28; Num_25:7-13; 2Ki_1:9 sqq.) It is true that the spirit of Elias was not the spirit of Christianity, (Luk_9:56) but it is forgotten how different was the dispensation of Elijah from that of the New Covenant. In that age idolaters must receive their just recompense of reward, because the judgment to come had not then been revealed; because justice must be measured out to men in this life. We do not avenge idolatry or irreligion now with fire and sword, not because the thing is any the less sinful, but because the duty has been taken out of our hands; because our religion instructs us to leave it to Him who has said, "Vengeance is Mine," etc. It is perhaps worth remarking here that there is nothing in this history half so dreadful as might be seen on a thousand battlefields and those not battlefields for truth and right on which, nevertheless, Elijah"s critics have learned to look with complacency. It may, however, be objected to this view that the punishment denounced by the law was stoning. (Deu_13:10 Deu_17:5) But surely it is easy to see why, in this particular, the law was not kept. It was simply that the exigency of the occasion did not permit of its being kept. It was because the 450 traitors to God and their country could not be stoned within the few hours that remained before the night closed in and the multitude dispersed, that a more speedy punishment, that of the sword, was adopted. And it would have been a sacrifice of the spirit of the law to the letter had some few false prophets been stoned and the rest thereby been afforded the opportunity to escape, and, under Jezebel"s protection, to renew their efforts against truth and morality and religion.

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

Elijah said - He takes the opportunity, whilst the peoples hearts were warm with the fresh sense of this great miracle. The brook Kishon - That their blood might be poured into that river, and thence conveyed into the sea, and might not defile the holy land. Slew them - As these idolatrous priests were manifestly under a sentence of death, passed upon such by the sovereign Lord of life and death, so Elijah had authority to execute it, being a prophet, and an extraordinary minister of God's vengeance. The four hundred prophets of the groves, it seems, did not attend, and so escaped, which perhaps Ahab rejoiced in. But it proved, they were reserved to be the instruments of his destruction, by encouraging him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead.

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