1 Kings 18:40

Contextual Overview

²¹ And Eliiah came vnto all the people, and said, How long halt ye betweene two opinions? If the Lord be God, followe him: but if Baal be he, then goe after him. And the people answered him not a worde. ²¹ Eliyah came near to all the people, and said, How long go you limping between the two sides? if the LORD is God, follow him; but if Ba`al, then follow him. The people answered him not a word. ²¹ Elijah came to all the people and said, "You must decide what you are going to do. How long will you keep jumping from one side to the other? If the Lord is the true God, follow him. But if Baal is the true God, then follow him!" The people said nothing. ²¹ And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word. ²¹Elijah approached all the people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people [of Israel] did not answer him [so much as] a word. ²¹ And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said, How long go ye limping between the two sides? if Jehovah be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. ²¹ And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go on balancing between two opinions? if the Lord is God, then give worship to him; but if Baal, give worship to him. And the people said not a word in answer. ²¹ Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How much longer will you try to have things both ways? If the Lord is God, worship him! But if Baal is God, worship him!" The people did not say a word. ²¹ Eliyahu stepped forward before all the people and said, "How long are you going to jump back and forth between two positions? If Adonai is God, follow him; but if it's Ba‘al, follow him!" The people answered him not a word. ²¹ And Elijah came near unto all the people, and said: 'How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.' And the people answered him not a word.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Take: or, Apprehend, 2 Kings 10:25

Kishon: Judges 5:21

slew them there: Deuteronomy 13:5, Deuteronomy 18:20, Jeremiah 48:10, Zechariah 13:2, Zechariah 13:3, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:10

Reciprocal: Numbers 25:5 - Slay ye Judges 4:7 - Kishon Judges 6:31 - let him be 1 Samuel 15:33 - hewed 2 Samuel 21:14 - God 1 Kings 18:45 - there was 1 Kings 19:1 - how he had slain 2 Kings 10:11 - his priests 2 Kings 10:18 - Ahab served Baal 2 Kings 11:18 - slew Mattan 2 Kings 23:4 - Baal 2 Kings 23:20 - he slew 2 Chronicles 6:27 - send rain 2 Chronicles 15:13 - whosoever 2 Chronicles 23:17 - slew Mattan Psalms 94:16 - rise up Psalms 106:30 - General Isaiah 44:11 - let them all Isaiah 46:7 - one shall cry Jeremiah 2:8 - prophets Jeremiah 23:13 - prophesied Jeremiah 48:13 - ashamed Ezekiel 9:5 - Go

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Elijah said unto them, take the prophets of Baal,.... The four hundred and fifty that were upon the spot; for the number of the people of Israel, now gathered together, were equal to it; nor was it in Ahab's power to hinder it, and he might himself be so far surprised and convicted as not in the least to object to it:

let not one of them escape: that there might be none of them left to seduce the people any more:

and they took them; laid hold on them, everyone of them:

and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon; which ran by the side, and at the bottom of Mount Carmel, into the sea;

:- :-.

and slew them there; intimating, that it was owing to the idolatry they led the people into that rain had been withheld, and the brooks were dried up, as this might be; or, as Ben Gersom thinks, that the land might not be defiled with their blood, but be carried down the river after it: these he slew not with his own hand, but by others he gave orders to do it; and this not as a private person, but as an extraordinary minister of God, to execute justice according to his law, Deuteronomy 13:1 by which law such false prophets were to die; and the rather he was raised up and spirited for this service, as the supreme magistrate was addicted to idolatry himself.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.