What does Elias hear after the wind, earthquake and fire at Horeb, and what does he do?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

He hears a whistling of gentle air. He covers his face with his mantle, comes out and stands at the cave’s entrance. A voice asks again what he is doing there; he repeats his answer, and the Lord directs him to return toward Damascus and names three men to anoint.

Chapter breakdown

Achab tells Jezabel all Elias has done and how he killed all the prophets with the sword. She sends Elias a messenger with an oath calling punishment from her gods on herself if, by that hour tomorrow, she does not make his life like one of theirs. Elias is afraid, rises and goes where he has a mind to go. He comes to Bersabee of Juda and leaves his servant there. He goes a day’s journey farther into the desert, sits under a juniper tree and asks to die. He tells the Lord it is enough, asks him to take his soul and says he is no better than his fathers.

Challoner’s separate note says Elias asks to die out of zeal against sin, rather than impatience or lack of courage, so he will no longer witness his people’s miseries and their war against God and his servants. It refers to verse 10.

Elias lies down and sleeps in the juniper’s shadow. An angel of the Lord touches him and tells him to rise and eat. He sees a hearth cake and a vessel of water at his head, eats and drinks, then sleeps again. The angel comes a second time, touches him and tells him to rise and eat because he still has a great way to go. Elias rises, eats and drinks, and walks in that food’s strength for forty days and forty nights to Horeb, God’s mountain.

Challoner’s separate note calls the bread that fed Elias in the wilderness a figure of the bread of life received in the blessed sacrament. It says its strength supports the journey through this world’s wilderness until the true mountain of God and his vision in a happy eternity.

At Horeb Elias stays in a cave. The Lord’s word asks what he is doing there. He answers that he has been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: Israel’s children have forsaken the covenant, thrown down the altars and killed the prophets with the sword. He says he alone is left and they seek to take his life.

Challoner’s separate note applies “I alone am left” to prophets in Israel’s kingdom, the ten tribes. It says religion in Juda was then flourishing under Asa and Josaphat and that several prophets remained even in Israel, though Elias did not then know them. It cites chapter 20, verses 13, 28 and 35.

Elias is told to go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. The Lord passes; a great strong wind before him overturns mountains and breaks rocks, but the Lord is not in the wind. An earthquake follows, but the Lord is not in the earthquake. Fire follows, but the Lord is not in the fire. After the fire comes a whistling of gentle air. Hearing it, Elias covers his face with his mantle, comes out and stands at the cave’s entrance. A voice again asks what he is doing there. He again answers with his zeal for the Lord God of hosts, Israel’s forsaking of the covenant, destruction of altars and killing of prophets with the sword, and his being left alone while they seek his life.

The Lord tells Elias to return on his way through the desert to Damascus. On arrival he is to anoint Hazael king over Syria. He is also to anoint Jehu, son of Namsi, king over Israel, and Eliseus, son of Saphat, of Abelmeula, as prophet in his place. Whoever escapes Hazael’s sword will be killed by Jehu, and whoever escapes Jehu’s sword will be killed by Eliseus.

Challoner’s separate note says Eliseus did not kill any idolaters with a material sword. He is joined with Hazael and Jehu as instruments of God’s punishment of Israel’s idolatry because he foretold Hazael’s rise to Syria’s kingship and the vengeance he would execute against Israel, and anointed Jehu through one of his disciples as Israel’s king, with a commission to destroy Achab’s house.

The Lord says he will leave himself seven thousand men in Israel whose knees have not bowed before Baal and whose mouths have not worshipped him by kissing the hands.

Elias leaves and finds Eliseus, son of Saphat, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen; he is one of those ploughing with the twelve yoke. Elias comes to him and casts his mantle on him. Eliseus immediately leaves the oxen, runs after Elias and asks to kiss his father and mother before following. Elias tells him to go and return, because he has done his part toward him. Eliseus returns, takes a yoke of oxen and kills them, boils the flesh with the oxen’s plough and gives it to the people to eat. He rises, goes after Elias and ministers to him.

The story inside

Jezabel’s threatened deadline follows Achab’s report. Elias’s fear and travel lead to the desert request to die, which Challoner explains separately as zeal against sin. Two angelic touches and commands to eat precede the forty-day-and-night journey to Horeb; another note gives the food a sacramental interpretation. In the cave Elias answers the Lord’s question with his account of Israel’s conduct and danger to himself. The note qualifies his claim to be alone. The wind, earthquake and fire are each distinguished from the Lord’s presence; after gentle air he covers his face, comes out and answers again. The Lord directs return and anointing, foretells a sequence of killing and says seven thousand will remain. Challoner separately explains Eliseus’s role. The chapter ends with the mantle, Eliseus’s request about his parents, food given to the people and his following and serving Elias.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The request to die and the note’s explanation must remain distinct. Elias says he is no better than his fathers and asks the Lord to take his soul. Challoner gives zeal against sin and the people’s miseries as reasons, expressly rejecting impatience and lack of courage. Replacing this with an invented diagnosis would change the admitted account.
2
The Horeb sequence names what happens and what Elias does. The Lord is not in the wind, earthquake or fire; gentle air follows. Elias covers his face and stands at the cave’s entrance, then hears the question again. The text gives no general rule that all knowledge of God occurs only in quiet surroundings.
3
The commission names different men, places and roles. Hazael is named for Syria, Jehu son of Namsi for Israel, and Eliseus son of Saphat of Abelmeula for succession as prophet. Challoner explains Eliseus’s later involvement without a material sword. The chapter’s actual closing actions are the mantle, family-farewell request, preparation of oxen for the people and service to Elias.

Test your recall

How do the angel’s two visits and commands to eat lead to Elias’s forty-day-and-night journey to Horeb?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 37310–37330
3 Kings Chapter 19 Elias, fleeing from Jezabel, is fed by an angel in the desert; and by the strength of that food walketh forty days, till he cometh to Horeb, where he hath a vision of God. 19:1. And Achab told Jezabel all that Elias had done, and how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. 19:2. And Jezabel sent a messenger to Elias, saying: Such and such things may the gods do to me, and add still more, if by this hour to morrow I make not thy life as the life of one of them. 19:3. Then Elias was afraid, and rising up, he went whithersoever he had a mind: and he came to Bersabee of Juda, and left his servant there, 19:4. And he went forward, one day’s journey into the desert. And when he was there, and sat under a juniper tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said: It is enough for me, Lord; take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers.
Lines 37332–37335
That he might die.... Elias requested to die, not out of impatience or pusillanimity, but out of zeal against sin; and that he might no longer be witness of the miseries of his people; and the war they were waging against God and his servants. See ver. 10.
Lines 37337–37348
19:5. And he cast himself down, and slept in the shadow of the juniper tree: and behold an angel of the Lord touched him, and said to him: Arise and eat. 19:6. He looked, and behold there was at his head a hearth cake, and a vessel of water: and he ate and drank, and he fell asleep again. 19:7. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said to him: Arise, eat: for thou hast yet a great way to go. 19:8. And he arose, and ate and drank, and walked in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, unto the mount of God, Horeb.
Lines 37350–37354
In the strength of that food, etc.... This bread, with which Elias was fed in the wilderness, was a figure of the bread of life which we receive in the blessed sacrament; by the strength of which we are to be supported in our journey through the wilderness of this world till we come to the true mountain of God, and his vision in a happy eternity.
Lines 37356–37363
19:9. And when he was come thither, he abode in a cave: and behold the word of the Lord came unto him, and he said to him: What dost thou here, Elias? 19:10. And he answered: With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have thrown down thy altars, they have slain thy prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
Lines 37365–37369
I alone am left.... Viz., of the prophets in the kingdom of Israel, or of the ten tribes; for in the kingdom of Juda religion was at that time in a very flourishing condition under the kings Asa and Josaphat. And even in Israel there remained several prophets, though not then known to Elias. See chap. 20.13, 28, 35.
Lines 37371–37387
19:11. And he said to him: Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord: and behold the Lord passeth, and a great and strong wind before the Lord, overthrowing the mountains, and breaking the rocks in pieces: but the Lord is not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake: but the Lord is not in the earthquake. 19:12. And after the earthquake, a fire: but the Lord is not in the fire. And after the fire, a whistling of a gentle air. 19:13. And when Elias heard it, he covered his face with his mantle, and coming forth, stood in the entering in of the cave, and behold a voice unto him, saying: What dost thou here, Elias? And he answered: 19:14. With zeal have I been zealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant: they have destroyed thy altars, they have slain thy prophets with the sword; and I alone am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
Lines 37389–37399
19:15. And the Lord said to him: Go, and return on thy way, through the desert, to Damascus: and when thou art come thither, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king over Syria; 19:16. And thou shalt anoint Jehu, the son of Namsi, to be king over Israel: and Eliseus, the son of Saphat, of Abelmeula, thou shalt anoint to be prophet in thy room. 19:17. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall escape the sword of Hazael, shall be slain by Jehu: and whosoever shall escape the sword of Jehu, shall be slain by Eliseus.
Lines 37401–37407
Shall be slain by Eliseus.... Eliseus did not kill any of the idolaters with the material sword: but he is here joined with Hazael and Jehu, the great instruments of God in punishing the idolatry of Israel, because he foretold to the former his exaltation to the kingdom of Syria, and the vengeance he would execute against Israel, and anointed the latter by one of his disciples to be king of Israel, with commission to extirpate the house of Achab.
Lines 37409–37411
19:18. And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed before Baal, and every mouth that hath not worshipped him, kissing the hands.
Lines 37413–37428
19:19. And Elias departing from thence, found Eliseus, the son of Saphat, ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen: and he was one of them that were ploughing with, twelve yoke of oxen: and when Elias came up to him, he cast his mantle upon him. 19:20. And he forthwith left the oxen, and ran after Elias, and said: Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said to him: Go, and return back: for that which was my part, I have done to thee. 19:21. And returning back from him, he took a yoke of oxen, and killed them, and boiled the flesh with the plough of the oxen, and gave to the people, and they ate: and rising up, he went away, and followed Elias, and ministered to him.