And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
Read Chapter 19
Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” After reaching Horeb, the mountain of God, Elijah spent the night in a cave, and on the next day, when he heard the noise of God coming to him, he went out to the entrance of the cave where he heard him saying, “What are you doing?” And he answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. That is why I have stopped the heavens, so that it might no longer rain on the sinners, or on the earth either so that it might not give them any food, even though this seems to be a mild punishment for those who deserve a harsh and cruel torture. Should I have been quiet and kept silent while I was seeing the apostasy of an impious people that despised your commandments, abandoned your covenant made on this mountain, and exchanged you for Baal, the idol of the Sidonians, and for the vain cults of the pagans? Or should I have endured the insanity of Jezebel, who persecuted and killed your prophets? But ...
Zeal; ordering the idolatrous prophets to be destroyed, (Menochius) which has enkindled the rage of Jezabel against me. I cannot bear to see the general corruption. (Calmet)
Covenant; neglecting circumcision, (Rabbins) and almost the whole law. (Haydock)
Altars. Some had been erected by the prophets, (Estius) as the king would suffer none to go to Jerusalem. (Haydock)
The idolaters threw them down, chap. xviii. 30. Such altars would have been unlawful in Juda. (Calmet)
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. xx. 13, 28, 35. (Challoner) (Worthington)
Hebrew repeats I, as ver. 14, and chap. xviii. 22. He might justly fear that those had been destroyed at last, whom Abdias had protected. At any rate, none durst appear in publi...
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.
