But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
All Commentaries on 1 Kings 19:4 Go To 1 Kings 19
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Desert. It seems, towards Horeb. (Calmet)
Tree. Hebrew Rot hem, which term the Septuagint retain, "Rathmen. "Symmachus has, "a shade. "(Haydock)
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. (Challoner)
He does not wish to fall into the hands of Jezabel, lest the idolaters should triumph: but he is willing to die, if God so order it. (Calmet)
Mathathias entertained the like sentiments, 1 Machabees ii. 7.
Fathers: that I should live longer than they did. (Menochius) (Ecclesiasticus xxx. 17.)
If he had been weary of life, why did he flee? His answer to Achab shows that he was by no means timid. (Calmet)
