1 Kings 3:28

3:28 When all Israel heard about the judicial decision which the king had rendered, they respected 1  the king, for they realized 2  that he possessed supernatural wisdom 3  to make judicial decisions.

1 Kings 11:7

11:7 Furthermore, 4  on the hill east of Jerusalem 5  Solomon built a high place 6  for the detestable Moabite god Chemosh 7  and for the detestable Ammonite god Milcom. 8 

1 Kings 13:1

13:1 Just then 9  a prophet 10  from Judah, sent by the Lord, arrived in Bethel, 11  as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice.

1 Kings 13:5

13:5 The altar split open and the ashes 12  fell from the altar to the ground, 13  in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the Lord’s authority. 14 

1 Kings 15:4

15:4 Nevertheless for David’s sake the Lord his God maintained his dynasty 15  in Jerusalem by giving him a son 16  to succeed him 17  and by protecting Jerusalem. 18 

1 Kings 17:18

17:18 She asked Elijah, “Why, prophet, have you come 19  to me to confront me with 20  my sin and kill my son?”

1 Kings 17:24

17:24 The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a prophet and that the Lord really does speak through you.” 21 

1 tn Heb “feared,” perhaps in the sense, “stood in awe of.”

2 tn Heb “saw.”

3 tn Heb “the wisdom of God within him.”

4 tn Heb “then.”

5 sn The hill east of Jerusalem refers to the Mount of Olives.

map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

6 sn A high place. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated (see 1 Kgs 3:2).

7 tn Heb “Chemosh, the detestable thing of Moab.”

8 tc The MT reads “Molech,” but Milcom must be intended (see vv. 5, 33).

9 tn Heb “Look.” The Hebrew particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) is a rhetorical device by which the author invites the reader to visualize the scene for dramatic effect.

10 tn Heb “the man of God.”

11 tn Heb “came by the word of the Lord to Bethel.”

12 tn Heb “the fat.” Reference is made to burnt wood mixed with fat. See HALOT 234 s.v. דשׁן.

13 tn Heb “were poured out from the altar.”

14 tn Heb “according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.”

15 tn Heb “gave him a lamp.”

16 tc The Old Greek has the plural “his sons.”

17 tn Heb “by raising up his son after him.”

18 tn Heb “and by causing Jerusalem to stand firm.”

19 tn Heb “What to me and to you, man of God, that you have come.”

20 tn Heb “to make me remember.”

21 tn Heb “you are a man of God and the word of the Lord is truly in your mouth.”

sn This episode is especially significant in light of Ahab’s decision to promote Baal worship in Israel. In Canaanite mythology the drought that swept over the region (v. 1) would signal that Baal, a fertility god responsible for providing food for his subjects, had been defeated by the god of death and was imprisoned in the underworld. While Baal was overcome by death and unable to function like a king, Israel’s God demonstrated his sovereignty and superiority to death by providing food for a widow and restoring life to her son. And he did it all in Sidonian territory, Baal’s back yard, as it were. The episode demonstrates that Israel’s God, not Baal, is the true king who provides food and controls life and death. This polemic against Baalism reaches its climax in the next chapter, when the Lord proves that he, not Baal, controls the elements of the storm and determines when the rains will fall.