Глава 17

1. The appearance of the prophet Elijah before Ahab and the prediction of lack of rain. 2–7. The stay of the prophet Elijah at the stream of Horath and his miraculous feeding here. 8–24. Prophet Elijah in the house of the widow of Sarepta; the miraculous feeding of her family (13–16) and the resurrection of her son (17–24). 1 Kings 17:1. And Elijah [the prophet], the Tishbite, from the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab: As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand! in these years there will be neither dew nor rain, except at my word. The suddenness of the appearance of the prophet Elijah, noted in the words of I. Sirach: “Elijah the prophet arose like fire, and his word burned like a lamp. He brought hunger upon them” (Sir.48:1-2), and the fragmentary nature of his first speech to Ahab has long given rise to the assumption that the beginning of the story of the prophet Elijah, as well as the beginning of his accusatory speech to Ahab, were not preserved in the Bible. The Talmud even makes an attempt to fill the supposed gap 20 . However, there is no need for such an assumption, since it was the suddenness of the appearance that is characteristic of the prophet Elijah (Sir. 48: 1-2), and the sudden appearance of the prophet, hitherto hidden in obscurity, most suited the purpose of strikingly admonishing the unparalleled wickedness of Ahab. The name "Elijah", Hebrew. Eliyahu, Eliya (LXX: ´Ηλιού, ´Ηλίας, Vulg.: Elias) means: “my God is Jehovah” and itself indicates the calling or task of the prophet’s whole life: preaching and defending the pure religion of Jehovah against the cult of Baal (there is no need, however, to assume with some interpreters that the prophet himself accepted this name, expressing the idea of his religious service; one can rather think that the family in which the prophet was born sacredly revered Jehovah, certainly denied the cult of Baal and expressed their confession of faith in the name of the future prophet). The usual epithet of the prophet Elijah is “Tishbite” (1 Kings 17:1,21:17,28; 2 Kings 1:3,8,9:36) - from the native city of the prophet Thesbah. The position of the city in the Bible is not precisely defined, and interpreters indicate it in two ways. Some identify Thesbah, the homeland of the prophet Elijah, with Thisbah, Θίσβη, “located on the right side of Kidai Naphtali, in Galilee” (Tov. 1:2), from where the famous Tobit was taken into captivity (for example, K. Bahr in Lunge. Bibelwak. Th. 7: Die Bucher der Konige, 1868, s. 172 However, another opinion is more likely, according to which Thesvah is the homeland). prophet, lay in Gilead, near the Jordan, which is confirmed by the appendix (v. 1 according to Heb. Vol. ): “from the inhabitants (settlers of Toshave) of Gilead” (Vulg.: de habilatoribus Galaad). LXX, obviously, expressed the idea that the city of Thesvah itself was located in Gilead, when Heb. mittoshava (“from the inhabitants”) of the Gileads was conveyed: ´εκ Θεσβῶν ( Θεσσεβῶν ) τῆς Γαλαάδ . I. Flavius ​​(Jude. Ancient. VIII, 13, 2) directly says that the prophet Elijah “appeared from the Gilead city of Thesbon” (cf. Onomast. 517). Now they are bringing this Theswa closer to el-istib, an area located 13 kilometers north of Yabbok and known as Mar-Eljas. Suddenly appearing in Samara, the prophet Elijah, in a short but inexpressibly powerful speech, confesses before Ahab his faith in the one Jehovah, and declares himself to be His deliberate servant 21 and the executor of His commands, and in the name of this faith and this confession he swears (“as the Lord lives!”, Hail - Jehovah), cf. (Ruth.3:13; 1 Sam.14:39,45) announces to the wicked king and people who have trampled upon the covenant of Jehovah, the most severe disaster for the agricultural people of drought and the inevitable famine with it: this was the fulfillment of the threat of the law for Israel’s falling away from Jehovah (Lev.26:19-20; Deut.11:16-17,28:23-24; cf. 1 Kings 8:35), and at the same time it was the most obvious refutation of the cult of Baal introduced in Israel, in which the productive power of nature was primarily personified and deified: the drought and infertility of the country were actual evidence of the impotence of the idol. The prophet indicates the duration of the drought vaguely: “in these years” (no less than 3 years, however, as shown by the plural shanim, cf. (1 Kings 18:1); according to (Luke 4:25; James 5:17) - 3.5 years), making the duration of the punishment dependent on a new revelation through him in the future, i.e., in essence, on the time and degree of repentance of the king and people. “Elijah was a prophet, the most supreme of the prophets, burning with divine zeal, and he spoke this through the action of the Spirit of God. That’s why they fulfilled what was spoken” (question 51). The historian Menander in I. Flavius ​​(Jude Ancient VIII, 13, 2) mentions drought during the year under the Tyrian king Itobaal; this confirms the historicity of the 1 Kings account of the drought under Ahab. 1 Kings 17:2. And the word of the Lord came to him: 1 Kings 17:3. go away from here and turn to the east and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan; How Ahab accepted the prophet’s menacing word is not said; but the very command of God to the prophet to leave the king, retire to the east and hide at the stream of Horath suggests danger for the prophet from the king, who, as can be seen from what follows, together with his wife Jezebel, generally pursued the prophets of Jehovah (1 Kings 18:4,13) and especially carefully searched for the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 18:10). The stream Horath (Heb. Kerith; LXX: With ορραθ; Vulg.: Carith) by tradition was sometimes indicated on this (western) side of the Jordan and identified with the wadi el-Kalt (Onomast. 968). But the very expression of the Hebrew t. “al-pene ha-yarden” (glorified: “straight to the face of the Jordan”), according to biblical usage (cf. Gen. 18:1–2,23:19,25:18; 1 Kings 15:7; 3 Kings 11:7), can only designate the eastern side of the Jordan; moreover, on the eastern side of the Jordan, partly wooded, partly deserted, but always more distant from Samaria, the prophet Elijah was safer from the persecution of Ahab than on the west of the Jordan. Staying in desert solitude, in addition to safety, had the purpose of preparing the prophet for the hardships of public service awaiting him - as later for the New Testament Elijah - John the Baptist (Luke 1:80,3:2; Matt.11:14,17:12). Finally, the water of the Cherith stream, probably a tributary of the Jordan (from the east), fed the prophet for some time during a drought. 1 Kings 17:4. You will drink from this stream, and I commanded the ravens to feed you there. 1 Kings 17:5. And he went and did according to the word of the Lord; He went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan. 1 Kings 17:6. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the stream. If the stream gave the prophet a natural drink (in the LXX Glory: the word was added: ὕδωρ, “water”, vv. 4 and 6), then he received food miraculously: bread and meat were brought to the prophet in the morning and evening, by the command of God, by ravens. The abundance of miracles in the history of the prophets Elijah and Elisha testifies to the care of God's mercy for the pious in Israel and, together, speaks of the crude sensuality of the people, which could only be influenced by the extraordinary. Crows could have been chosen by fishery to feed the prophet, like birds of the desert (Is. 34:11). In a ritual sense, the raven in the Old Testament was considered an unclean bird (Lev.11:15; Deut.14:14); but by commanding his ravens, “The Lawgiver teaches us that through the weakness of only the Jews He decreed such ritual laws. For he himself commanded to transgress them (for example, he commanded to go around Jericho seven times on Saturday; so he commanded Elijah to eat food prepared by ravens). And sometimes He did not reproach those who violated such laws (Samson was not accused of eating honey from the jaws of a dead lion),” Blessed Theodoret, in question. 52. In art. 6 LXX slightly change the meaning of the text: instead of Heb. “they brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening”, LXX have: ἄρτους τό πρωί καί τω κρέα τὸ δείλης, bread in the morning and meat in the evening - in parallel (Ex. 16:8). The prophet stayed with Horath for about a year (Heb. yamim, days, often means a year's period: (Lev.25:29; Judg.17:10)), until the stream dried up due to drought. 1 Kings 17:8. And the word of the Lord came to him: 1 Kings 17:9. arise and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and remain there; I commanded a widow woman there to feed you. Now providence shows the prophet a new path, commanding him to go to Zarephath of Sidon, where a certain widow woman, by the command of Jehovah, had to nourish the prophet. Zarephath (cf. Obd.1:20), Heb. Tsarfat; LXX: Σαρεπτὰ; Vulg.: Sarephta; by I. Flavius ​​Σαρεφθά, is an old seaside Phoenician city between Tire and Sidon, 10 Roman miles (15 kilometers, about 14-plus versts) from the latter; now the village of Sarafand (Robinson, Palast III, 690. Cf. Onomastic. 831. I. Flav. Jude. Ancient. VIII, 13, 2). This command of God to the prophet to leave the land of Israel and seek refuge outside it, in a pagan city and in the family of a foreigner, according to the blessed Theodoret (question 53), shows that if God saw in the Jews a constant way of thinking and a strong faith, he would not have commanded them to avoid communication with foreigners, but, on the contrary, would have demanded that they live with them and preach piety to them (Exodus 34:16). The prophet, who could have done a good deed, was not only not forbidden, but even commanded to go to the foreigner. Although the immediate purpose of removing the prophet abroad could have been greater safety from the hand of the king of Israel, at the same time, the choice of the house of the Sarepta widow for the prophet’s stay shows, and the word of Christ the Savior undoubtedly assures us (Luke 4:25-26), that in Israel in those days there was not such a believing, pious and generally worthy family as the person and family of the widow of Sarepta. 1 Kings 17:10. And he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, there was a widow woman gathering wood. And he called her and said: Give me a little water in a vessel to drink. 1 Kings 17:11. And she went to take it; and he shouted after her and said: Take a piece of bread for me in your hands. 1 Kings 17:12. She said: As the Lord your God lives! I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour in a tub and a little oil in a jug; and behold, I will gather two logs of wood, and will go and prepare it for myself and for my son; Let's eat this and die. 1 Kings 17:13. And Elijah said to her: Do not be afraid, go, do what you said; but first make a small unleavened cake from this for me and bring it to me; and you will do it for yourself and for your son later; 1 Kings 17:14. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: The jar of flour will not be exhausted, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day when the Lord gives rain on the land. 1 Kings 17:15. And she went and did as Elijah said; and she, and he, and her house fed for some time. 1 Kings 17:16. The jar of flour did not run out, and the jar of oil did not fail, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke through Elijah. The widow's amazing meekness, submission to her fate, remarkable faith in God's providence and unparalleled obedience to the word of the prophet - all these features of the Sarepta widow represent in her the image of a righteous woman outside the law with heartfelt faith in Jehovah, and in this sense she was a prototype of the church of the pagans, previously barren, and then prosperous like a krin. Blessed Theodoret says: “I marvel at the meekness in the wife’s answer; She was not indignant that in such disasters they asked her for food, but imagined only extreme poverty. This great and righteous man, although he promised her endless sources of flour and oil, nevertheless commanded that she prepare and bring bread to him first. And the wife was not upset again when she was exhausted by worries and poverty and widowhood, but, having heeded the promise with faith, she brought food. She even did this without knowing the person; because he was a foreigner, without having experienced his prophetic power. I think that it prefigured the Church of the pagans; because this wife accepted him persecuted by the Israelis with faith, just as the church accepted the expelled apostles by the same Israelis” (question 53). Text, LXX and glory. in Art. 12 suggests that the widow had several sons: τοίς τέκνοις μον - “her children” (Heb. singular: showers; Russian synod.: “for my son”); likewise in Art. 15: τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς – “her children” (Heb. betag, “her house”). But in both cases, preference must be given to the Hebrew text: throughout the entire story one can see that the widow had only one son, and that in Art. 15 speaks of the widow's house, not of her sons. 1 Kings 17:17. After this, the son of this woman, the mistress of the house, fell ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 1 Kings 17:18. And she said to Elijah, What do you and I have, O man of God? You came to me to remind me of my sins and to kill my son. 1 Kings 17:19. And he said to her: Give me your son. And he took him from her arms, and carried him into the upper room where he lived, and laid him on his bed, 1 Kings 17:20. and he cried to the Lord and said: Lord my God! Will You really do evil to the widow with whom I am staying by killing her son? 1 Kings 17:21. And prostrating himself over the youth three times, he cried out to the Lord and said: Lord my God! may the soul of this youth return to him! 1 Kings 17:22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of this lad returned to him, and he came to life. 1 Kings 17:23. And Elijah took the lad, and brought him out of the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother, and Elijah said, Look, your son is alive. 1 Kings 17:24. And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true.” I. Flavius ​​(Jude. Ancient VIII, 13, 3) suggests that the son of the widow of Sarepta did not die, but only “had the appearance of a corpse” (a type of fainting); Some commentators thought the same (eg Bahr, op. cit: s. 174), but the biblical text definitely says (v. 22, cf. 18) that there was a case of real death and real resurrection from the dead. The widow’s view is remarkable (v. 18), that thanks to the prophet (and his holiness) her sins were revealed in full force and caused God’s punishment. “She did not say, although she was a foreigner: you served as a bad omen for me, your coming was the cause of troubles for me, on the contrary, she attributed what happened to her more to her own sins” (Blessed Theodoret, issue 54). The very manner of the prophet’s action during the resurrection of the deceased (vv. 19–21) closely resembles the subsequent resurrection by the prophet Elisha of the son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:34–35): the symbolism in both cases is all the more understandable if Christ the Savior in his miracles did not shy away from it (Mk.7:33,8:23; John 9:6–7). “The Prophet prayed to the Lord for the deceased youth, and after prayer, blowing on the youth three times, he brought him back to life. The triple number indicates the venerable Trinity, and the breath indicates the initial creation of the soul” (Blessed Theodoret). The miracle served to finally confirm the widow’s faith in Jehovah and His prophet (vv. 22–24). Here (Sanhedr. 113a) it is said that the prophet Elijah and Ahab visited Achiel together (see 1 Kings 16:34) in order to console them for the loss of their sons; at the same time, the prophet pointed out to him the fulfillment of the words of Joshua (Joshua 6:25). To this, Ahab objected that the word of Joshua, Moses’ disciple, had come true, but the terrible word of Moses himself about sending drought and famine for idolatry (Deut. 11:16–17) has not yet been fulfilled, although the people serve idols. To this the prophet Elijah said: As the Lord lives, etc. (1 Kings 17:1) According to later Jewish tradition, the prophet Elijah was a descendant of a number of priests; the city of Fesva itself was supposedly priestly You might be interested in: