Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 18:37
Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou [art] the LORD God, and [that] thou hast turned their heart back again.
37. that thou art the Lord God ] R.V. that thou Lord art God. This is what Elijah desired, that it should be shewn that to apply the name ‘Elohim’ to Baal, and idols like him, was a folly and a delusion. The heathen, and those who went after them, used this name for the objects of their worship, and Elijah in his mockery had employed their phrase (1Ki 18:27) and said of Baal ‘He is Elohim.’ In the present verse, as in 1Ki 18:39 below, the noun has the article before it, which is shewn by the rendering of the A.V. in 1Ki 18:39 ‘he is the God.’ But such an insertion is needless. If we assert that Jehovah is God, it is implied that there is none else. The R.V. therefore omits the article twice over in 1Ki 18:39, reading he is God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
That thou hast turned their heart – The hearts of the people were turning. Elijah speaks of them as already turned, anticipating the coming change, and helping it on.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
That thou hast turned their heart; that they may feel so powerful and sudden a change in their hearts, that they may know it is thy work, and the effect of thy grace to them, and in them. Or, when thou hast turned, &c., or, because thou, &c. So the particle vau is oft used; and the sense is, That they may know thee to be the true God, by the effects of thy Divine power, in converting their hearts, and that in so miraculous a way, and in answer to my prayers.
Back again unto thee, from whom they have revolted.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Hear me, O Lord, hear me;…. Which repetition is made to express his importunity, and the vehement earnest desire of his soul to be heard in such a case, which so much concerned the glory of God; the Targum is,
“receive my prayer, O Lord, concerning the fire, receive my prayer concerning the rain;”
as if the one respected the sending down the fire on the sacrifice, and the other sending rain on the earth; and which sense is followed by other Jewish writers:
that this people may know that thou art the Lord God; and not Baal, or any other idol:
and that thou hast turned their heart back again; from idolatry, to the worship of the true God; though some understand this of God’s giving them up to a spirit of error, and suffering them to fall into idolatry, and hardening their hearts, as he did Pharaoh’s; but the former sense is best.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
37. Thou hast turned their heart back again Back again from idols to thyself. The prophet thus anticipates the results of this contest, and thinks of the people as already reclaimed from their idolatrous practices.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“ Hear me, O YHWH, hear me, that this people may know that you, YHWH, are God, and that you have turned their heart back again.”
Then he prayed that through what was about to happen as a result of his prayer, the people might know indeed that YHWH alone was God, and would know that by this means He it was His intention to turn their hearts back to Him again.
1Ki 18:38
‘ Then the fire of YHWH fell, and consumed the burnt-offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.’
Then at his prayer, ‘the fire of YHWH fell’, and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and ‘licked up the water that was in the trench’. One good lightning strike of supernatural force would be quite sufficient to bring this about, but what was mostly miraculous about it was the timing and the direction. And the significance of it was that YHWH had accepted the offering, including the water offering, and had rededicated His people to Himself (by consuming the stones which represented them, and the burnt offering which also represented them). Lightning as the precursor of rain was common around Palestine, although not such lightning as this.
1Ki 18:39
‘ And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, “YHWH, he is God, YHWH, he is God.” ’
As we might have expected, when the people who had been waiting disappointedly all day for Baal to act, saw this amazing event, they were astounded and ‘fell on their faces’ (compare Lev 9:24). They knew now that they were on holy ground. And now they could be in no doubt of the truth and cried out, ‘YHWH, He is God, YHWH, He is God. They would never see things in quite the same way again. YHWH had been vindicated before their very eyes.
1Ki 18:40
‘ And Elijah said to them, “Take the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape.” And they took them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.’
Then Elijah commanded the ecstatic people to seize the prophets of Baal who had proved themselves to be false prophets, and let not one escape. And the crowd seized them and marched them down to the brook Kishon at the foot of Carmel where Elijah had them put to death. They had proved themselves to be false prophets, and the Law required that such be put to death. We are not told what happened to the prophets of Asherah. They would not have been directly involved, and may have prudently slipped away when they saw the failure of their counterparts.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ki 18:37. Hear me, O Lord, hear me Elijah, according to Abarbanel, was more urgent and fervent in his prayer, because he had undertaken to make the experiment of God’s power of his own accord, and without any particular command from him; nothing doubting but that he would appear, to vindicate his own honour, even though the prophet offered sacrifices on a high place, which was not agreeable to the law.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ki 18:37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou [art] the LORD God, and [that] thou hast turned their heart back again.
Ver. 37. Hear me, O Lord, hear me. ] God is distinguished from all false gods by his hearing of prayers. This the prophet well knew, and therefore crieth, “Hear me, Lord, hear me”: the people also acknowledge it, 1Ki 18:39 where seeing God’s answer by fire to the prophet’s prayer, they cry out, as fully convinced, “The Lord,” and not Baal, “he is God; the Lord, he is God.”
And that thou hast turned.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Hear me: 1Ki 18:24, 1Ki 18:29, 1Ki 18:36, Gen 32:24, Gen 32:26, Gen 32:28, 2Ch 14:11, 2Ch 32:19, 2Ch 32:20, Isa 37:17-20, Dan 9:17-19, Luk 11:8, Jam 5:16, Jam 5:17
thou hast turned: Jer 31:18, Jer 31:19, Eze 36:25-27, Mal 4:5, Mal 4:6, Luk 1:16, Luk 1:17
Reciprocal: Deu 4:35 – know Jos 3:10 – Hereby ye 1Sa 17:46 – all the earth 1Ki 17:20 – he cried 1Ki 20:13 – and thou shalt 1Ki 22:28 – Hearken 2Ki 5:8 – let him come 2Ki 19:19 – O Lord Psa 50:1 – even Psa 59:13 – and let Psa 65:2 – thou Psa 80:3 – Turn us Psa 83:18 – That men Psa 108:6 – and answer me Psa 109:27 – General Isa 37:20 – that all Lam 5:21 – Turn
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
18:37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou [art] the LORD God, and [that] thou hast turned their heart back {n} again.
(n) Though God permits his to run in blindness and error for a time, yet eventually he calls them home to him by some notorious sign and work.