Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 18:28

And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.

28. And they cried aloud ] Not recognizing the mockery of Elijah, but admitting that Baal might be overtaken by the necessities or occupations implied in the prophet’s words.

after their manner ] For devotees to wound and mutilate themselves in the worship of their divinities was common in other cults beside that of Baal and Ashrah.

with knives and lancets ] R.V. lances. The former of these nouns is commonly rendered ‘sword,’ though it is also used of other instruments for cutting, as of a razor (Eze 5:1), and an axe (Eze 26:9). The second is constantly employed for ‘spear’ in connexion with ‘shield’ of a fully-armed soldier. The Baal-dance was most likely performed by the chief devotees with weapons in their hands, and with these it was that in their frenzy they wounded themselves.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Elijahs scorn roused the Baal-priests to greater exertions. At length, when the frenzy had reached its height, knives were drawn, and the blood spirted forth from hundreds of self-inflicted wounds, while an ecstasy of enthusiasm seized many, and they poured forth incoherent phrases, or perhaps an unintelligible jargon, which was believed to come from divine inspiration, and constituted one of their modes of prophecy.

The practice of inflicting gashes on their limbs, in their religious exercises, was common among the Carians, the Syrians, and the Phrygians. We may regard it as a modification of the idea of human sacrifice. The gods were supposed to be pleased with the shedding of human blood.

Lancets – Lancets, in our modern sense of the word, can scarcely have been intended by our translators. The Hebrew word is elsewhere always translated spears, or lances; and this is probably its meaning here.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 28. They cried aloud] The poor fools acted as they were bidden.

And cut themselves after their manner] This was done according to the rites of that barbarous religion; if the blood of the bullock would not move him they thought their own blood might; and with it they smeared themselves and their sacrifice. This was not only the custom of the idolatrous Israelites, but of the Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Indians, and in short of all the heathen world.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

They cried aloud; as if Elijah had spoken the truth, and their god needed rousing.

Cut themselves; mingling their own blood with their sacrifices; as knowing by experience, that nothing was more acceptable to their Baal (which was indeed the devil) than human blood, and hoping hereby to move their god to pity and help them. And this indeed was the practice of divers heathens in the worship of their false gods, as is manifest both from Scripture, as Lev 19:28; Deu 14:1; 1Ki 18:28, and from the express testimonies of Plutarch, Lucian, Apuleius, and many others.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And they cried aloud,…. Trying to make him hear, if possible:

and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them; so the priests of Heathen deities used to slash themselves on their shoulders, arms, and thighs, in their devotions to them, as many writers observe z, fancying their gods were delighted with human blood; particularly the priests of Bellona a, and the worshippers of the Syrian goddess b, and of the Egyptian Isis c.

z Vid. Kipping. Antiqu. Roman. l. 1. c. 10. p. 202. a Tertul Apolog. c. 9. Lactant. Institut. l. 1. c. 21. b Apulei Metamorph. l. 8. c Herodot. Euterpe, c. 61. Manetho. Apotelesm. l. 1. ver. 243, 244. Seneca de vita beata, c. 27.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(28) Lancetsshould be lances. This self-mutilation, common in Oriental frenzy, was possibly a portion, or a survival, of human sacrifice, in the notion that self-torture and shedding of human blood must win Divine favoura delusion not confined to heathen religions, though excusable only in them.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

28. Cut themselves till the blood gushed out “The prophets of Baal took Elijah at his word. Like the dervishes, who eat glass, seize living snakes with their teeth, throw themselves prostrate for their mounted chief to ride over them like the Corybantian priests of Cybele like the fakirs of India they now, in their frenzied state, tossed to and fro the swords and lances which formed part of their fantastic worship, and gashed themselves and each other till they were smeared with blood, and mingled with their loud yells to the divinity those ravings which formed the dark side of ancient prophecy.” Stanley.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments