Commentaria in III Regum
Chapter 17
Elias brings drought and barrenness upon Israel. Whence at God’s command he hides himself by the torrent Carith, and is fed by ravens. Then, verse 10, in Sarephta, he multiplies the widow’s meal in the barrel and the oil in the cruse, and, verse 17, stretching himself upon her dead son, he calls him back to life.
1. And Elias the Thesbite, of the inhabitants of Galaad, said to Achab: As the Lord liveth, the God of Israel, in whose sight I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, but according to the words of my mouth. 2. And the word of the Lord came to him, saying: 3. Get thee hence, and go towards the east, and hide thyself by the torrent of Carith, which is over against the Jordan, 4. and there thou shalt drink of the torrent: and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. 5. So he went, and did according to the word of the Lord: and going, he dwelt by the torrent of Carith, which is over against the Jordan. 6. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the torrent. 7. And after some days the torrent was dried up: for it had not rained upon the earth. 8. And the word of the Lord came to him, saying: 9. Arise, and go to Sarephta of the Sidonians, and dwell there: for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed thee. 10. He arose, and went to Sarephta. And when he was come to the gate of the city, he saw the widow woman gathering sticks, and he called her, and said to her: Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11. And when she was going to fetch it, he called after her, saying: Bring me also, I beseech thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. 12. And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread, but only a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: behold I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. 13. And Elias said to her: Fear not, but go, and do as thou hast said: but first make for me of the same meal a little hearth cake, and bring it to me: and after make for thyself and thy son. 14. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: The pot of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth. 15. She went and did according to the word of Elias: and he ate, and she, and her house: and from that day, 16. the pot of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke in the hand of Elias. 17. And it came to pass afterwards, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and the sickness was very grievous, so that there was no breath left in him. 18. And she said to Elias: What have I to do with thee, thou man of God? art thou come to me that my iniquities should be remembered, and that thou shouldst kill my son? 19. And Elias said to her: Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him into the upper chamber where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. 20. And he cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord my God, hast thou afflicted even the widow, with whom I am maintained, so as to kill her son? 21. And he stretched, and measured himself upon the child three times, and cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord my God, let the soul of this child, I beseech thee, return into his body. 22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elias: and the soul of the child returned into him, and he revived. 23. And Elias took the child, and brought him down from the upper chamber to the house below, and delivered him to his mother, and said to her:
Behold thy son liveth. 24. And the woman said to Elias: Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and the word of the Lord in thy mouth is true.
1. AND ELIAS THE THESBITE, OF THE INHABITANTS OF GALAAD, SAID TO ACHAB.—You will ask first, why did God raise up Elias, and send him to Achab? I answer, to repress and quench the ardour of Achab, as of Jezabel, in propagating idolatry, and to preserve Israel in the true faith and religion of the one God; and therefore He armed him with a wonderful zeal and spirit of fortitude, that he alone might oppose all the tyrants, priests and idolaters.
So when Pharao oppressed the faithful Hebrews, God raised up Moses to oppose him and lead the people out of his servitude. So to Jeroboam setting up calves for gods He opposed the prophet Ahias, to Manasses Isaias, to Antiochus the Machabees. So to almost the whole Arian world He opposed one man, Athanasius, the pillar of the orthodox faith, to the Pelagians St. Augustine, to the Nestorians St. Cyril, to the Iconoclasts St. John Damascene, to the Albigensians St. Dominic, to the Lutherans and Calvinists St. Ignatius and the like. Elias was therefore (as St. Bernard writes to Pope Eugenius at the end of book 4 On Consideration) “a form of justice, a mirror of holiness, an example of piety, an asserter of truth, a defender of the faith, a teacher of Israel, a master of the foolish, a refuge of the oppressed, an advocate of the poor, a judge of widows, an eye of the blind, a tongue of the dumb, an avenger of crimes, a terror of the wicked, the glory of the good, a rod of the powerful, a hammer of tyrants, a father of kings, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a prophet of the Most High, a forerunner of Christ, an anointed of the Lord, a god to Achab, the terror of the Baalites, the thunderbolt of idolaters.”
You will ask second, what does Elias mean? I answer, Elias in Hebrew is called Eliahu, that is God of the Lord, or rather My God the Lord, says Pagninus. Or, as if to say, Eli hu, that is, he is mighty and Jehova; hu is he himself. For the office of Elias was to show Achab and Israel that not Baal, but the God of Israel is the true God, strong, and the omnipotent Lord of all. So St. Jerome, Angelomus and others. Whence the Hebrews judge that the name of Elias was taken from that acclamation of the people to Elias: “The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God,” chapter 18, verse 39, for before that he had been called Jaberscyth, as the same relate in the Great Genesis, chapter 27. Hence St. Jerome on Micheas, chapter 5: “Elias,” he says, “is the same as the Lord God.” Hear St. Isidore, book 7 of the Origins, chapter 8: “Elias is interpreted the Lord God. He is therefore so called from a presage of the future. For when he disputed in the priesthood with the four hundred priests of Baal, the name of the Lord being invoked, fire came down from heaven upon the holocaust. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said: The Lord he is God. For this reason, then, he first received such a name, because through him afterwards the people knew the Lord God; he is also interpreted the strong Lord, either because he slew those same priests, or because he endured the opposition of Achab.”
Again, “Elias” is the same as “the strong one of the Lord,” says St. Jerome, or “the God of the Lord,” says Pagninus, because as Moses was appointed by the Lord the god of Pharao, Exodus 7:1, so Elias was appointed by the same the god of Achab and Jezabel: for as Moses, inflicting ten plagues, heavenly and earthly, upon Pharao, compelled him to let the Hebrews go, so Elias moved all the elements by astonishing miracles, as though he were their god and lord, and with them struck down, nay slew, Achab and the Baalites.
Another, tropological reason is given by St. Ambrose, God Himself. For El is the name of God, as He is strong and powerful to overcome all things; ia is an abbreviation of the name Jah. St. Ambrose, book 1 On Cain, chapter 2, where he adorns Elias with these praises: “A conqueror of the passions,” he says, “and taken by no allurements, who had covered all that habitation according to the body with the purity of a heavenly manner of life, ruling his mind, subjecting the flesh and chastening it with a kind of royal authority, he was called by the name of God, to whose likeness he had perfectly formed himself by the abundance of virtue, and therefore we do not read of him, as of the others, that he died by failing.” For he is most like to God who is pure and holy from every vice. Hear St. Dionysius, last epistle: