1 Kings 19:7

And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 19:7. Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee — Above thy strength; now especially, when thou art faint, weary, and fasting. God knows what he designs us for, though we do not; what services, what trials; and will take care for us, when we, for want of foresight, cannot for ourselves, that we be furnished for them with grace sufficient. He that appoints what the voyage shall be, will victual the ship accordingly.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:1-8 Jezebel sent Elijah a threatening message. Carnal hearts are hardened and enraged against God, by that which should convince and conquer them. Great faith is not always alike strong. He might be serviceable to Israel at this time, and had all reason to depend upon God's protection, while doing God's work; yet he flees. His was not the deliberate desire of grace, as Paul's, to depart and be with Christ. God thus left Elijah to himself, to show that when he was bold and strong, it was in the Lord, and the power of his might; but of himself he was no better than his fathers. God knows what he designs us for, though we do not, what services, what trials, and he will take care that we are furnished with grace sufficient.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Arise and eat ... - i. e., "Eat a second time, for otherwise the journey will be beyond thy powers." "The journey" was not simply a pilgrimage to Horeb, which was less than 200 miles distant, and might have been reached in six or seven days. It was to be a wandering in the wilderness, not unlike that of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt; only it was to last forty days instead of forty years.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Ki 19:4-18. He Is Comforted by an Angel.

4-18. went a day's journey into the wilderness—on the way from Beer-sheba to Horeb—a wide expanse of sand hills, covered with the retem (not juniper, but broom shrubs), whose tall and spreading branches, with their white leaves, afford a very cheering and refreshing shade. His gracious God did not lose sight of His fugitive servant, but watched over him, and, miraculously ministering to his wants, enabled him, in a better but not wholly right frame of mind, by virtue of that supernatural supply, to complete his contemplated journey. In the solitude of Sinai, God appeared to instruct him. "What doest thou here, Elijah?" was a searching question addressed to one who had been called to so arduous and urgent a mission as his. By an awful exhibition of divine power, he was made aware of the divine speaker who addressed him; his attention was arrested, his petulance was silenced, his heart was touched, and he was bid without delay return to the land of Israel, and prosecute the Lord's work there. To convince him that an idolatrous nation will not be unpunished, He commissions him to anoint three persons who were destined in Providence to avenge God's controversy with the people of Israel. Anointing is used synonymously with appointment (Jud 9:8), and is applied to all named, although Jehu alone had the consecrated oil poured over his head. They were all three destined to be eminent instruments in achieving the destruction of idolaters, though in different ways. But of the three commissions, Elijah personally executed only one; namely, the call of Elisha to be his assistant and successor [1Ki 19:19], and by him the other two were accomplished (2Ki 8:7-13; 9:1-10). Having thus satisfied the fiery zeal of the erring but sincere and pious prophet, the Lord proceeded to correct the erroneous impression under which Elijah had been laboring, of his being the sole adherent of the true religion in the land; for God, who seeth in secret, and knew all that were His, knew that there were seven thousand persons who had not done homage (literally, "kissed the hand") to Baal.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. Above thy strength, now especially when thou art faint, and weary, and fasting.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him,.... In order to awake him out of sleep:

and said unto him, arise, and eat, because the journey is too great for thee; which he had to go to Horeb, without eating more than he had; and there were no provisions to be had in a common way and manner in his road thither.

Geneva Study Bible

And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because {d} the journey is too great for thee.

(d) He declares that unless God had nourished him miraculously it would have been impossible for him to have gone on this journey.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. because the journey is too great for thee] No mention has yet been made of the distance or place to which Elijah meant to go. It seems therefore more natural to conclude that the flight into the wilderness had been undertaken by the prophet merely because he thought that he would there be less likely to be found. And he appears to have made no preparation for a journey, but to have started without any store of food. In consequence of direction or prompting given during his rest he went forward to Horeb. No place was so suitable for a divine communication as that which was hallowed by God’s appearance unto Moses. The Vulgate rendering seems to imply what has been here said, that the direction for the future journey was a divine communication ‘grandis enim tibi restat via.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him [i.e., to awaken him. It was the food was to strengthen him], and said, Arise and eat [Probably he had eaten but little the first time, for sorrow and weariness]; because the journey is too great for thee. [The LXX. ὅτι πολλὴ ἀπὸ σοῦ ἡ ὁδός and the Vulgate grandis enim tibi restat via, which Bahr follows, seem hardly so true to the Hebrew idiom as the A.V. rendering. Keil cites Vatablus, iter est majus quam pro viribus tuis. It is very improbable that (Rawlinson al.) the journey to Horeb was now suggested to him for the first time by the angel.] 1 Kings 19:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

But the angel wakened him a second time, and called upon him to eat with these words: "for the way is too far for thee" (רב ממּך הדּרך, iter est majus quam pro viribus tuis - Vat.).