Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Elijah presents himself to King Ahab, and asserts that not he, but Ahab himself with his idols has troubled Israel. Then, in verse 21, he contends by the miracle of calling down fire from heaven upon the victim with the prophets of Baal, and conquering them, orders all to be slain. Finally, in verse 41, he restores rain and thereby fertility to Israel, which had been condemned by him to drought.
Vulgate Text: 3 Kings 18:1-46
1. After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying: Go, and show yourself to Ahab, that I may give rain upon the face of the earth. 2. So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab; now there was a severe famine in Samaria. 3. And Ahab called Obadiah the steward of his house. Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. 4. For when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord, he took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in caves, and fed them with bread and water. 5. So Ahab said to Obadiah: Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys; perhaps we can find grass and save the horses and mules, so that the beasts of burden do not entirely perish. 6. So they divided the regions between them to go through them: Ahab went one way, and Obadiah went another way by himself. 7. And while Obadiah was on his way, Elijah met him; and when he recognized him, he fell upon his face and said: Is it you, my lord Elijah? 8. He answered him: It is I. Go, and tell your master: Elijah is here. 9. And he said: What have I sinned, that you hand over your servant to Ahab to kill me? 10. As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent to seek you; and when all replied: He is not here, he put the kingdoms and nations under oath, because you could not be found. 11. And now you say to me: Go, and tell your master: Elijah is here. 12. And when I leave you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you to a place I do not know; and I will go and tell Ahab, and when he does not find you, he will kill me; yet your servant has feared the Lord from his youth. 13. Has it not been told to you, my lord, what I did when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the prophets of the Lord, by fifties in caves, and fed them with bread and water? 14. And now you say: Go, and tell your master: Elijah is here, so that he may kill me? 15. And Elijah said: As the Lord of hosts lives, before whose face I stand, today I will appear to him. 16. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him; and Ahab came to meet Elijah. 17. And when he saw him, he said: Are you the one who troubles Israel? 18. And he said: I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house, who have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19. Nevertheless now send and gather to me all Israel on Mount Carmel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the groves, who eat at Jezebel's table. 20. Ahab sent to all the children of Israel and gathered the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21. And Elijah, coming near to all the people, said: How long do you limp on two sides? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. And the people did not answer him a word. 22. And Elijah said again to the people: I alone remain as a prophet of the Lord; but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men. 23. Let two oxen be given to us, and let them choose one ox for themselves, and cutting it in pieces, place it on the wood, but let them not put fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox, and lay it on the wood, but I will not put fire under it. 24. Call upon the names of your gods, and I will call upon the name of my Lord; and the God who answers by fire, let him be God. All the people answered and said: An excellent proposal. 25. So Elijah said to the prophets of Baal: Choose one ox for yourselves and prepare it first, because you are more numerous; and call upon the names of your gods, and do not put fire under it. 26. And when they had taken the ox which he gave them, they prepared it; and they called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying: Baal, hear us. And there was no voice, nor anyone who answered; and they leaped over the altar which they had made. 27. And when it was now noon, Elijah mocked them, saying: Cry with a louder voice, for he is a god; perhaps he is talking, or at an inn, or on a journey, or certainly he is sleeping and must be awakened. 28. So they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves according to their custom with knives and lances until they were covered with blood. 29. And after noon had passed, and while they were prophesying, the time had come when the sacrifice is usually offered, and no voice was heard, nor did anyone answer, nor did anyone pay attention to those praying; 30. Elijah said to all the people: Come to me. And when the people drew near to him, he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been destroyed. 31. And he took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying: Israel shall be your name. 32. And he built an altar of the stones in the name of the Lord; and he made a trench, as it were of the space of two furrows, around the altar, 33. and arranged the wood; and cut the ox in pieces, and placed it on the wood. 34. And he said: Fill four jars with water and pour it upon the burnt offering and upon the wood. And again he said: Do the same a second time. And when they had done it a second time, he said: Do the same thing a third time. And they did it a third time. 35. And the water ran around the altar, and the trench was filled. 36. And when the time had come for the burnt offering to be offered, Elijah the prophet drew near and said: O Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, show this day that You are the God of Israel, and I Your servant, and that according to Your command I have done all these things. 37. Hear me, O Lord, hear me; that this people may learn that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back again. 38. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and devoured the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and said: The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God. 40. And Elijah said to them: Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And when they had seized them, Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. 41. And Elijah said to Ahab: Go up, eat, and drink; for there is the sound of an abundance of rain. 42. So Ahab went up to eat and drink; but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and bowing down to the earth, he placed his face between his knees, 43. and said to his servant: Go up, and look toward the sea. And when he had gone up and looked, he said: There is nothing. And again he said to him: Return seven times. 44. And the seventh time, behold, a little cloud like a man's footprint was rising from the sea. And he said: Go up, and say to Ahab: Harness your chariot and go down, lest the rain overtake you. 45. And while he turned this way and that, behold, the heavens grew dark with clouds, and wind, and there was a great rain. So Ahab went up and departed to Jezreel; 46. and the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, and girding his loins he ran before Ahab until he came to Jezreel.
Verse 1: In the Third Year
1. IN THE THIRD YEAR — of the drought and famine brought upon Israel by Elijah.
Verse 3: Obadiah Feared the Lord Greatly
3. NOW OBADIAH FEARED THE LORD GREATLY. — The Hebrews, Lyranus, and Rupert think that this "Obadiah" is Obadiah the prophet, who is the fourth in order among the minor prophets. Lyranus adds that Obadiah, on account of this beneficence toward the prophets, received from God as a reward the gift of prophecy. St. Epiphanius, however, in his book On the Prophets, considers this Obadiah to have been that captain of fifty who in book IV, chapter 1, as a suppliant to Elisha escaped death. But I showed in my preface to Obadiah that this Obadiah is different from both.
Verse 4: He Took a Hundred Prophets and Hid Them
4. HE TOOK A HUNDRED PROPHETS AND HID THEM. — Abulensis thinks these prophets were prophets properly so called. More clearly Lyranus and Cajetan judge that they were religious men who, having renounced earthly cares and living apart together, devoted themselves to divine praises, as do the Cenobites now. Similarly we read, I Kings chapter XIX, verse 20, that the choir of prophets praised God not only with vocal song, but also with musical instruments together with Samuel and Saul. Thus Heman and Jeduthun, the singers, are said to have "prophesied," that is, to have sung psalms on harps and psalteries, I Paralipomenon chapter XXV.
Verse 18: I Have Not Troubled Israel, but You
18. I HAVE NOT TROUBLED ISRAEL, BUT YOU AND YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE, WHO HAVE ABANDONED THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD AND FOLLOWED THE BAALS — that is, idols and the gods of the nations. See here the freedom of Elijah with which he cast in the face of King Ahab the blame and the cause of the drought and famine brought by him. Lucifer of Cagliari, St. Athanasius, and St. Jerome did the same in epistles and books written to the Emperor Constantius, an Arian.
Verse 19: Gather All Israel to Me on Mount Carmel
19. GATHER ALL ISRAEL TO ME ON MOUNT CARMEL, AND THE FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY PROPHETS OF BAAL, AND THE FOUR HUNDRED PROPHETS OF THE GROVES. — Elijah asked this so that he might kill them all; and having killed them, might equally cut off the idols of Baal and of the "groves," that is, of the other gods who were worshipped in woods and groves. There were therefore in total 850 false prophets or false teachers of heresy and idolatry; all of whom Elijah killed, partly by himself, partly through the people. For although only the Baalites are sometimes named as the principal ones, it is clear from chapter XIX, verse 1, that the rest also were slain.
Verse 23: I Will Prepare the Other Ox
23. AND I WILL PREPARE THE OTHER OX — "faciam" (I will make), that is, I will sacrifice. For the highest and most noble work that man does is sacrifice. So Virgil:
When I shall offer (that is, sacrifice) a calf for the crops, come yourself.
Verse 24: The God Who Answers by Fire, Let Him Be God
24. THE GOD WHO ANSWERS BY FIRE, LET HIM BE GOD — that is, who will send down fire from heaven upon the victim offered to Him. For by this very thing He will show Himself to be the Lord of fire and also of heaven, and that the sacrifice is His, that is, true and divine. For God was accustomed to appear in fire, and to consume by fire sent from heaven the sacrifices offered to Him, as He did in the sacrifice of Abel, Genesis IV, 4; of Aaron, Leviticus IX, 24; of Solomon, II Paralipomenon VII, 1; of David, I Paralipomenon XXI, 20; of Gideon, Judges VI, 21; of Manoah, Judges XIII, 20, and of others. For fire represents the majesty of God. Hence Deuteronomy IV, 24, Moses says to the Hebrews: "The Lord your God is a consuming fire." For fire is a symbol of chastity and purity, as well as of divine efficacy, as I showed through 17 analogies in Leviticus IX, 23. Hence also the Holy Spirit descended in the form of fire upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, Acts II. See what was said there.
And the people knew these things, and had heard them both from the Scriptures and from the Levites; hence they immediately acclaimed and said: "An excellent proposal." For this dispute about the true God was to be decided by a miracle, as God here suggested to Elijah, because Ahab, Jezebel, and the Baalites were obstinate in the worship of Baal, and would not admit any arguments to the contrary.
Verse 26: They Took the Ox and Prepared It
26. AND WHEN THEY HAD TAKEN THE OX WHICH HE GAVE THEM, THEY PREPARED IT — that is, they sacrificed to Baal. The Rabbis relate, or rather according to their custom they fable (as Lyranus and Abulensis testify), that this ox fled from the Baalites to Elijah, as if it disdained to be sacrificed to Baal, and wished to be sacrificed by Elijah to the true God, so that by this prodigy the people might realize that Baal was not God, and return to the true God whom Elijah worshipped.
THEY LEAPED OVER THE ALTAR WHICH THEY HAD MADE. — So also the Septuagint; but the Hebrew and Chaldean have, which he had made, namely Elijah, says Serarius and Sanchez, who judge that the Baalites here insulted the altar of Elijah, and by leaping destroyed it, and therefore shortly after, in verse 30, Elijah restored it. The Chaldean supports this, who translates: They raved upon the altar which he had made, namely Elijah. But verse 30 rather signifies the contrary, namely that Elijah had not yet erected his own altar. Therefore Vatablus explains the Hebrew "which he had made" by supplying "one of them," namely of the Baalites, or their leader, King Ahab. Therefore the Baalites leaped about disordered like madmen, as the Chaldean translates, when they saw that Baal, invoked by them, did not respond; partly from shame and anxiety, lest they be harshly punished by Elijah, as indeed soon happened to them; partly to placate Baal by this anxious leaping of theirs, and to move and as it were compel him to respond: for by this gesture they signified their zeal and devotion toward Baal and his altar, as those who desired to become victims themselves and to sacrifice themselves to Baal on the altar, and therefore cutting themselves with lances, they stained the altar with their own blood, as follows. The Corybantes, Luperci, and Salii among the Romans performed similar leaps and disordered gestures in the manner of revelers. So Salianus, Vatablus, and others.
Verse 27: Perhaps He Is Talking
27. AND PERHAPS HE IS TALKING — conversing with someone, so that he cannot attend to your prayers. OR HE IS AT AN INN — eating, drinking, and feasting. For the Gentiles thought that the gods, like men, ate and drank, and fed on nectar and ambrosia. Hence Homer, Iliad II, depicts Jupiter feasting with other gods among the Egyptians and Ethiopians.
Verse 28: They Cut Themselves with Knives and Lances
28. THEY CUT THEMSELVES ACCORDING TO THEIR CUSTOM WITH KNIVES AND LANCES — to offer themselves and their blood to Baal, and thus bend him to respond. The Syrians, Greeks, and Romans did the same, as Apuleius testifies in book VIII, Lucian in On the Syrian Goddess, and Plutarch in his book On Superstition. Hear Lactantius, book I On False Religion, chapter XXI: "Other sacrifices of courage, which they call by the same name Bellona, in which the priests themselves sacrifice not with another's blood, but their own. For with shoulders slashed, and brandishing drawn swords with both hands, they run about, are carried away, and go mad." Of this Tibullus speaks, where he depicts a woman sacrificing:
She herself violently hews her own arms with a double axe, And senselessly spatters the Goddess with outpoured blood. She stands with her side pierced by a spit, stands with wounded breast, And sings the events which the great Goddess brings about.
Truly the demon, God's rival and envious of man, delights in divine honors, and therefore wishes human blood to be offered to him as to God; and so at the same time he torments, wounds, and often kills the men whom he hates.
Verse 29: No Voice Nor Answer
29. AND WHILE THEY (the Baalites) WERE PROPHESYING — that is, praising and invoking Baal; in the Chaldean, raving.
Verse 30: He Repaired the Altar of the Lord
30. HE REPAIRED (Elijah) THE ALTAR (of the Lord) WHICH HAD BEEN DESTROYED. Abulensis, Question XXVII, thinks this altar was originally erected by Saul, I Kings XV, 12, but Saul there erected a triumphal arch, not an altar. I say therefore that Elijah, in order to draw the people away from the altar and worship of Baal, had already before, at the prompting of God, erected an altar on Mount Carmel, and had called the people to it, to sacrifice to the true God upon it; therefore Jezebel and the Baalites, indignant at Elijah, had destroyed this altar of his; but Elijah here again erected and restored it.
Verse 31: He Took Twelve Stones
31. AND HE TOOK TWELVE STONES ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE TRIBES OF THE SONS OF JACOB. — For the twelve sons of Jacob, through their sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons, constituted the 12 tribes of Israel. Elijah did this to show that he worshipped the true God and sacrificed to Him whom Jacob and the other Patriarchs and the ancient Israelites had worshipped, and that therefore the present Israelites also, as their descendants, ought to follow in the same footsteps and worship the same God. Hence it is added:
TO WHOM THE WORD OF THE LORD WAS SPOKEN, SAYING: ISRAEL SHALL BE YOUR NAME. — Aptly, as if to say: Just as Jacob, wrestling with God (that is, with the Angel who was God's representative) and conquering Him who willed it, was called Israel, that is, prevailing with God, Genesis XXXII; so likewise you, if you imitate the faith and worship of the true God of your Patriarch Jacob, will become true Israelites, that is, prevailing with God, and will obtain all things that you ask of Him. That you may do this, behold Israel, that is, God will prevail in this sacrifice of mine, through the fire sent from heaven upon it, and will overthrow the Baalites: for although they too could have sent down fire from heaven upon their ox with the help of their Baal, that is, the demon (for Antichrist will do this with the help of the demon, Apocalypse XIII, 13), yet Elijah knew from God's revelation that God would not permit this, in order to confound Baal, and to show that He alone is the true God.
Verse 32: He Made a Trench around the Altar
32. AND HE MADE A TRENCH AS IT WERE OF THE SPACE OF TWO FURROWS, AROUND THE ALTAR — that is, as it were of two furrows, or of two spaces that could be plowed. In the Hebrew it is signified that the trench was so large as to hold two seahs. For it has "according to the house," that is, the sack or measure of two seahs of seed, as if to say: He made a channel or excavated hollow around the altar large enough to hold a sack containing two seahs, that is, two modii of seed. So Vatablus. Therefore someone explains it wrongly by saying: He made a channel as large as one in which two seahs are sown. For then this channel would have been larger than the bed of the Tiber or the Rhine. For the seah is a Hebrew measure holding only as much as a modius among the Romans. Now a modius, when it is sown, fills an entire field. Moreover, the Hebrews call a "house" any sack or vessel that contains seed or any other thing.
Elijah did this, and poured so much water around the altar, lest anyone should think that he had hidden fire under the altar, and therefore that the fire called down by him from heaven had not descended from heaven, but had been hidden by him in the earth, and from there had ascended to the altar in its usual way. Hear St. Chrysostom, in his homily On Peter and Elijah, which Surius recounts from Metaphrastes, on August 1: "Attend to what I am about to say, for I myself have seen what I shall tell. In the altars of idols there are certain holes in the lower part of the altar, and a certain hidden pit; the craftsmen of error descend into that pit, and through the holes blow fire to accomplish the sacrifice, so that many who are deceived believe that fire to be heavenly. Lest therefore Elijah should also come under suspicion of having contrived some such thing, he poured out water, so that the water might show that there were no holes beneath the altar; for where water finds a hole, the water does not remain there, but must flow out through the holes themselves."
Rabbi Solomon fables that Elijah, since he could not fill so large a trench with the water brought in jars, caused a part of the water poured from the jar by him to touch his hands, and thus by a new miracle most abundant waters flowed from Elijah's hands as from two fountains, which filled the entire trench; and therefore that in IV Kings I, 41, it is said by Elisha that water was poured upon Elisha's hands.
Verse 38: The Fire of the Lord Fell
38. THEN THE FIRE OF THE LORD FELL AND DEVOURED THE BURNT OFFERING — as if it were the food of God. For victims are as it were the food of God. Josephus writes, book VIII of Antiquities, chapter XIII, that the place consumed by this fire of God lasted until his own times. See what was said on Isaiah LXIV, 2, on those words: "The waters would burn with fire."
Verse 39: The People Fell on Their Faces
39. AND WHEN ALL THE PEOPLE SAW IT, THEY FELL ON THEIR FACES AND SAID: THE LORD, HE IS GOD; THE LORD, HE IS GOD. — In Hebrew, Jehovah ipse est Elohim, Jehovah ipse est Elohim, as if to say: Jehovah, who first revealed this name of His to Moses, Exodus VI, 3, and by this name was invoked by him and the other Israelites, He alone is the true Elohim, that is, God, and the Deity governing all things, ruling heaven and earth, from whom therefore we and all other men should expect and seek all sustenance and every good. For Elohim signifies God insofar as He has providence over all things, and rules, judges, and avenges all. Hence the Hebrews say that the name of Elijah was taken from this, or as he is called in Hebrew, Eliahu, who was formerly called Jaberscuah. For Eliahu is the same as El Ia hu, that is, the mighty God Himself. Now El is the abbreviation of Elohim, Ia is the contraction of Jehovah, hu is "Himself." Likewise Maccabee, that is, the name of the Maccabees, was taken by Judah and his brothers from that verse of Exodus XV: Mi camocha Baelim Jehova, that is, "Who is like You among the mighty, O Lord?" For this they bore as the emblem and motto of their battle and victory, placing no hope in their own strength, but all in God. For Elijah by God's help became stronger than Ahab, Jezebel, and the Baalites, not only passively, by bravely enduring their persecutions, but actively, by slaying them all. So St. Lidwina, who for 30 years and more was an admirable mirror of patience in the most numerous and bitter illnesses, received this name as an omen of future wisdom. For Lidwina in Flemish means "broad patience," as her Life records at the beginning in Surius, volume VII, April 4. Thus Mars was called in Greek Ares, because he has a nature that is arrheton, that is, unbroken, unconquered, and unchangeable, says Plato in the Cratylus. Hence Virgil, alluding to this etymology:
the Latins broken by adverse Mars,
he calls them. Thus Agamemnon, says Plato, received this name on account of his endurance of the labors he was to suffer; for besieging Troy for ten years he suffered much. Hence Agamemnon was called as if agamenos, that is, greatly enduring in the siege of Troy. So Elijah the divine athlete means the same as the mighty one of the Lord, or the mighty Lord, in him and his works.
Benjamin notes in his Itinerary that in Carmel the cave of Elijah is still seen, and the vestiges of the demolished altar; whose place was circular, with a diameter of about four cubits.
Verse 40: Seize the Prophets of Baal
40. SEIZE THE PROPHETS OF BAAL — that is, all 850 in total, as I said in verse 19, all of whom Elijah by God's command, as he himself says in verse 36, ordered to be killed; because they were the chief priests, teachers, and authors of idolatry, and therefore blasphemers against God, whom God through Moses had commanded to be killed. So Abulensis and others. Hear the Author of the Marvels of Sacred Scripture, book II: "Indeed because Elijah was under that law which says in Leviticus chapter XXIV, you shall not allow the blasphemer to live. No man worships an idol unless he has become a blasphemer of God. And therefore he who had slain the worshippers of idolatry was purging the land of blasphemers and sacrilegious persons." And St. Basil, homily 20 On Anger: "The Lord by no means condemns him who uses anger as a medicine, for the things that are fitting. Moses, the meekest of all men, condemning the idolatry of the calf, armed the hands of the Levites for the slaughter of their brothers. Phinehas, using just anger against those fornicating publicly, as was proper, immediately slew both of them. Samuel, dragging the king of Amalek into the midst with just anger, killed him. Thus anger very often becomes the minister of good actions. And Elijah the zealot, with just and wise indignation for the benefit of all Israel, brought it about that the four hundred and fifty priests of shame, and the four hundred eating from Jezebel's table who served the sacred groves, were punished with death."
HE BROUGHT THEM DOWN TO THE BROOK KISHON (where Barak defeated Sisera with his forces, Judges IV, verse 7), AND KILLED THEM THERE — lest the holy land be polluted by their wicked blood, and lest their corpses infect the air; therefore he rolled them into the brook Kishon, and buried them not in the earth, but in flowing waters.
Verse 41: Go Up, Eat and Drink
41. AND ELIJAH SAID TO AHAB: GO UP, EAT AND DRINK, FOR THERE IS THE SOUND OF ABUNDANT RAIN — as if to say: Now the just vengeance upon the impious idolaters who offended God has been carried out; therefore God, as it were now appeased, desires to be reconciled with Israel, and to restore the rain and fertility which He had denied them. Therefore God has now revealed to me that rain is about to come, indeed I see it as it were coming, and I seem to hear the sound of wind or thunder that usually precedes a great rain: for as yet no sign of rain appeared in the sky, as is clear from what follows. "Go up" therefore, O Ahab, "eat, drink," and rejoice at so happy a message of rain and fertility, which I bring you.
Verse 42: Elijah Went Up to the Top of Carmel
42. BUT ELIJAH WENT UP TO THE TOP OF CARMEL, AND BOWING DOWN TO THE EARTH, HE PLACED HIS FACE BETWEEN HIS KNEES — to pray to God more attentively and ardently for the rain promised by Him, that He might grant it immediately. For this posture signified the humility and attentiveness of Elijah praying, and imploring God's mercy with his whole affection: for this is the position of the embryo in the mother's womb, and by it, as it were silently showing its misery, it implores God's mercy to bring it forth into the light. Hear St. Isidore, book XI of Origins, chapter 1: "The knees are the joints of the thighs and legs, and are called 'genua' because in the womb they are opposite the cheeks (genae); for they are joined to each other, and are related to the eyes, which are indicators of tears and mercy; for from the cheeks (genae), the knees (genua) take their name. Finally they say that a man is begotten and formed in a folded position, so that the knees are upward, and against them the eyes are formed, to become hollow and recessed. The tight cheek presses the knees: hence it is that men, when they prostrate themselves upon their knees, immediately shed tears. For nature wished them to remember the mother's womb, where they sat as if in darkness before coming to the light." Aristotle said the same, book VII On the History of Animals, chapter VIII: "Man, curled up in himself, is carried so that the nose is between the knees, and the ears are outside the knees."
Moreover, Abulensis from this gathers that Elijah, from this time when he called down heavenly fire on Mount Carmel and overthrew the Baalites, thenceforth fixed his dwelling on the same mountain in memory of so great a benefit and miracle, and that many religious men flocked to him there, who devoted themselves entirely to God, prayer, and divine things and praises. After Christ, those who religiously worshipped God on the same mountain imitated them; and from there arose the ancient and holy Carmelite religious order and family. Hence seven Supreme Pontiffs — Sixtus IV, John XXII, Julius III, Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, and Clement VIII — in the Bulls granted to this Order, speak thus of the professed members of this sacred institute: "Shining as a mirror and exemplar of religion with brightness, and holding the hereditary succession of the holy prophets Elijah and Elisha, and of the other fathers who inhabited the holy mount of Carmel near the fountain of Elijah." Hence also Sixtus granted to this Religious Order that it might honor Elijah and Elisha as the patrons of its foundation, celebrating feast days in their honor and reciting proper offices in their memory, which the Order itself diligently observes, and in the very office they attribute the name and solemnity of the patron Elijah.
Hence also Nicephorus, book VIII, chapter III, asserts that Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, built a temple on Carmel to the prophet Elijah. Certainly in the time of Elijah and Elisha there was an oratory or synagogue on Carmel, to which the people came on feast days both for the purpose of prayer and to hear Elijah, Elisha, and similar preachers, as is sufficiently indicated in IV Kings IV, 23; and Lyranus, Abulensis, and others teach the same there. Moreover, even now the Carmelites celebrate the solemn feast of Elijah on July 20, on which day Elijah is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. See Suarez, book II On Religion, chapter X.
There exists in the Library of the Fathers, volume IV of the third Cologne edition, page 725, a book of John XLIV, Bishop of Jerusalem, to Caprasius, on the institution of the monk, in which the Carmelite institute is shown to be derived in every respect from Elijah. Some more recent scholars consider this book to be ancient and make its author John, Bishop of Jerusalem, who lived in the time of St. Jerome and was noted by him as an Origenist; but the Cologne Doctors refute this with many arguments in the preface to the book; and Baronius, volume V, year of Christ 444, and Bellarmine, On Ecclesiastical Writers, page 95, who judge the style to be that of a Latin writer of later times.
Finally Solomon mentions this mountain in Canticles chapter VII, 5, saying: "Your head is like Carmel." See what was said there. Moreover, the name of Carmel aptly represents the state of Religious life, both because it abounds in pious institutions and merits, just as Carmel abounds in crops and fruits; and because Carmel in Hebrew means the same as "knowledge of circumcision," that is, of mortification, of passions, desires, and earthly affections, which is said to exist in Religious life as in its own proper school.
Therefore St. Jerome rightly calls all those we have mentioned "monks" of the Old Testament, and elsewhere counts himself among monks: "Our prince," he says, "is Elijah, our Elisha, our leaders the sons of the prophets;" which Isidore says in almost the same words, book II, chapter XV, who in his book On Ecclesiastical Offices calls both these and the other prophets "princes of monks." Cassian also clearly agrees with them, book I, chapter II, who says that the beginnings of the monastic profession were founded by them. For Elijah always led a chaste and celibate life without wife, without children, without family; moreover in such great poverty that instead of clothing he is described as wearing only a leather belt; and he received his food as if by begging, now from a widow, now from a raven.
Hence also St. Chrysostom says, homily 2 to the People: "What, tell me, was poorer than Elijah? But for that very reason he surpassed all the rich, because he was poor; and he chose that very poverty from the richness of his mind, etc. The king was in need of the poor man, and hung on the words of one who had nothing more than a sheepskin."
Adrichomius adds regarding Carmel: On this mountain there is a cave and a spring, where Elijah and Elisha and the sons of the prophets dwelt; afterwards (and even now) the Carmelite Brothers dwell there; whence they have both their origin and their name.
Verse 43: Look toward the Sea
43. LOOK TOWARD THE SEA — the Mediterranean; for in the Holy Land clouds and rains usually arise from the vapors of the sea. Elijah knew from God's revelation that rain was about to come; but in order to console the king and the people who were most eagerly awaiting it, and to strengthen them in the hope of rain, and so that it might appear that this rain was given by God as a singular gift through the prayers of Elijah; hence he sends his servant seven times, to look out over the sea for a sign of rain, namely clouds, and when it appeared, to report it back to him and the people.
Verse 44: A Little Cloud Rising from the Sea
44. BEHOLD A LITTLE CLOUD LIKE THE FOOTPRINT (OF A MAN'S FOOT) WAS RISING FROM THE SEA. — The Hebrew has, a small one like the palm of a man; Vatablus, about the size of a man's palm; the Chaldean, a small cloud like the palm of a man's hand rising from the West, that is, from the Mediterranean Sea, for this is to the west of Judea.
Note: "vola" (palm/sole) is said of both feet and hands: for in Hebrew caph, that is, palm, properly means curvature or concavity both of the feet and of hands, indeed even of spoons and other curved things; the Chaldean here takes it as the palm of the hand; but our translator takes "the sole of the feet." Hence he translates, "the footprint of a man;" and this is more fitting: for God seemed here in the cloud to be descending as it were on foot to give Israel rain and to make the land fruitful.
Allegorically St. Augustine, sermon 201 On the Seasons: "Elijah," he says, "bore the figure of the Lord and Savior. Elijah prayed and offered sacrifice, and Christ delivered Himself as an immaculate sacrifice for the whole world. Elijah prayed on Mount Carmel and Christ on the Mount of Olives. Elijah prayed that rain might come upon the earth, and Christ that divine grace might descend into human hearts. And when Elijah said to his servant: Go, and look seven times, he designated the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit that was to be given to the Church. And because he said that he had seen a little cloud rising from the sea, he prefigured the flesh of Christ, which was to be born in the sea of this world." He proves the same from the Gospel, when he adds: "Lest anyone should perhaps doubt, he said that the cloud had the vestige of a man, namely of that man who said: Whom do men say that the Son of Man is? Just as therefore, when Elijah prayed, after three years and six months rain descended from heaven, so also at the coming of the Savior, in the three years and six months in which He deigned to preach, the rain of God's word happily watered the whole world. And just as then at the coming of Elijah all the priests of the idols were killed and destroyed, so at the coming of the true Elijah, that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrilegious observance of the Pagans was destroyed." Bede, Angelomus, and Eucherius transcribed the same from St. Augustine.
Similar and almost parallel to Elijah's deed was the action of Bishop Anianus. For when Attila, king of the Huns, was besieging Orleans on the Loire, Anianus encouraged the citizens to hope in God and to implore His help; and when they had done so prostrate on the ground, he turned to them and said: "Look from the walls whether help is coming." For he thought Aetius would arrive. But looking out, they saw no one. And he said: "Pray again with faith, for the Lord will deliver you today." And when they had done so: "Look again," he said. But when no one appeared, he said to them: "If you pray with faith, the Lord will without doubt be with us." Then they began to invoke God's mercy with great weeping. Then, looking out once more at the command of the holy Bishop, they saw a cloud as it were rising from the earth; and when they reported this, he said: "This is the Lord's help." Accordingly, when the Huns were invading the town, such a great volume of water fell from the sky that they were forced to return to their camp. On the following day, with the walls trembling and crumbling under the constant blows of battering rams, behold Aetius, the general of Valentinian III, and Theodoric, king of the Goths, and his son Thorismund came forth, each with their own armies, and having joined battle, they drove Attila from the city. Gregory of Tours reports these events in book II, chapter VII.
Verse 46: The Hand of the Lord Came upon Elijah
46. AND THE HAND OF THE LORD CAME UPON ELIJAH, AND GIRDING HIS LOINS HE RAN BEFORE AHAB. — "Hand," that is, strength, power, alacrity, agility for running, as if to say: God gave Elijah strength, vigor, and alacrity, so that although he was fasting, weary, and weak from the long contest with the Baalites, and also from the prolonged prayer, sacrifice, and obtaining of rain, yet he ran, and even outran the chariot of Ahab, which was racing forward with horses at full speed, to escape the rain. Elijah "ran" therefore, so that Ahab and the Israelites would acknowledge that the rain had been given by God's authority through the prayers of Elijah; also to perform the honorable service due to his king Ahab, by accompanying, preceding, and outrunning him.