Shiur #40: Carmel Part 8: The Nation's Response (39-40)
The Eliyahu Narratives
Yeshivat Har Etzion
Shiur no. 40 -
By Rav Elchanan
Samet
1. "The Lord is God…"
Following the description of the great
miracle of the descent of God's fire, the text describes the reactions of the
nation. In verses 39-40 they declare, "The Lord is God…," and they slaughter the
prophets of Ba'al. From this point onwards, up to the end of our chapter (verse
46), we hear nothing more about the nation.
The first reaction of the nation is described as
follows:
(39) All the nation saw it, and they fell
upon their faces, and they said: "The Lord is God; the Lord is
God!"
It is not out of formal obligation to the conditions of
the test, which they accepted upon themselves in advance, that the people react
as they do. Both from their actions and from their words, as described in these
verses, we sense a genuine and spontaneous awe and fear of God. This awe is
evidenced, first and foremost, by the fact that they fall upon their faces. This
falling comes as a response to seeing God's fire falling from heaven to the
earth. In falling before Him, the people gathered here repeat the actions of
their forefathers in the desert, in similar circumstances (Vayikra
9:24):
"Fire emerged from before God and
consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fats, AND ALL THE NATION SAW
IT, and they shouted, AND FELL UPON THEIR FACES."
In both cases, this falling to the ground is the
acknowledgement of the Divine Presence – the human response to the appearance of
God. The Ba'al ha-Metzudot (following the example of Abarbanel) interprets,
"They fell upon their faces – to prostrate themselves before
God."
The nation's declaration, "The Lord is God," does indeed
seem to be the required conclusion arising from the conditions of the test
(verse 24): "The God Who will answer with fire – HE IS GOD," and as a belated
response to Eliyahu's demand that they make a decision (verse 21); "If THE LORD
IS GOD, follow Him." But in their repetition of this cry, they reveal their
great emotion and the independence of their conclusion. The Radak explains the
repetition as follows:
"The repetition [is meant to express] the
strength of the faith in their hearts. They say and repeat, 'the Lord is
God!'"
2. The capture of the prophets of Ba'al and their
slaughter
It is only after the nation has proved its true
repentance and return to God in the spontaneous reaction discussed above, that
Eliyahu turns to them and tests their readiness to translate their new awareness
into practical action:
(40) "Eliyahu said to them: Take the
prophets of Ba'al; let not one of them escape."
And, amazingly enough, the people who that same morning
were still "dancing between two opinions" and were not ready to turn their backs
on Ba'al worship, now immediately heed Eliyahu's call, and do as he
commands:
"They took them."
Thus Eliyahu channels the powerful, newfound religious
devotion in the nation into a drastic, practical expression of that feeling –
thereby also testing its sincerity. Obviously, aside from the importance of
putting the false prophets to death as a test of the nation's sincerity at this
moment, it also halts forthwith the activity of these false prophets amongst
This development is actually quite surprising: the other
results arising from the miracle of the descent of fire and described in the
unit of verses 39-46 are all more or less to be expected. We are not surprised
by the reaction of the nation described in verse 39, nor by the description,
from this point onwards, of the resumption of rainfall. But the capture and
slaughter of the prophets of Ba'al is different: not only are we not expecting
this, but it actually seems to contradict the conditions of the test that
Eliyahu proposed at the start of the chapter. The purpose of the test, as
explained by Eliyahu, is a clarification of the question of which God is the
true One, Who should be followed. There was never any hint, in his words, that
the clarification of this question would lead to the physical liquidation of the
losing side. On the contrary, the balanced attitude towards the two sides that
Eliyahu takes such pains to exhibit at every stage, and the generosity that he
displays towards his opponents at the various stages of the buildup, create a
matter-of-fact atmosphere that gives no impression of animosity between the
sides. The ramifications of this test are meant to influence its judges – the
nation and its faith. But, there was no hint that the test would have such
dramatic results for the participants themselves. Now, it turns out, in contrast
to the tolerant tone that has been maintained, Eliyahu utilizes his victory to
physically annihilate those who stood against him in this test and lost. What is
the meaning of this sudden change?
In a previous shiur, we noted the dual
significance of the test at
The initial spontaneous reaction of the nation, as
described in verse 39, is directly related to the conditions of the test that
were set out at the beginning of the story. Although we have noted above that
this reaction did not arise from a formal obligation to the conditions of the
test, but rather gives expression to genuine awe and the nation's own,
independently-drawn conclusion. Still this does not negate the obvious
linguistic connections between Eliyahu's words at the beginning of the story and
the nation's present reaction, and hence the attachment of this reaction to the
sphere of the "test" – the first message of the episode.
The people's second reaction – their response to
Eliyahu's demand that the prophets of Ba'al be caught in order to be put to
death, as described in verse 40, is a reaction that arises from the higher
significance of the events at Carmel: the renewal of the covenant between the
nation and their God and a return to the commandments of the Torah. In this
context, the prophets of Ba'al are not partners in a cordial attempt to
establish "Who is God," but rather are leading
At the time that Eliyahu proposes the test to the nation
"dancing between two opinions," he creates a mood of relativist tolerance, which
suits the pagan concepts with which the nation has become infected; "Idolatry is
indulgent" – it tolerates the existence of a multiplicity of deities. But now
that the One God has revealed Himself to His nation in order to renew the
covenant with them, He is revealed as a jealous God Who will not abide the sin
of idolatry amongst His nation, the members of His covenant. Now Eliyahu cannot
suffice with the spiritual "high" of the people who are falling upon their faces
and declaring, "The Lord is God." He must act to remove all idolatry from
Let us now turn our attention to the second part of
verse 40:
"Eliyahu took them down to the
This brief account – just seven words in the Hebrew –
gives rise to several questions:
a. Why does Eliyahu take the prophets of Ba'al down to
the
It would seem that the descent of fire onto the altar
that Eliyahu built, and onto the area demarcated by the trench, bestowed a
sanctified status on the site; this was a place where God's Presence rested.
This entailed that killing of any person – even people legally deserving of the
death penalty – cannot be carried out at this holy place, because of the
complete contrast between the altar and the spilling of blood. The descent from
the
b. What is the legal basis, in the commandments of the
Torah, for putting the prophets of Ba'al to death?
Against the background of the very severe prohibitions
in the Torah against idolatry, and the death sentence that it carries for all
those who engage in it and influence others to engage in it, not a single one of
our commentators raises this question. It is clear to all that these prophets
were deserving of death according to Torah law, both on the basis of their
actions prior to coming to
Nevertheless, we must conclude that Eliyahu's action
here represents a "prophetical ad-hoc measure." He does not put the false
prophets to death through the accepted procedure as commanded by the Torah, on
the basis of evidence by witnesses and a decision by judges. He acts on the
urgent need of the moment, and the necessity of acting in a quick and decisive
way. In any event, the fact that the prophets of Ba'al are deserving of death is
clear.
c. What is the meaning of the text attributing the two
actions - "Eliyahu took them down…. And he slaughtered them" – to Eliyahu? It
would seem that what we are being told here is that Eliyahu did this with his
own hands, without help from others. But here we must ask why, in the very same
verse, we read about the capture of the false prophets by the people, who acted
in accordance with Eliyahu's instructions – "they took them," while thereafter
Eliyahu operates alone?
In truth it would seem that it is difficult to imagine
that Eliyahu single-handedly slaughtered all four hundred and fifty prophets of
Ba'al. Realistically, the slaughter of four hundred and fifty men by one person
is complicated and would have taken many hours; for one person to lead them
down, live, to the
Therefore, the explanation of Radak seems
logical:
"He slaughtered them there – HE COMMANDED
that they be slaughtered, for all the nation was on his side when they saw this
great wonder."
But if this is the case, we must ask why the text
changes its formulation, starting off in the plural ("they caught them"), but
thereafter attributing actions performed by the nation at Eliyahu's command, to
the prophet himself? Would it not be more accurate – and also linguistically
consistent – to say, "They caught them and led them down to the Kishon river,
and slaughtered them there"?
We may propose two answers to this
question:
i.
The formulation
of the verse as we propose above would be misleading: the reader may conclude
that the leading of the false prophets down to the Kishon River and their
slaughter there is performed not only BY the nation but also at their
initiative, swept away in a tide of religious fervor and enthusiasm towards such
drastic action, without any command by Eliyahu. This mistake would arise because
the verb, "they caught them," is preceded by Eliyahu's command, "Take (catch)
the prophets of Ba'al…," while before the two other verbs (which, in our
proposed reading, refer to the nation) we find no such command. But this
understanding does not suit the facts. It is Eliyahu who instructs the people to
perform all of these actions, and this is important not only for a proper
evaluation of their behavior (i.e., they did not act as a crazed mob with no
restraints), and for our appreciation of Eliyahu's responsibility for their
actions.
ii.
It is also
possible that the formulation of the verse, in the form in which it is written,
hints that Eliyahu did not command the entire nation to kill the false prophets.
He only commanded all of them to catch them, but the prophet chose to do the
rest with a handful of faithful followers who chose to go with him, those who
"God had touched their hearts." These people admittedly acted at Eliyahu's
command, but they were not representative of the entire nation, and therefore
the text leaves off the general plural with which the verse started out ("they
caught them"). This emphasizes that these actions are attributed mainly to
Eliyahu, who acted with the help of his loyal followers. If this hypothesis is
true, we learn from this that Eliyahu limits his demands from the nation to a
certain boundary; he does not demand their partnership in actions that lie
beyond their ability or what they are prepared to
do.
Translated by Kaeren Fish.