1 Kings 18:19

19. Mount Carmel See at Joshua 19:26. “Carmel was the peculiar haunt of Elijah. On its eastern summit, commanding the last view of the Mediterranean Sea and the first view of the great plain of Esdraelon, just where the glades of forest the ‘excellency’ whence it derives its name sink into the usual bareness of the hills of Manasseh, a rock is still shown bearing the name of Maharrakah ’the sacrifice.’ On this rock stood an altar of Jehovah, (1 Kings 18:30,) which had, in all probability, been destroyed in the recent persecution. On this same spot, probably, long afterwards, Vespasian sacrificed when commanding the Roman armies in Palestine; and to this the Druses still come in yearly pilgrimage. In the distance, and on its commanding position overlooking the whole valley, rose the stately city of Jezreel, with Ahab’s palace and Jezebel’s temple embosomed in its sacred grove. Immediately under their feet spread far and wide that noble plain the battlefield of sacred history the plain of Megiddo, or Jezreel, with the torrent Kishon passing, as its name implies, in countless windings through the level valley; that ‘ancient stream,’ on whose banks had perished the host of Sisera and the host of Midian before the army of Deborah and Barak, before the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. In such a scene, with such recollections of the past, were the people of Israel gathered for a conflict as momentous as any which had taken place in the plain beneath.” Stanley.

Prophets of the groves Rather, Prophets of Asheroth, the female divinity of the Zidonians, and often called Ashtoreth. 1 Kings 11:5-33; Judges 2:13; 1 Samuel 7:3-4. In this verse Baal and Asherah are mentioned together as in Judges 2:13. The one was the male, the other the female deity of the Phenicians. See note on 1 Kings 14:15. The prophets of Asherah were specially petted and patronized by Jezebel, though they seem not to have been quite as numerous as those of Baal. They ate at Jezebel’s table, were treated as members of the royal family. The multitude of false prophets here specified (850) shows the zeal and success with which the queen had introduced her national idolatry into the kingdom of Israel. The strong hold which the newly-introduced idolatry now had upon the kingdom shows, also, the demand there was for the miraculous vindication at Carmel of the true worship of Jehovah, and the overwhelming defeat and disgrace of the worship and worshippers of Baal.