Topic: Persons Of The Bible -- Elijah, A Colorful Character, Part 1 Of 5

The name "Elijah" is derived from the Hebrew name אֱלִיָּהוּ ('Eliyyahu) meaning "my God is Yahweh." The name also means "whose God is Jehovah."

Elijah has been well entitled "the grandest and the most romantic character that Israel ever produced." "Elijah the Tishbite,.. of the inhabitants of Gilead" is literally all that is given us to know of his parentage and locality. Of his appearance as he "stood before" Ahab (B.C. 910) with the suddenness of motion to this day characteristic of the Bedouins from his native hills, we can perhaps realize something from the touches, few but strong, of the narrative. His chief characteristic was his hair, long and thick, and hanging down his back.

His ordinary clothing consisted of a girdle of skin round his loins, which he tightened when about to move quickly. (1 Kings 18:46) But in addition to this he occasionally wore the "mantle" or cape of sheepskin which has supplied us with one of our most familiar figures of speech.

A person named "Elijah", "The Tishbite," or the "Elias" of the New Testament, is suddenly introduced to our notice in 1 Kings 17:1 as delivering a message from the Lord to Ahab. There is mention made of a town called Thisbe, south of Kadesh, but it is impossible to say whether this was the place referred to in the name given to the prophet.

His introduction, in what we may call the first act of his life, is the most startling description. He suddenly appears before Ahab, prophesies a three-years drought in Israel, and proclaims the vengeance of Jehovah for the apostasy of the king. Obliged to flee from the vengeance of king, or more probably of the queen (comp. (1 Kings 19:2) he was directed to the brook Cherith, beyond Jordan, where he was fed by ravens. There in the hollow of the torrent bed he remained, supported in the miraculous manner with which we are all familiar, till the failing of the brook obliged him to forsake it.

Derived from Easton's and Smith's Bible Dictionaries

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