Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
Parallel translations
- WEB He lay down and slept under a juniper tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat!”
- KJV And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
- NKJV Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”
- NASB Then he lay down and fell asleep under a broom tree; but behold, there was an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat!”
- NLT Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Elijah sleeps under the tree, and an angel wakes him with food. God meets his physical needs before addressing his despair.
Overview
Instead of rebuke, God sends an angel to provide rest and nourishment for His exhausted prophet. The Lord's first response to Elijah's burnout is gentle, practical care. This tender provision shows that God understands our frailty and ministers to body as well as soul, a kindness ultimately fulfilled in Christ's compassion for the weary.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Heb 13:5Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- Acts 12:7Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists.
- Ps 34:7The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them.
- Heb 1:14Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
- Dan 9:21while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
- Gen 28:11–15On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
- Dan 10:9–10I heard the sound of his words, and as I listened, I fell into a deep sleep, with my face to the ground.
- Ps 34:10Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.
- Dan 8:19and said, “Behold, I will make known to you what will happen in the latter time of wrath, because it concerns the appointed time of the end.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 19:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.