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(^295) Surely, it is one of the strangest freaks of criticism (Jewish and Christian) to make
of these "ravens" either "Arabs," or "merchants," or "Orebites," from a supposed town
of Oreb. We can understand the difficulty of the Rabbis, arising from the circumstance
that Elijah should be fed by ravens, which were unclean animals. Those of them who
take the literal translation comfort themselves with the fact, that the ravens at least
brought him levitically clean food, either from one of the 7,000 in Israel who had not
bent the knee to Baal, or from the table of Ahab, or from that of Jehoshaphat. But these
Rabbinical comments are so far evidential of the truth of this narrative, that we see how
differently a later writer would have constructed this history, had he invented a Jewish
legend. Hess adduces parallel instances of the support of people by wild beasts; but
they are of little interest, since the provision for Elijah was manifestly miraculous.
(^296) Corresponding to the modern village of Surafend, though the latter seems farther
from the sea than the ancient Sarepta.
(^297) The Rabbis represent her as a Jewess, and make her the mother of Jonah.
(^298) The Rabbis note, that, when God is said to have "commanded" the ravens, He put it
in their heart - a gloss, this of manifold application.
(^299) Menander in Josephus' Ant. 8. 13, 2. According to Menander the actual famine in
Tyre lasted one whole year. We may here remark, that if any one wishes to be
impressed with the sublimeness of the Scriptural account of this event he can do no
better than compare it with the wretched rationalistic prose of Josephus' version of it.
(^300) The words "in thine hand" do not refer to the verb "bring," but to "bread," and mean
that Elijah spoke as if she had some bread at home. So the LXX render it.
(^301) The Cad was a small - probably the smallest - barrel. The word has passed into the
Latin, the Greek, and the Sanscrit. Curiously enough, our English representative of it is
the word "Caddy."
(^302) This is clearly implied in the original, and must have been a much greater trial of
her faith than if Elijah had at once returned with her, and the miracle begun then and
there.
(^303) The word "many" in 1 Kings 17:15 is not in the original (as indicated by the italics).
The expression marks an indefinite period of time - yet, as it seems to me, with the
peculiar Old Testament idea of time, as "day by day."
(^)