| I Kings 19:4
| And he went forward, one day's journey into the desert. And when he was there, and sat under a juniper-tree, he requested for his soul that he might die, and said: It is enough for me, Lord; take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers.
| Desert. It seems, towards Horeb. (Calmet) --- Tree. Hebrew Rothem, which term the Septuagint retain, "Rathmen." Symmachus has, "a shade." (Haydock) --- Die. Elias requested to die, not out of impatience or pusillanimity, but out of zeal against sin; and that he might no longer be witness of the miseries of his people, and the war they were waging against God and his servants. See ver. 10. (Challoner) --- He does not wish to fall into the hands of Jezabel, lest the idolaters should triumph: but he is willing to die, if God so order it. (Calmet) --- Mathathias entertained the like sentiments, 1 Machabees 2:7. --- Fathers: that I should live longer than they did. (Menochius) (Ecclesiasticus 30:17.) --- If he had been weary of life, why did he flee? His answer to Achab shews that he was by no means timid. (Calmet)
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