1 Kings 17:18 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

She said, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Wherein have I injured or offended thee, or been wanting in my duty? Or, why didst thou come to sojourn in my house, if this be the fruit of it? They are the words of a troubled mind. How unconcernedly had she spoken of her own and her son's death, when she expected to die for want, (1 Kings 17:12,) That we may eat it and die; yet now her son dies, and not so miserably as by famine, and she is extremely disturbed at it. We may speak slightly of an affliction at a distance, but when it toucheth us, we are troubled, Job 4:5. Art thou come to call my sin to remembrance? That thou mightest severely observe my sins, and by thy prayers bring down God's just judgment upon me for them, as thou hast, for the like cause, brought down this famine upon the nation? She may mean, either, 1st, Her own remembrance; that she should by this dreadful judgment be brought to the knowledge and remembrance of her sins which had procured it: or, rather, 2d, God's remembrance; for God is often said in Scripture to remember sins when he punishes them, and to forget them when he spares the sinner, 2 Samuel 16:10. Has God taken occasion from thy abiding in my house, and my not making the improvement I ought to have made by thee, to punish this and my former sins by suddenly cutting off my son? And have I, instead of the comfort and blessing I expected, met with a severe chastisement and curse?