Now therefore. — For this act of faithlessness, and to prove by the event that there is a God in Israel, whose oracle is unerring. (Comp. 1 Kings 18:24, seq.)
Thus saith. — Or, hath said. After these words the prophetic announcement comes in rather abruptly. Perhaps the verse has been abridged by the compiler, and in the original account from which he drew, the words of 2 Kings 1:6 may have followed here, “Go, return to the king... Ekron.”
And Eijah departed. — On the Lord’s errand. The LXX. adds, “and said unto them,” or “told them,” which is perhaps due to a copyist’s eye having wandered to the words “unto him,” or “unto them,” in next verse (Thenius).