And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, [even] I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
Ver. 14. I have been very zealous.] See on 1 Kings 19:10 .
And I, even I, am left alone.] Such was the paucity and obscurity of God's people in these times, that the prophet miserably crieth out of his aloneness. Such was it in Basil's time, a by reason of Arianism overspreading all, that he crieth out, Hath the Lord utterly forsaken his churches? Is it now the last hour? &c. The ship of the church was then almost overwhelmed, saith Jerome. The church was not then to be sought in palaces and outward pomp, saith Hilary, but rather in prisons and dens of the desert. Where was the church in Elias's time, said Mr Bradford? Doth not he say, I only am left? And whereas God saith there were "seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal," these were not known. And the text saith, Reliqui mihi, I have reserved to myself, to mine own knowledge, &c.
a Basil, Epist. 17.