And it came to pass after a while,.... Or "at the end of days" x, perhaps a year, which sometimes is the sense of this phrase, see
that the brook dried up; through the excessive heat, and for want of supplies from the springs and fountains with which it was fed, and for the following reason:
because there had been no rain in the land; from the time Elijah prayed and prophesied; of this drought mention is made in profane history: Menander, a Phoenician writer, speaks y of a drought in the times of Ithobalus (the same with Ethbaal the father of Jezebel), which lasted a whole year, and upon prayer being made there were thunder, &c.
x מקץ ימים "in, vel a, fine dierum", Pagninus, Montanus, &c. y Apud Joseph. Antiqu. l. 8. c. 13. sect. 2.