And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
Elijah said unto all the people, Come near. Since the day was far advanced, Elijah commenced his operations. Inviting the people to approach and see the entire proceeding, he first repaired an old altar of God, which Jezebel had demolished; then, having arranged the cut pieces of the bullock, he caused four barrels or jars of water to be dashed all over the altar, and round in the trench. Once, twice, a third time this precaution was taken, and then, when he had offered an earnest prayer, the miraculous fire descended (Leviticus 9:24; Judges 6:21; Judges 13:20; 1 Chronicles 21:26; 2 Chronicles 7:1), and consumed not only the sacrifice, but the very stones of the altar. The impression on the minds of the people was that of admiration, mingled with awe; and with one voice they acknowledged the supremacy of Yahweh as the true God. Taking advantage of their excited feelings, Elijah called on them to seize the priestly impostors, and with their blood fill the channel the river (Kishon), which, in consequence of their idolatries, the drought had dried up-a direction which, severe and relentless as it seems, it was his duty as God's minister to give (Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 18:20).
The natural features of the mount exactly correspond with the details of this narrative. The conspicuous summit, 1,635 feet above the sea, on which the altars were placed, presents an esplanade spacious enough for the king and the priests of Baal to stand on the one side, and Elijah on the other. It is a rocky soil, on which there is abundance of loose stones, to furnish the twelve stones of which the altar was built-a bed of thick earth, is which a trench could be dug; and yet the earth not so loose that the water poured into it would be absorbed; 250 feet beneath the altar plateau there is a perennial fountain, which, being close to the altar of the Lord, might not have been accessible to the people, and whence, therefore, even in that season of severe drought, Elijah could procure those copious supplies of water which he poured over the altar. The distance between this spring and the site of the altar is so short as to make it perfectly possible to go thrice there and back again; whereas it must have been impossible once in an afternoon to fetch water from the sea (Van de Velde 2:, p. 893). The summit Isaiah 1 feet above the Kishon which nowhere runs from the sea so close to the base of the mount as just beneath el-Mohhraka; so that the priests of Baal could in a few minutes be taken, down 'to the brook (torrent), and slain there.' The place where the false prophets were discomfited and slain was toward that extremity of the mount which faces Jezreel (Esdraelon), and at a point near which it is approached by the Kishon. 'From this slaughter some travelers are disposed to derive the modern name of the river, el-Mukuta', following the meaning, secuit excidit, etc., of the Arabic verb (so D'Arvieux, "Memoire,"
ii., p. 294). But among the common people the name signifies merely "the ford," from another meaning of the same, verb, trajecit flumen. See Freytag's "Lex. Arab."' (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 3:, p. 232).