1 Rois 18:26

La Bible Ostervald

Et ils prirent le taureau qu'on leur donna, et le préparèrent; et ils invoquèrent le nom de Baal, depuis le matin jusqu'à midi, disant: Baal, exauce-nous! Mais il n'y eut ni voix, ni réponse; et ils sautaient autour de l'autel qu'on avait fait.

Parallel Translations

Darby's French Translation
Et ils prirent le taureau qu'on leur avait donn�, et l'offrirent, et invoqu�rent le nom de Baal depuis le matin jusqu'� midi, disant: O Baal, r�ponds-nous! Mais il n'y eut pas de voix, ni personne qui r�pond�t. Et ils sautaient autour de l'autel qu'on avait fait.

Louis Segond (1910)
Ils prirent le taureau qu'on leur donna, et le pr�par�rent; et ils invoqu�rent le nom de Baal, depuis le matin jusqu'� midi, en disant: Baal r�ponds nous! Mais il n'y eut ni voix ni r�ponse. Et ils sautaient devant l'autel qu'ils avaient fait.

La Bible David Martin (1744)
Ils prirent donc un veau qu'on leur donna, ils l'appr�t�rent, et ils invoqu�rent le nom de Bahal depuis le matin jusqu'� midi, en disant : Bahal exauce-nous! Mais il n'y avait ni voix ni r�ponse, et ils sautaient par dessus l'autel qu'on avait fait.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

from morning: Matthew 6:7

hear: or, answer

no voice: 1 Kings 18:24, Psalms 115:4-8, Psalms 135:15-20, Isaiah 37:38, Isaiah 44:17, Isaiah 45:20, Jeremiah 10:5, Daniel 5:23, Habakkuk 2:18, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 1 Corinthians 10:19, 1 Corinthians 10:20, 1 Corinthians 12:2

answered: or, heard

leaped upon the altar: or, leaped up and down at the altar, Zephaniah 1:9

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 18:29 - voice 2 Kings 4:31 - hearing 2 Kings 4:33 - prayed 2 Kings 21:3 - he reared 2 Kings 23:4 - Baal Psalms 108:6 - and answer me Isaiah 44:9 - and their Isaiah 46:7 - one shall cry Jeremiah 10:3 - customs Jeremiah 27:18 - they Jeremiah 48:13 - ashamed Jonah 1:5 - cried Habakkuk 2:19 - that Acts 19:28 - and cried Acts 19:34 - all

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they took the bullock which was given them,.... By such of them as made the choice:

and they dressed it; slew it, and cut it in pieces, and laid it on the wood, but put no fire under it:

and called on the name of Baal, from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us; and send fire down on the sacrifice; and if the sun was their Baal, they might hope, as the heat he gradually diffused was at its height at noon, that some flashes of fire would proceed from it to consume their sacrifice; but after, their hope was turned into despair, they became and acted like madmen:

but there was no voice, nor any that answered; by word, or by sending down fire as they desired:

and they leapt upon the altar which was made; not by Elijah, but by themselves, either now or heretofore, and where they had formerly sacrificed; and they danced about it, and leaped on it, either according to a custom used by them; such as the Salii, the priests of Mars, used, so called from their leaping, because they did their sacred things leaping, and went about their altars capering and leaping s; or rather they were mad on it, as the Targum renders it, and acted like madmen, as if they were agitated by a prophetic fury and frenzy.

s Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 8. "tum Salii ad cantus", &c. Vid. Gutberleth. de Salii, c. 2. p. 9.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon - Compare the parallel in the conduct of the Greeks of Ephesus. Acts 19:34. The words “O Baal, hear us,” probably floated on the air as the refrain of a long and varied hymn of supplication.

They leaped upon the altar which was made - The marginal rendering is preferable to this. Wild dancing has always been a devotional exercise in the East, and remains so to this day; witness the dancing dervishes. It was practiced especially in the worship of Nature-powers, like the Dea Phrygia (Cybele), the Dea Syra (Astarte?), and the like.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 18:26. From morning even until noon — It seems that the priests of Baal employed the whole day in their desperate rites. The time is divided into two periods:

1. From morning until noon; this was employed in preparing and offering the sacrifice, and in earnest supplication for the celestial fire. Still there was no answer, and at noon Elijah began to mock and ridicule them, and this excited them to commence anew. And,

2. They continued from noon till the time of offering the evening sacrifice, dancing up and down, cutting themselves with knives, mingling their own blood with their sacrifice, praying, supplicating, and acting in the most frantic manner.

And they leaped upon the altar — Perhaps it will be more correct to read with the margin, they leaped up and down at the altar; they danced round it with strange and hideous cries and gesticulations, tossing their heads to and fro, with a great variety of bodily contortions.

A heathen priest, a high priest of Budhoo, has been just showing me the manner in which they dance and jump up and down, and from side to side, twisting their bodies in all manner of ways, when making their offerings to their demon gods; a person all the while beating furiously on a tom-tom, or drum, to excite and sustain those frantic attitudes; at the same time imploring the succour of their god, frequently in some such language as this: "O loving brother devil, hear me, and receive my offering!" To perform these sacrificial attitudes they have persons who are taught to practice them from their earliest years, according to directions laid down in religious books; and to make the joints and body pliant, much anointing of the parts and mechanical management are used; and they have masters, whose business it is to teach these attitudes and contortions according to the rules laid down in those books. It seems therefore that this was a very general practice of idolatry, as indeed are the others mentioned in this chapter.