The narrative lectionary year 4 includes this passage for All Saints Sunday. It also occurs a number of times in the Revised Common Lectionary (or at least portions of it).
Summary: If you are preaching All Saints, what a great image of a saint: discouraged, yet fed through the tangible word to obedient yet difficult service. Theology of the cross, reformation and vocation all in one. One could even get to spiritual warfare and anfechtung through the voices that Elijah heres in the messengers.
What I find interesting in the Hebrew this week is the use of the word "soul" or "life." The Hebrew (and LXX) use words that we often translate as soul. Yet the death would be very physical; furthermore, the treatment is very physical. Back to all saints: our sainthood is lived out and revived in this world.
Key Words:
נוח ("nuach"; "rest" vs 3) Elijah does not ditch his servant, but rather gives him rest. This word is where the name "Noah" comes from.
נגע ("naga"; "touch", vs 5 and 7) This word can mean touch or strike. Did the angel touch him or prod him? What was this touch like?
נפש ("nephish"; vs 10 and throughout). The word nephish here, sometimes translated soul, is the word used for "life"; a reminder, as always, that our pseudo-Greek worldvied of souls and bodies is not Hebrew (nor Biblical!) Elijah's soul needs food and water! This relates to other words and ideas in this section -- eat, touch, even hear!
דממה ("dammah"; "silent voice" vs 12). The NSRV translates this phrase as "sheer silence." Yet the Bible seems to suggest it is a small whisper.
Translation issues:
vs. 2: "If"/"let" and the jussive mood.
If you read the Hebrew, you will not find the words "if" when Jezebel speaks, "May the gods do X if I have not done Y." The reason is that the verbs, "do" and "add", are in the jussive mood. Greek grammars all call is subjuntive mood, but Hebrew Grammars call it different names based on the person (ie type of subject, I, you, or he/she/it). The long and short of it, the Hebrew here is a hypothetical folded into a vow. "May the gods kill me if I don't kill you."
Hebrew consectuive verbs.
vs. 3 Hebrew has no adverbs, really. Instead it places verbs in a consecutive fashion. In this case, you have "he was afraid, he was standing and he was going." Or more accurately, "He was going in a fearful and standing way" or even better "He immediately ran scared."
vs.5 Based on the two consecutive verbs, "get up" and "eat," we can red the "get up" as an adverb. Ths, Elijah is not told to stand up and eat, but rather, eat immediately.
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