Bible Strands
1 Kings 19:18
Nevertheless, I have reserved seven thousand in Israel—all whose knees have not bowed to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God answers Elijah’s complaint about Israel’s apostasy while Elijah stands in a cave on Mount Horeb.
The words — וְ/הִשְׁאַרְתִּי (ve./hish.'ar.Ti) translates as “and I will leave” or “reserve,” and שִׁבְעַ֣ת אֲלָפִ֑ים (shiv.'At 'a.la.Fim) means “seven thousand.”
The thread — This preservation of a faithful remnant appears in Romans 11:4, Isaiah 1:9, and Isaiah 10:20.
Why it lands — The text states that God actively preserves a specific number of uncorrupted believers despite widespread national idolatry. It requires the reader to accept divine accounting over human observation when assessing spiritual survival.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
Cross-references
- Romans 11:4 And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
- Isaiah 1:9 Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 10:20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Hosea 13:2 Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”
- Psalms 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in your rebellion, when His wrath ignites in an instant. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.
- Philippians 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
- Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- Job 31:27 so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,
- Romans 14:10 Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.
- Isaiah 49:23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”