Bible Strands
1 Kings 19:2
So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the lives of those you killed!”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jezebel dispatches a messenger to Elijah immediately after Ahab reports Elijah’s slaughter of the prophets, delivering a deadline-bound threat of execution.
The words — The Hebrew יַעֲשׂוּ/ן (ya.'a.Su/n) means “may they do,” anchoring the conditional curse that invokes divine retribution if her threat fails.
The thread — Comparable oath structures appear in Ruth 1:17, 1 Kings 20:10, and 2 Kings 6:31, with 1 Kings 19:2 and 1 Kings 20:10 sharing the same plural verb and divine subject, while Ruth 1:17 and 2 Kings 6:31 employ a singular verb form.
Why it lands — The text records a direct political threat that immediately triggers Elijah’s flight to Beersheba, shifting the narrative from prophetic confrontation to human vulnerability.
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
Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.
Cross-references
- Ruth 1:17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”
- 1 Kings 20:10 Then Ben-hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful.”
- 2 Kings 6:31 He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”
- Exodus 10:28 “Depart from me!” Pharaoh said to Moses. “Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”
- Proverbs 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
- 1 Kings 2:28 When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah but not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.
- 2 Kings 19:10 “Give this message to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
- 2 Kings 19:27 But I know your sitting down, your going out and coming in, and your raging against Me.
- Daniel 3:15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”
- Exodus 15:9 The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’