1-kings 19:16

Anoint - To rub in; rub on.

Elisha - shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room - Jarchi gives a strange turn to these words: "Thy prophecy (or execution of the prophetic office) does not please me, because thou art the constant accuser of my children." With all their abominations, this rabbin would have us to believe that those vile idolaters and murderers were still the beloved children of God! And why? Because God had made a covenant with their fathers; therefore said the ancient as well as the modern siren song: "Once in the covenant, always in the covenant; once a son, and a son for ever." And yet we have here the testimony of God's own prophet, and the testimony of their history, that they had forsaken the covenant, and consequently renounced all their interest in it.

Jehu, the son of Nimshi - In reality the grandson of Nimshi. But he seems to have been commonly known by the above title 2 Kings 9:20; 2 Chronicles 22:7, perhaps because his father had died and his grand-father had brought him up.

Abel-meholah - See Judges 7:22 note. (Conder identifies it with Ain Helweh.)

Elisha ... shalt thou anoint - This is almost the only place where we hear of the anointing of prophets (compare 1 Chronicles 16:22 and Psalm 105:15).

19:16 The son, &c. - That is, his grand - son, for he was the son of Jehosaphat, 9:2 . This was intended as a prediction that bythese God would punish the degenerate Israelites, plead his own causeamong them, and avenge the quarrel of his covenant.