"God's Obedience": A Linguistic and Narrative Exploration of the Hebrew Idiom in 1 Kings 17:22 and Its Theological Implications

This article explores a particular sentence in the first resurrection narrative of the Bible: “And the LORD obeyed Elijah” (1 Kgs 17:22a). Before the widow’s son returns to life, the prophet calls YHWH to perform a miracle. Subsequently, and surprisingly, the narration reports that the LORD obeyed. We argue that, in contrast to the Hebrew of the source text, modern Bible translations do not render translating of Instead .correctly) וַ ִִּיְׁש ְ מַ ע יְהוָ ה ְְּבֹקול אֵ לִ ָּיָהּו) a17:22 Kgs 1 “The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah” (NRSV), “The LORD heard Elijah’s cry” (NIV), or “The LORD answered Elijah’s prayer” (GNB), one should instead render the Hebrew valence of שמעׁ by translating “And the LORD obeyed Elijah.” We utilize the latest
tools for text corpus analysis (Text-Fabric, SHEBANQ) to analyze
the Hebrew verbal valence of שמעׁ. Our argument is, however, not only of a linguistic nature. We also engage in a literary analysis of 1 Kgs 17. We seek to demonstrate that when both linguistic and literary studies are combined, the correct rendering of v.22b becomes the theological climax of the opening chapter of the so-called Elijah cycle. This theological climax reveals what Lunn has described as “human-theophany.” The prophet embodies YHWH’s presence. At the end of our article, we explore the intertextual and typological
aspects of such a theological climax.