1 Kings 18:30 (LSB)

Passage

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been pulled down.

Nearby Context

1 Kings 18:28 So they cried with a loud voice and gashed themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.

1 Kings 18:29 Now it happened when noon had passed, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.

1 Kings 18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been pulled down.

1 Kings 18:31 Then Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”

1 Kings 18:32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two seahs of seed.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "elijah", "said", "people", "come", "near", and "came". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "elijah" and "said", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 29's "Now it happened when noon had passed..." into verse 31's "Then Elijah took twelve stones according to...", so "elijah" and "said" belong inside that flow. In 1 Kings context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "elijah" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.