Then he said, “I have been very zealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, pulled down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
1 Kings 19:12 Then after the earthquake a fire, but Yahweh was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a thin gentle whisper.
1 Kings 19:13 Now it happened that when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 19:14 Then he said, “I have been very zealous for Yahweh, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, pulled down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
1 Kings 19:15 And Yahweh said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and you will arrive and anoint Hazael king over Aram;
1 Kings 19:16 and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place.
The verse centers on "said", "been", "very", "zealous", "yahweh", "hosts", "sons", and "israel". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "said" and "been", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 13's "Now it happened that when Elijah heard..." into verse 15's "And Yahweh said to him Go return...", so "said" and "been" 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 "said" and "been" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.