1 Kings 19:4 (YLT)

Passage

and he himself hath gone into the wilderness a day's Journey, and cometh and sitteth under a certain retem-tree, and desireth his soul to die, and saith, `Enough, now, O Jehovah, take my soul, for I <FI>am<Fi> not better than my fathers.'

Nearby Context

1 Kings 19:2 and Jezebel sendeth a messenger unto Elijah, saying, `Thus doth the gods, and thus do they add, surely about this time to-morrow, I make thy life as the life of one of them.'

1 Kings 19:3 And he feareth, and riseth, and goeth for his life, and cometh in to Beer-Sheba, that <FI>is<Fi> Judah's, and leaveth his young man there,

1 Kings 19:4 and he himself hath gone into the wilderness a day's Journey, and cometh and sitteth under a certain retem-tree, and desireth his soul to die, and saith, `Enough, now, O Jehovah, take my soul, for I <FI>am<Fi> not better than my fathers.'

1 Kings 19:5 And he lieth down and sleepeth under a certain retem-tree, and lo, a messenger cometh against him, and saith to him, `Rise, eat;'

1 Kings 19:6 and he looketh attentively, and lo, at his bolster a cake <FI>baken on<Fi> burning stones, and a dish of water, and he eateth, and drinketh, and turneth, and lieth down.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "himself", "hath", "gone", "wilderness", "day's", "journey", "cometh", and "sitteth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "himself" and "hath", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "And he feareth and riseth and goeth..." into verse 5's "And he lieth down and sleepeth under...", so "himself" and "hath" 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 "himself" and "hath" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.