Arise and eat ... - i. e., "Eat a second time, for otherwise the journey will be beyond thy powers." "The journey" was not simply a pilgrimage to Horeb, which was less than 200 miles distant, and might have been reached in six or seven days. It was to be a wandering in the wilderness, not unlike that of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt; only it was to last forty days instead of forty years.

The journey is too great for thee - From Beer-sheba to Horeb was about one hundred and fifty miles.

And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him,.... In order to awake him out of sleep:

and said unto him, arise, and eat, because the journey is too great for thee; which he had to go to Horeb, without eating more than he had; and there were no provisions to be had in a common way and manner in his road thither.

But the angel wakened him a second time, and called upon him to eat with these words: "for the way is too far for thee" (רב ממּך הדּרך, iter est majus quam pro viribus tuis - Vat.).

And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because {d} the journey is too great for thee.

(d) He declares that unless God had nourished him miraculously it would have been impossible for him to have gone on this journey.

19:7 Angel of the Lord, and c. - He needed not to complain of the unkindness of men, when it was thus made up by the ministration of angels. Wherever God's children are, they are still under their father's eye.

19:1-8 Jezebel sent Elijah a threatening message. Carnal hearts are hardened and enraged against God, by that which should convince and conquer them. Great faith is not always alike strong. He might be serviceable to Israel at this time, and had all reason to depend upon God's protection, while doing God's work; yet he flees. His was not the deliberate desire of grace, as Paul's, to depart and be with Christ. God thus left Elijah to himself, to show that when he was bold and strong, it was in the Lord, and the power of his might; but of himself he was no better than his fathers. God knows what he designs us for, though we do not, what services, what trials, and he will take care that we are furnished with grace sufficient.