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What's New
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July 2026
New article: “The Book of Revelation” (Revelation).
New article: “The Letters to the Seven Churches” (Revelation).
New article: “The Liturgy of Heaven” (Revelation).
New article: “The Woman, the Dragon, and the Lamb” (Revelation).
New article: “Babylon and the Judgment” (Revelation).
New article: “The New Jerusalem” (Revelation).
New article: “The Catholic Letters” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of James” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of Peter” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letters of John” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Letter of Jude” (Catholic Letters).
New article: “The Book of Acts” (Acts).
New article: “Pentecost” (Acts).
New article: “The Church of the First Days” (Acts).
New article: “The Gospel to the Nations” (Acts).
New article: “To the Ends of the Earth” (Acts).
New article: “The Book of Hosea” (Hosea).
New article: “The Book of Micah” (Micah).
New article: “The Book of Jonah” (Jonah).
New article: “The Book of Habakkuk” (Habakkuk).
New article: “The Book of Zephaniah” (Zephaniah).
New article: “The Book of Malachi” (Malachi).
New article: “The Book of Daniel” (Daniel).
New article: “Faith in the Trial” (Daniel).
New article: “The Kingdoms That Pass” (Daniel).
New article: “The Son of Man and the Resurrection” (Daniel).
New article: “Susanna and the Wisdom of God” (Daniel).
New article: “The Book of Jeremiah” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Jeremiah, the Tested Prophet” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The New Covenant” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Fall of Jerusalem and the Lamentations” (Jeremiah).
New article: “Baruch and the Hope of Exile” (Jeremiah).
New article: “The Song of Songs” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Movement of Love” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Garden of Symbols” (Song of Songs).
New article: “Love Strong as Death” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Senses of the Song” (Song of Songs).
New article: “The Book of Job” (Job).
New article: “The Prologue and the Trial” (Job).
New article: “Job and His Friends” (Job).
New article: “God’s Answer” (Job).
New article: “My Eyes Have Seen You” (Job).
New article: “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Quest for Happiness” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “A Time for Everything” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Joy That Is God’s Gift” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “Remember Your Creator” (Ecclesiastes).
New article: “The Book of Wisdom” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Righteous, the Wicked, and Immortality” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, the Breath of God” (Wisdom).
New article: “Wisdom, Guide of History” (Wisdom).
New article: “Knowing God and the Folly of Idols” (Wisdom).
New article: “The Book of Sirach” (Sirach).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord, Source of Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “Wisdom and the Law” (Sirach).
New article: “The Choice of Life and Everyday Wisdom” (Sirach).
New article: “The Praise of the Ancestors” (Sirach).
New article: “The Book of Proverbs” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Fear of the Lord and the Two Ways” (Proverbs).
New article: “Personified Wisdom” (Proverbs).
New article: “Wisdom for Daily Life” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Valiant Woman” (Proverbs).
New article: “The Psalter, Prayer of Israel” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Supplication and Trust” (Psalms).
New article: “The Royal and Messianic Psalms” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms of Ascents and Wisdom” (Psalms).
New article: “The Psalms on the Lips of Christ” (Psalms).
New article: “The Crisis and the Profanation of the Temple” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Eleazar and the Seven Brothers” (2 Maccabees).
New article: “Judas Maccabeus and the Dedication of the Temple” (1-2 Maccabees).
New article: “Jewish Independence” (1 Maccabees).
New article: “Tobit” (Tobit).
New article: “Judith” (Judith).
New article: “Esther” (Esther).
New article: “The Return and the House of God” (Ezra).
New article: “Ezra and the Return to the Law” (Ezra, Nehemiah).
New article: “Nehemiah and the Rebuilt City” (Nehemiah).
New article: “Samuel and the Rise of Kingship” (1-2 Samuel).
New article: “Saul and the Rise of David” (1 Samuel).
New article: “David, the Covenant, and the Promise” (2 Samuel).
New article: “Solomon and the Temple” (1 Kings).
New article: “The Schism and the Northern Kingdom” (1-2 Kings).
New article: “Judah until the Exile” (2 Kings, 2 Chronicles).
New article: “The Entry into the Promised Land” (Joshua).
New article: “The Division of the Land and the Covenant at Shechem” (Joshua).
New article: “The Time of the Judges” (Judges).
New article: “In Those Days There Was No King” (Judges).
New article: “Ruth the Moabite” (Ruth).
New article: “Abraham, Father of Believers” (Genesis).
New article: “Isaac and Jacob” (Genesis).
New article: “Joseph” (Genesis).
New article: “The Creation and the Rest” (Genesis).
New article: “The Garden and the Fall” (Genesis).
New article: “From Cain to Babel” (Genesis).
New article: “Personal Responsibility” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Ministry of the New Covenant” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Collection for the Saints” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “Strength in Weakness” (2 Corinthians).
New article: “The Decalogue.”
New article: “The Law of the Neighbor.”
New article: “The Law of Worship and Holiness.”
New article: “The Law and Christ.”
New article: “The Law, Gift of the Covenant.”
New article: “Freedom and idols” (1 Corinthians 8-10).
New article: “The charisms and the assembly” (1 Corinthians 12 and 14).
New article: “The Cardinal Virtues”.
New article: “Prudence”.
New article: “Temperance”.
The French Bible of the site is now the Chérubin translation, with section headings in the reader.
New article: “Resentment and Forgiveness”.
New article: “Judging One’s Neighbour”.
New article: “The New Temple and the River of Life” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Restoration of Israel” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Oracles Against the Nations” (Ezekiel).
New article: “The Symbolic Actions and the Judgment of Jerusalem”.
New article: “Ezekiel, the Prophet of the Exile”.
New article: “Anger and Meekness”.
New article: “Love”.
New article: “The Desire to Feel the Spirit”.
New article: “The Dark Night of the Soul”.
June 2026
New article: “Consolation and Desolation”.
New article: “Discerning the Movements of the Heart”.
New article: “The Fall of Nineveh”.
New article: “The God Who Judges and Who Saves”.
New article: “Nahum and the Assyrian Empire”.
New article: “Justice, the Day of the Lord, and Hope”.
New article: “The Visions and the Rejected Worship”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and of Israel”.
New article: “Amos, the Shepherd Prophet”.
New article: “The Glory of the Second Temple”.
New article: “The Four Oracles”.
New article: “Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple”.
New article: “The Expansion of Christianity”.
New article: “All Under Sin”.
New article: “The Epistle to the Romans”.
New article: “Sinai and the covenant”.
New article: “The deliverance”.
New article: “The bondage and the call”.
New article: “The oracles against the nations”.
New article: “Sadness”.
New article: “Fear”.
New article: “The finger of God”.
New article: “The baptism of Christ”.
New article: “The Resurrection and the Glorification”.
New article: “Holy Week”.
New article: “The third year: the opposition”.
New article: “The second year: popularity”.
New article: “The first year: the inauguration”.
New article: “The preparation for the ministry”.
New article: “The prologues and the coming of Christ”.
New: the “Memorise” tool.
New article: “The Real Presence.”
New article: “The four Servant Songs”.
New article: “Trito-Isaiah”.
New article: “Deutero-Isaiah”.
New article: “Proto-Isaiah”.
New article: “Predestination”.
New article: “The Angel of the Lord”.
New article: “Wars of Extermination in the Bible”.
New article: “Slavery in the Bible”.
New article: “The Nature of God”.
New article: “The Age of the Martyrs”.
New article: “The Abode of the Dead”.
New article: “The Canon and the Deuterocanonical Books”.
New article: “The Deacon”.
New article: “The Priest”.
New article: “Sola Scriptura”.
New article: “The Angels”.
New article: “Sola Fide”.
New article: “Once Saved, Always Saved”.
New article: “Elijah at Horeb”.
New article: “Turning the Other Cheek”.
New article: “Buy a Sword”.
New article: “Let the Dead Bury Their Dead”.
New article: “Jesus before Pilate”.
New article: “Jesus and Nicodemus”.
New article: “Invincible Ignorance”.
New article: “The Prophet and His Time”.
New article: “The Eight Night Visions”.
New article: “Joshua, the Branch and the Crown”.
New article: “Fasting and Restoration”.
New article: “First Oracle: The King Who Comes”.
New article: “The Book of Obadiah”.
New article: “Second Oracle: The Pierced One”.
New article: “The Day of the Lord”.
New article: “The Plague and the Day of the Lord”.
New article: “Conversion and the Spirit Poured Out”.
New article: “The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion”.
New article: “The Three Ways of the Interior Life”.
New article: “Freedom and Responsibility”.
New article: “The Moral Conscience”.
New article: “Doubt and the Moral Systems”.
New article: “Doing Evil for a Good”.
New article: “Adoration and Praise”.
New article: “Why God Asks for Adoration”.
New article: “Faith and Science”.
New article: “The Theory of Evolution”.
New article: “The Woes of Isaiah”.
New article: “The Dwelling, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices”.
New article: “The Forty Years in the Desert”.
New article: "The Discourses of Moses".
New article: "The Death of Moses".
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Elijah at Horeb

Elijah is the great prophet of the northern kingdom, in the days when King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had drawn Israel into the service of Baal. His very name, in Hebrew Eliyahu (אֵלִיָּהוּ), means “the Lord is my God”, and by itself denies the false god then worshipped. On Mount Carmel Elijah has just won a striking victory: alone he challenged the prophets of Baal, and the fire of the Lord fell from heaven upon his sacrifice, before all the people. “Then the fire of the Lord fell: it devoured the burnt offering, the wood, the stones and the dust, and licked up the water in the trench. At this sight, all the people fell face down, crying, The Lord is God!” 1 Kings 18:38-39 But Jezebel swears his death. The prophet who had stood up to a whole kingdom takes fright and flees into the wilderness. It is there, and then on the mountain of God, that the scene unfolds.

Under the broom tree

In the wilderness Elijah sits down under a broom tree and asks to die: “It is enough, Lord! Now take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 1 Kings 19:4 This collapse comes just after the greatest victory of his life: he has just seen fire fall from heaven, the people cry out that the Lord is God, the prophets of Baal put to death. A man who has obtained this should not tremble at the threat of one woman. If he collapses, it is because an expectation falls apart: he had thought Carmel decisive, hoped that such a display would break the house of Ahab and bring Israel back. Jezebel’s threat teaches him that nothing has changed, that the queen still reigns and that the reform is already dead; in calling himself no better than his fathers, he ranks himself among the prophets who struck before him without lasting result. His fear is not first about his life: it is his cause that he believes lost. Yet God addresses him no reproach. He puts him to sleep, then sends an angel who touches him and gives him food: “Get up, eat.” 1 Kings 19:5 Before speaking to his heart, God raises up his body.

The bread for the journey

The angel comes a second time, touches him again and uncovers the meaning of this food: “Get up, eat, for the journey is too long for you.” 1 Kings 19:7 Elijah rises and sets out: “Strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to Horeb.” 1 Kings 19:8 This bread come from God carries a man far beyond what any earthly food could do, and leads him to the mountain where God lets himself be found. The Church recognises in it the figure of the Eucharist, the bread that nourishes the soul and gives it strength to hold out all along the road toward God.

The mountain

Horeb is the mountain of the Covenant, where God had given his law to Moses. Going up to it after forty days of walking, as Moses had remained there forty days, Elijah goes back to the source. He enters a cave, and the word of God comes to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:9 The question does not seek information: it invites the prophet to say what fills him. Elijah answers with his complaint, his zeal for the Lord, his solitude, his threatened life: “I alone am left, and they are seeking to take my life.” 1 Kings 19:10

The voice of thin silence

God brings Elijah out and commands him to stand on the mountain, for he is about to pass by. Three forces then break loose, and in none of them is God found. A violent wind tears the mountains and shatters the rocks: “The Lord was not in the wind.” Then an earthquake, then a fire, and each time the same word: “The Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire.” 1 Kings 19:11-12 At last comes something wholly other: “And after the fire, the murmur of a gentle breeze.” 1 Kings 19:12 The Hebrew says qol demamah daqqah (קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה), a voice of thin silence, the faint sound of a stillness almost without noise. It is there that God stands.

The wind, the earthquake and the fire are the great forces by which God is expected, those that in Scripture escort his manifestations. It was on this same mountain that God had given himself to Moses: “the Lord had come down on it in fire; the smoke rose from it like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently” Exodus 19:18. Elijah, standing where Moses had stood, awaits the God of Sinai and of Carmel, the God of fire; and the fire passes without him. By letting them pass without being in them, he undeceives the prophet about the way he gives himself. On Carmel, Elijah had seen him answer by fire, in splendour and power, and it is still a God of fire that he awaits; he himself is a prophet of fire, full of an ardent zeal. Yet the one who draws near stands in the faint breeze, in gentleness and silence. His most intimate presence is not found in the crash that terrifies, but in the light breath one perceives only by silencing every noise. Whoever seeks God in the tumult passes him by; it is within, in silence, that he lets himself be reached. This gentleness in which God reveals himself foreshadows from afar that of Christ: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” Matthew 11:29

At that breath, Elijah veils his face: “When he heard it, Elijah wrapped his face in his cloak.” 1 Kings 19:13 The gesture acknowledges the presence of God, before whom man cannot keep his eyes open.

All this retraces the path of Moses. It was on this same mountain that God had made his glory pass before him, hiding him in the cleft of the rock, for no one can see his face and live: “When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by.” Exodus 33:22 To Elijah too God announces that he will pass by, and the prophet veils his face before that glory which no man can look upon.

Seven thousand

The same question returns, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”, and the prophet repeats his complaint, word for word. The whole of that complaint held in one word, repeated twice: he is left alone. It was on this conviction that his wish to die under the broom tree rested: if he is the last faithful one and is hunted down, all is lost and he with it. God undoes that certainty with a single sentence: “I will keep for myself in Israel seven thousand men: all those whose knees have not bent before Baal.” 1 Kings 19:18 Elijah thought himself alone; they are seven thousand. The prophet read his situation backwards: where he saw only defeat and abandonment, God was secretly keeping a whole people that had remained faithful. Paul will take up this remnant of seven thousand as the figure of the remnant of Israel that God keeps for himself in every age: “at the present time, there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” Romans 11:5 The cause of God never rests on one man, and his work does not die out when the one who carries it believes himself finished. Raised from his solitude, Elijah is sent back to men: God charges him to anoint kings and to give himself a successor, Elisha, who will prophesy after him. “You shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram; you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel, and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, as prophet in your place.” 1 Kings 19:15-16

Later, on another mountain, Elijah will stand again before God: beside Moses, he will appear in glory and speak with Christ transfigured. “And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him.” Matthew 17:3 The one who had sought God in the murmur of Horeb then contemplates him face to face in the Son.

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