And the LORD said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.
Here is, I. Elijah housed in a cave at Mount Horeb, which is called the mount of God, because on it God had formerly manifested his glory. And perhaps this was the same cave, or cleft of a rock, in which Moses was hidden when the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed his name, Exo 33:22.
Commenting on 1 Kings 19:9-18
And the Lord said unto him, go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus,.... He is bid to go back the way he came, through the wilderness of Arabia, which was part of his way to Damascus, near to which was another wilderness, which took its name from thence; though Fortunatus Schacchus (x) thinks no other is meant by this phrase than returning...
To the wilderness of Damascus - He does not desire him to take a road by which he might be likely to meet Jezebel, or any other of his enemies. Anoint Hazael - For what reason the Lord was about to make all these revolutions, we are told in Kg1 19:17. God was about to bring his judgments upon the land, and especially on the house of Ahab.