SEV Biblia, Chapter 18:28
Y ellos clamaban a grandes voces, y se sajaban con cuchillos y con lancetas conforme a su costumbre, hasta cubrirse de sangre.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Kings 18:28
Verse 28. They cried aloud] The poor fools acted as they were bidden. And cut themselves after their manner] This was done according to the rites of that barbarous religion; if the blood of the bullock would not move him they thought their own blood might; and with it they smeared themselves and their sacrifice. This was not only the custom of the idolatrous Israelites, but of the Syrians, Persians, Greeks, Indians, and in short of all the heathen world.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 28. And they cried aloud , etc.] Trying to make him hear, if possible: and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them ; so the priests of Heathen deities used to slash themselves on their shoulders, arms, and thighs, in their devotions to them, as many writers observe f396 , fancying their gods were delighted with human blood; particularly the priests of Bellona f397 , and the worshippers of the Syrian goddess f398 , and of the Egyptian Isis f399 .
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 21-40 - Many of the people wavered in their judgment, and varied in their practice. Elijah called upon them to determine whether Jehovah or Baa was the self-existent, supreme God, the Creator, Governor, and Judge of the world, and to follow him alone. It is dangerous to halt between the service of God and the service of sin, the dominion of Christ and the dominion of our lusts. If Jesus be the only Saviour, let us cleave to him alone for every thing; if the Bible be the world of God, let u reverence and receive the whole of it, and submit our understanding to the Divine teaching it contains. Elijah proposed to bring the matter to a trial. Baal had all the outward advantages, but the event encourage all God's witnesses and advocates never to fear the face of man. The God that answers by fire, let him be God: the atonement was to be mad by sacrifice, before the judgment could be removed in mercy. The God therefore that has power to pardon sin, and to signify it by consumin the sin-offering, must needs be the God that can relieve from the calamity. God never required his worshippers to honour him in the manner of the worshippers of Baal; but the service of the devil, thoug sometimes it pleases and pampers the body, yet, in other things, reall is cruel to it, as in envy and drunkenness. God requires that we mortify our lusts and corruptions; but bodily penances and severitie are no pleasure to him. Who has required these things at your hands? few words uttered in assured faith, and with fervent affection for the glory of God, and love to the souls of men, or thirstings after the Lord's image and his favour, form the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man, which availeth much. Elijah sought not his own glory but that of God, for the good of the people. The people are all agreed convinced, and satisfied; Jehovah, he is the God. Some, we hope, ha their hearts turned, but most of them were convinced only, no converted. Blessed are they that have not seen what these saw, yet have believed, and have been wrought upon by it, more than they that saw it.
Original Hebrew
ויקראו 7121 בקול 6963 גדול 1419 ויתגדדו 1413 כמשׁפטם 4941 בחרבות 2719 וברמחים 7420 עד 5704 שׁפך 8210 דם 1818 עליהם׃ 5921
