1 Kings 19:3

19:3 Elijah was afraid, so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there,

1 Kings 19:9

19:9 He went into a cave there and spent the night. All of a sudden the Lord spoke to him, “Why are you here, Elijah?”


tc The MT has “and he saw,” but some medieval Hebrew mss as well as several ancient versions support the reading “he was afraid.” The consonantal text (וַיַּרְא, vayyar’) is ambiguous and can be vocalized וַיַּרְא (from רָאָה, raah, “to see”) or וַיִּרָא (vayyira’, from יָרֵא, yare’, “to fear”).