The Juniper (Broom Tree)

After the victory on Mount Carmel, Elijah fled from Jezebel into the wilderness, 'sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die.' The Hebrew word, rothem, is usually identified as the white broom, a desert shrub that gives thin but welcome shade. There God did not rebuke his exhausted prophet. He let him sleep, and an angel touched him twice with the words, 'Arise and eat,' providing bread and water for the journey ahead. The broom tree became a picture of God's gentle care for the worn-out and despairing.

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Strongest connections in Scripture

1 Kings 19

Key Passages

Elijah Under the Juniper Tree

1 Kings 19:3-8

God meets his despairing prophet with sleep, food and water before giving him any new task.

A³nd when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. ⁵ And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. ⁶ And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. ⁷ And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. ⁸ And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.