17:1 Elijah. “Elijah” means “Jehovah is God,” a most appropriate name for a believer in the true God in a nation and time so thoroughly dominated by pagan apostasy.

17:1 not be dew nor rain. This remarkable prophecy was miraculously fulfilled. There was no rain in the land of Israel for 3½ years (note I Kings 18:1, and compare Luke 4:25 and James 5:17), until Elijah confronted and defeated all the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (I Kings 18:17-45). Yet James reminds us that Elijah was a man “of like passions as we” (James 5:17) and that this miracle was simply an answer to his fervent prayer.