Królów I 18:3 Komentarz: Tze'enah Ure'enah

“Ahab summoned” [18:3]. King Ahab summoned Obadiah who was in charge of his house. Obadiah feared God even when he was in the house of an evildoer. What good did he do? When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, was killing all the righteous prophets, Obadiah hid fifty in a cave and another fifty in another cave and gave them food and drink. Obadiah risked his life with this. If Jezebel had known this, she would have killed him.

The Talmud writes in [tractate] Sanhedrin, chapter four. Rabbi Isaac said: Ahab said to Obadiah. Why was there no good fortune and blessing in his house when you are so pious? The house should have been blessed for your sake, and I, Ahab, never had good fortune in my house. Ahab said: Laban said to Jacob, who had served Laban: God had blessed his house because of Jacob. Also Joseph, who served an Egyptian, the Holy One blessed the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph. A Heavenly Voice immediately went forth and said: Obadiah is righteous, but the house of Ahab is not worthy of any blessing because Ahab is an evildoer. Rabbi Abba said: it is because Obadiah was better in his righteousness and good deeds than Abraham Our Father. Why did he hide fifty [prophets] in one cave when he could have hidden all one hundred in one cave? Rabbi Eliezer said: Obadiah learned from Jacob Our Father, who divided his household and children into groups. He thought that if Esau would come to attack one group, then the other one would run away. Obadiah did the same in dividing the prophets into two caves.³B. Sanhedrin, 39b; Yalkut Shimoni, I Kings, Remez, 210.