1 Kings 19:4

Hebrew Bible

2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah with this warning, “May the gods judge me severely if by this time tomorrow I do not take your life as you did theirs!” 3 Elijah was afraid, so he got up and fled for his life to Beer Sheba in Judah. He left his servant there, 4 while he went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He went and sat down under a shrub and asked the Lord to take his life: “I’ve had enough! Now, O Lord, take my life. After all, I’m no better than my ancestors. 5 He stretched out and fell asleep under the shrub. Suddenly an angelic messenger touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

Tobit 3:6

Deuterocanon

5 And now your many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for my sins. For we have not kept your commandments and have not walked in accordance with truth before you. 6 So now deal with me as you will; command my spirit to be taken from me, so that I may be released from the face of the earth and become dust. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have had to listen to undeserved insults, and great is the sorrow within me. Command, O Lord, that I be released from this distress; release me to go to the eternal home, and do not, O Lord, turn your face away from me. For it is better for me to die than to see so much distress in my life and to listen to insults."

 Notes and References

"... A major characteristic of [Tobit] is the allusion to earlier biblical texts. In his prayer, Tobit is so discouraged he prays to die. Here he is following the example of noble predecessors: Moses (Numbers 11:15) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:4; see also Jonah 4:3). At the end of the story Tobit, like Moses, dies outside the Promised Land but looks forward to its future (see Deuteronomy 31:7-8; 32:44-52). The meeting between Tobiah and the family of Raguel (7:1-6) is patterned on the meeting between Jacob and the family of Laban in Genesis (Genesis 29:4-14). In Tobiah’s prayer he suggests that he and Sarah are modeled on Adam and Eve (Tobit 8:6). Raphael’s character echoes that of earlier biblical angels: the angel who appeared to Manoah and his wife who asks, “Why do you ask my name?” and who also ascends to heaven (Judges 13:18, 20; Tobit 5:12; 12:20) ..."

Durken, Daniel The New Collegeville Bible Commentary: In One Volume (p. 732) Liturgical Press, 2017

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