Tishbite

Tishbite is the designation of Elijah the prophet, indicating his origin from Tishbe (or Thisbe) in Gilead, east of the Jordan (1 Kings 17:1). The epithet marks him as a foreigner in the Israelite heartland — a man from the Transjordanian highlands who appeared suddenly before King Ahab to pronounce judgment. The name of his hometown is linked in Hitchcock's lexicon with meanings related to captivity.

As "Elijah the Tishbite," he is one of the most dramatic figures in the Hebrew prophets: the announcer of a three-year drought (1 Kings 17:1), the challenger of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), the despairing fugitive who heard the still small voice at Horeb (1 Kings 19:12), and the prophet taken up in a whirlwind without dying (2 Kings 2:11). The NT connects him to John the Baptist and to the spirit of prophetic confrontation with corrupt power.