The prophet Elijah fed by the angel on Mount Horeb (I Kings 19:5-6)

This scene of the prophet Elijah fed by the angel on Mount Horeb forms part of the Holy Sacrament Altarpiece wing panels, depicting the moment in I Kings when the exhausted prophet, fleeing Jezebel, sleeps under a juniper tree and is twice wakened by an angel who provides bread and water, saying 'the journey is too long for you.' Christian typology interpreted this supernatural nourishment as prefiguration of the Eucharist, sustaining the faithful through the wilderness of earthly life. Bouts renders the sleeping prophet and the angel's gentle ministry in a naturalistic landscape. The Old Testament subject is treated with the same devotional gravity as New Testament scenes.

The desert scene is rendered with Bouts's precise landscape technique, the angel's provision of bread creating a visual parallel to the eucharistic theme of the central Last Supper panel.