1 Kings 17

Elijah Announces Famine

17Now Elijah ^gthe Tishbite, from the Gilead settlers, ^hisaid to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, ^jI stand before Him, and there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command!” ^k

²Then a revelation from the Lord came to him: ³“Leave here, turn eastward, and hide ^lyourself at the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. ⁴You are to drink from the wadi. I have commanded the ravens ^mto provide for you there.”

⁵So he did what the Lord commanded. Elijah left and lived by the Wadi Cherith where it enters the Jordan. ⁶The ravens kept bringing him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, ⁿand he drank from the wadi. ⁷After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

Elijah and the Widow

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹“Get up, go to Zarephath ^othat belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman who is a widow to provide for you there.” ¹⁰So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow woman gathering wood. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup and let me drink.” ^p11As she went to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

¹²But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, ^qI don’t have anything baked—only a handful of flour in the jar and a bit of oil ^rin the jug. Just now, I am gathering a couple of sticks in order to go prepare it for myself and my son so we can eat it and die.” ^s

¹³Then Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said. But first make me a small loaf from it and bring it out to me. Afterward, you may make some for yourself and your son, ¹⁴for this is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘The flour jar will not become empty and the oil jug will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the surface of the land.” ^t

¹⁵So she proceeded to do according to the word of Elijah. Then the woman, Elijah, and her household ate for many days. ^u16The flour jar did not become empty, and the oil jug did not run dry, according to the word of the Lord He had spoken through ^vElijah.

The Widow’s Son Raised

¹⁷After this, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. His illness became very severe until no breath remained in him. ^w18She said to Elijah, “Man of God, ^xwhat do we have in common? ^yHave you come to remind me of my guilt ^zand to kill my son?”

¹⁹But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, brought him up to the upper room ^awhere he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰Then he cried out to the Lord ^band said, “My Lord God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow I am staying with by killing her son?” ²¹Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times. ^cHe cried out to the Lord and said, “My Lord God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”

²²So the Lord listened to Elijah’s voice, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. ^d23Then Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. ^eElijah said, “Look, your son is alive.”

²⁴Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know you are a man of God ^fand the Lord’s word from your mouth is true.” ^g