1 Kings 17:7-24

7 It happened after * a while that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

9 "Arise, go to ¹Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, ²I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and ³he called to her and said, "Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink."

11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand."

12 But she said, "⁴As the LORD your God lives, ⁵I have no bread, only * a handful * of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and ⁶die."

13 Then Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.

14 "For thus says the LORD God of Israel, 'The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.' "

15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.

16 The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.

Elijah Raises the Widow's Son

17 Now it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

18 So she said to Elijah, "⁷What do I have to do with you, O ⁸man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!"

19 He said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where * he was living, and laid him on his own bed.

20 He called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?"

21 ⁹Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray You, let this child's life return to him."

22 The LORD heard the voice of Elijah, ¹⁰and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.

23 Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son is alive."

24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "¹¹Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

1 Kings 17:7-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 17

This chapter begins with a prophecy of Elijah, that there should be want of rain for some years to come, and he is directed to go first to the brook Cherith, where he should be fed by ravens, 1Ki 17:1-7, and afterwards he is sent to a widow at Zarephath, where he, she, and her son, were supported for a considerable time with a handful of meal, and a little oil in a cruse miraculously increased, 1Ki 17:8-16, whose son falling sick and dying, he restored to life, 1Ki 17:17-24.

Cross References

• 1. Obadiah 20; Luke 4:26
• 2. 1 Kings 17:4
• 3. Genesis 24:17; John 4:7
• 4. 1 Kings 17:1
• 5. 2 Kings 4:2-7
• 6. Genesis 21:15, 16
• 7. 2 Samuel 16:10; 2 Kings 3:13; Luke 4:34; John 2:4
• 8. 1 Kings 12:22
• 9. 2 Kings 4:34, 35; Acts 20:10
• 10. Luke 7:14; Hebrews 11:35
• 11. John 2:11; John 3:2; John 16:30

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "vessel"
• [b]. Lit "cake"
• [c]. Lit "pitcher"
• [d]. Lit "two"
• [e]. Lit "there"
• [f]. Lit "pitcher"
• [g]. Lit "lack"
• [h]. Lit "pitcher"
• [i]. Lit "lack"
• [j]. Or "Have you come...death?"
• [k]. Lit "sojourning"
• [l]. Lit "upon his inward part"
• [m]. Lit "upon his inward part"