Luke 4:26

26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.

Luke 4:26 in Other Translations

26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

26 and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.

26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

26 but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta in Sidon?

26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them-but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.

Luke 4:26 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 4:26

But unto none of them was Elias sent
That is, to none of the poor widows in the land of Israel was the prophet sent, to supply them with food, and relieve them in their famishing circumstances, as might most reasonably have been expected:

save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon;
which in ( 1 Kings 17:10 ) is called "Zarephath"; and by the Septuagint there, "Sarepta of Sidon", as here. Pliny ^F18 speaks of it by the same name, and reckons it to Sidon:

unto a woman that was a widow:
she is said by the Jews ^F19, to be the mother of Jonah the prophet. Our Lord meant to observe, by this instance, as by the following, that God bestows his favours on persons in a sovereign way, and sometimes upon the most unlikely; as in a time of famine, he overlooked the poor widows in Israel, his peculiar people, and sent his prophet to a Gentile woman in one of the cities of Sidon; and therefore they should cease to wonder if he wrought his miracles in other places, and not in his own country; since this was agreeable to the divine procedure in other cases, especially since they were a cavilling and unbelieving people. The Jews say ^F20, that in all that generation there was not found any one that was worthy, as this woman.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 L. 5. c. 19.
F19 Pirke Eliezer, c. 33.
F20 Zohar in Exod. fol. 89. 2.

Luke 4:26 In-Context

24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.

26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.

27 And there were many in Israel with leprosyin the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this.

Cross References

• 1. 1 Kings 17:8-16; S Matthew 11:21