1 Kings 17:17-24

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, "¹What do I have to do with you, O ²man 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 ³Then 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, ⁴and 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, "⁵Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

1 Kings 17:17-24 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. 2 Samuel 16:10; 2 Kings 3:13; Luke 4:34; John 2:4
• 2. 1 Kings 12:22
• 3. 2 Kings 4:34, 35; Acts 20:10
• 4. Luke 7:14; Hebrews 11:35
• 5. John 2:11; John 3:2; John 16:30

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "Have you come...death?"
• [b]. Lit "sojourning"
• [c]. Lit "upon his inward part"
• [d]. Lit "upon his inward part"