Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
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Then the word of the LORD came to him:
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“Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow there to supply you with food.”
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So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”
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As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”
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“As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”
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Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.
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For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.’ ”
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She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.
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For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.
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Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.
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She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”
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“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.
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Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?”
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Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”
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The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived.
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Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”
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Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”
