1Then Elijah the Tishbite, from the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.”
2And the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,
3“Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
4And it shall be that you will drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to sustain you there.”
5So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh; he went and stayed by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
6And the ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the wadi.
7But after a while the wadi dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
8And the word of Yahweh came to him, saying,
9“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you.”
10So he arose and went to Zarephath, and he came to the entrance of the city, and behold, there a widow woman was gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.”
11As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12But she said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in the flask. And behold, I am gathering a couple of sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, so we may eat it and die.”
13And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear. Go, do as you have said; but first make me a little cake from it and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for yourself and your son.
14For thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the flask of oil shall not fail, until the day Yahweh gives rain upon the face of the ground.’”
15So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she ate—she and he and her household—for days.
16The jar of flour was not spent, and the flask of oil did not fail, according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by the hand of Elijah.
17Now after these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell ill, and his illness was so severe that no breath was left in him.
18And she said to Elijah, “What is there between me and you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!”
19But he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.
20Then he called out to Yahweh and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought disaster on the widow with whom I am staying, by putting her son to death?”
21And he stretched himself out over the child three times and called out to Yahweh and said, “Yahweh my God, please let this child’s life return to him.”
22And Yahweh heard the voice of Elijah, and the child’s life returned to him, and he lived.
23Then 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.”
24And the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.”
Open in the interactive reader →