First Book of Kings 17

¹ Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead said to Ahab, ‘As Yahweh lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except at my order’.

² The word of Yahweh came to him,

³ ‘Go away from here, go eastwards, and hide yourself in the wadi Cherith which lies east of Jordan.

⁴ You can drink from the stream, and I have ordered the ravens to bring you food there.’

⁵ He did as Yahweh had said; he went and stayed in the wadi Cherith which lies east of Jordan.

⁶ The ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he quenched his thirst at the stream.

⁷ But after a while the stream dried up, for the country had no rain.

⁸ And then the word of Yahweh came to him,

⁹ ‘Up and go to Zarephath, a Sidonian town, and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to give you food.’

¹⁰ So he went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks; addressing her he said, ‘Please bring a little water in a vessel for me to drink’.

¹¹ She was setting off to bring it when he called after her. ‘Please’ he said ‘bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.’

¹² ‘As Yahweh your God lives,’ she replied ‘I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.’

¹³ But Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son.

¹⁴ For thus Yahweh speaks, the God of Israel: “Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when Yahweh sends rain on the face of the earth”.’

¹⁵ The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son.

¹⁶ The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as Yahweh had foretold through Elijah.

¹⁷ It happened after this that the son of the mistress of the house fell sick; his illness was so severe that in the end he had no breath left in him.

¹⁸ And the woman said to Elijah, ‘What quarrel have you with me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and to kill my son?’

¹⁹ ‘Give me your son’ he said, and taking him from her lap, carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed.

²⁰ He cried out to Yahweh, ‘Yahweh my God, do you mean to bring grief to the widow who is looking after me by killing her son?’

²¹ He stretched himself on the child three times and cried out to Yahweh, ‘Yahweh my God, may the soul of this child, I beg you, come into him again!’

²² Yahweh heard the prayer of Elijah and the soul of the child returned to him again and he revived. ‘

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

²⁴ And the woman replied, ‘Now I know you are a man of God and the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth itself’.