CHAPTER 17
Now Elijah
the Tishbite,
who was among the settlers
of Gilead,
said
to
Ahab,
“As surely as the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
lives,
I stand
before Him,
and in these
years
there will be
neither
dew
nor rain
except
at
my word!"
So Elijah did
what the LORD
had told him,
and he went
and lived
by the Brook
Cherith,
east of
the Jordan.
The ravens
would bring
him
bread
and meat
in the morning
and evening,
and he would drink
from
the brook.
“Get up,
go
to Zarephath
of Sidon,
and stay
there.
Behold,
I have commanded
a widow
there
to provide for you.”
So Elijah got up
and went
to Zarephath.
When he arrived
at
the city
gate,
there
was a widow
gathering
sticks.
Elijah called
to
her and said,
“Please
bring
me
a little
water
in a cup,
so that I may drink."
But she replied,
“As surely as the LORD
your God
lives,
I
have
no
bread—
only
a handful
of flour
in a jar
and a little
oil
in a jug.
Look,
I am gathering
a couple of
sticks
to go in
and prepare
for myself
and my son,
so that we may eat it
and die."
“Do not
be afraid,”
Elijah
said
to her.
“Go
and do
as you have said.
But
first
make me
a small
cake of bread
from what you have,
and bring it out
to me.
Afterward,
make some
for yourself
and your son,
for
this is what
the LORD
God
of Israel
says:
‘The jar
of flour
will not
be exhausted
and the jug
of oil
will not
run dry
until
the day
the LORD
sends
rain
on
the face
of the earth.”
So she went
and did
according to the word
of Elijah,
and the woman,
Elijah,
and her household
had food to eat
every day.
The jar
of flour
was not
exhausted
and the jug
of oil
did not
run dry,
according to the word
the LORD
had spoken
through
Elijah.
Later,
the son
of the woman
who owned
the house
became ill,
and his sickness
grew
severe,
until
no
breath
remained
in him.
“O man
of God,”
said the woman
to
Elijah,
“what
have you done
to me?
Have you come
to remind me
of my iniquity
and cause the death
of my son?”
But Elijah said
to her,
“Give
me your son.”
So he took him
from her arms,
carried him
to
the upper room
where
he
was staying,
and laid
him on
his own bed.
Then he cried out
to
the LORD,
“O LORD
my God,
have You also
brought tragedy
on
this widow
who has opened her home to me
by causing
her son to die?”
Then he stretched himself out
over
the child
three
times
and cried out
to
the LORD,
“O LORD
my God,
please
let this
boy’s
life
return
to
him!”
And the LORD
listened
to the voice
of Elijah,
and the child’s
life
returned
to
him,
and he lived.
Then Elijah
took
the child,
brought him down
from
the upper room
into the house,
and gave him
to his mother.
“Look,
your son
is alive,”
Elijah
declared.
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 truth.”