1 Kings 17 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Elijah the Tishbite (from Tishbe in Gilead), told Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, the one I serve, in the years to come there will not be any dew or rain unless I say so!”
1 Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
2 Then the Lord told Elijah,
2 Then Yahweh’s word came to him, saying,
3 “Leave here and go east. Hide in the valley of the Cherith brook where it meets the Jordan.
3 “Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.
4 You can drink from the brook, and I have ordered ravens to bring you food you there.”
4 You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
5 So Elijah did what the Lord told him. He went to the valley of the Cherith brook, where it meets the Jordan, and stayed there.
5 So he went and did according to Yahweh’s word, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before the Jordan.
6 Ravens brought him bread and meat both in the morning and in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.
7 A while later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
7 After a while, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 Then the Lord told Elijah,
8 Yahweh’s word came to him, saying,
9 “Leave here and go to Zarephath near Sidon and stay there. I have given instructions to a widow there to provide you with food.”
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”
10 So he left for Zarephath. When he arrived at the entrance to the town, he saw a woman, a widow, gathering sticks. He called her over and asked her, “Could you bring me a little water in a cup so I can have a drink?”
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”
11 As she was going to get it, he called after her and said, “Oh, and please bring me a piece of bread.”
11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12 She replied, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour is left in a jar and a little bit of olive oil in a jug. Right now I am gathering a few sticks so I can go and cook what's left for myself and my son so we can eat it, and then we'll die.”
12 She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have anything baked, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”
13 Elijah said to her, “Don't be afraid. Go home and do what you said. But first make me a small loaf of bread from what you have and bring it to me. Then make something for yourself and your son.
13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son.
14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not become empty and the jug of olive oil will not run out until the day the Lord sends rain to water the ground.’”
14 For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘The jar of meal will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth.’”
15 She went and did as Elijah had told her, and Elijah, the widow, and her household were able to eat for many days.
15 She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, he, and her household ate many days.
16 The jar of flour did not become empty and the jug of olive oil did not run out, just as the Lord had said through Elijah.
16 The jar of meal didn’t run out and the jar of oil didn’t fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah.
17 Later on the woman's son fell sick. (She was the one who owned the house.) He went from bad to worse, and finally he died.
17 After these things, 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 “What are you doing to me, man of God?” the woman asked Elijah. “Have you come to remind me about my sins and cause my son to die?”
18 She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!”
19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He picked him up from her arms, carried him upstairs to the room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.
19 He said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed.
20 Then he cried out to the Lord, saying, “Lord my God, why have you allowed this to happen to this widow who has opened her home to me, this terrible tragedy of causing her son to die?”
20 He cried to Yahweh and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”
21 He stretched himself out on the boy three times, and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, please let this boy's life return to him!”
21 He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh and said, “Yahweh my God, please let this child’s soul come into him again.”
22 The Lord responded to Elijah's cry. The boy's life returned to him, and he lived!
22 Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 Elijah took the boy and brought him down from the room into the house, and gave him to his mother. “See, your son is alive,” Elijah told her.
23 Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the room into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, “Behold, your son lives.”
24 “Now I'm convinced that you are a man of God, and that what the Lord speaks through you is the truth,” the woman replied.
24 The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that Yahweh’s word in your mouth is truth.”
People & places in this chapter
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People
Elijah the Tishbite
A prophet among the settlers of Gilead who announced a drought to Ahab, was fed by ravens, revived the widow's son at Zarephath, defeated Baal's prophets on Mount Carmel, heard…
Cited in the guide: 1 Kings 17:1; 1 Kings 18:36; 1 Kings 19:9
Cross references (24)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Luke 4:25–26; James 5:17; Luke 1:17; 1 Kings 22:14; 2 Kings 3:14
- 2 Jeremiah 18:1; Jeremiah 11:1; 1 Chronicles 17:3; Hosea 1:1–2; 1 Kings 12:22
- 3 Jeremiah 36:26; Psalm 31:20; Revelation 12:6; Hebrews 11:38; Psalm 83:3
- 4 1 Kings 17:9; Psalm 147:9; Job 38:41; 1 Kings 19:5–8; Matthew 4:4
- 5 Matthew 16:24; John 15:14; Proverbs 3:5; 1 Kings 19:9
- 6 Psalm 78:23–24; Matthew 6:31–33; Jeremiah 37:21; Psalm 78:15–16; Matthew 14:19–21
- 7 Isaiah 54:10; Isaiah 40:30–31
- 8 Genesis 22:14; 1 Kings 17:2; Hebrews 13:6; Isaiah 41:17
- 9 Luke 4:26; Obadiah 20; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Kings 17:4; Matthew 15:21–22
- 10 John 4:7; Genesis 24:17; Hebrews 11:37; 2 Corinthians 11:27; Genesis 21:15
- 11 Genesis 24:18–19; Hebrews 13:2; Genesis 18:5; 1 Kings 18:4; Matthew 25:35–40
- 12 Matthew 15:33–34; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 4:2–7; Genesis 21:16; Ezekiel 12:18–19
- 13 Malachi 3:10; Matthew 6:33; Judges 7:5–7; Matthew 28:5; Proverbs 3:9
- 14 Matthew 15:36–38; Matthew 14:17–20; 2 Kings 4:42–44; 2 Kings 3:16; 2 Kings 7:1
- 15 Genesis 6:22; Matthew 15:28; Hebrews 11:17; Mark 12:43; Romans 4:19–20
- 16 Matthew 9:28–30; Luke 1:37; John 4:50–51; Matthew 19:26; 1 Kings 16:12
- 17 James 1:12; John 11:14; James 1:2–4; Job 34:14; John 11:3–4
- 18 Luke 5:8; Luke 4:34; John 2:4; 2 Kings 3:13; 2 Samuel 16:10
- 19 2 Kings 4:32; Acts 9:37; 2 Kings 4:10; 2 Kings 4:21
- 20 James 5:15–18; Matthew 21:22; 1 Samuel 7:8–9; Exodus 17:4; 2 Kings 19:15
- 21 Acts 20:10; Acts 9:40; 2 Kings 4:33–35; Hebrews 11:19; Acts 10:10
- 22 Revelation 11:11; Deuteronomy 32:39; John 5:28–29; Hebrews 11:35; Romans 14:9
- 23 2 Kings 4:36–37; Luke 7:15; Acts 9:41; Hebrews 11:35
- 24 John 16:30; John 2:11; John 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 John 2:21
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Not even His servant Elias, to whom He sent bread and flesh by the ravens upon a certain occasion had need of this; and yet that a religious widow might be blessed, the servant of God is sent, and he whom God in secret did feed, is fed by the widow.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)