1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!” 2 Then a revelation from the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. 4 And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So Elijah did what the LORD had told him, and he went and lived by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he would drink from the brook. 7 Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 9 “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 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.” 11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread.” 12 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 take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.” 13 “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, 14 for this is what the LORD, the 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 upon the face of the earth.’” 15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and there was food every day for Elijah and the woman and her household. 16 The jar of flour was not exhausted and the jug of oil did not run dry, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through Elijah. 17 Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him. 18 “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?” 19 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. 20 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?” 21 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!” 22 And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the child’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 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. 24 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.”
1 Kings · Majority Standard Bible
1 Kings 17 Majority Standard Bible
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
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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).
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“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)