Chapter 17

¹Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners 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. ²The word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ³Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. ⁴It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. ⁵So he went and did according to the word of Yahweh; for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. ⁶The ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. ⁷It happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. ⁸The word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁹Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you. ¹⁰So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks: and he called to her, and said, Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. ¹¹As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand. ¹²She said, As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the jar: and 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. ¹³Elijah said to her, Don’t be afraid; go and do as you have said; but make me of it a little cake first, and bring it forth to me, and afterward make for you and for your son. ¹⁴For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, The jar of meal shall not empty, neither shall the jar of oil fail, until the day that Yahweh sends rain on the earth. ¹⁵She went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, ate many days. ¹⁶The jar of meal didn’t empty, neither did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke by Elijah. ¹⁷It happened after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸She 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! ¹⁹He said to her, Give me your son. He took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the chamber, where he abode, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰He cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son? ²¹He 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. ²²Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. ²³Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother; and Elijah said, Behold, your son lives. ²⁴The woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.