Melachim I - Chapter 17

1. And Elijah the Tishbite of the settlers of Gilead said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, whom I serve, lives, if there will be during these years dew or rain except according to my word."

2. And the word of the Lord came to him saying.

3. "Go from here and you shall turn eastward and hide in the brook of Cherith, which is before the Jordan.

4. And it shall be from the brook you shall drink and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.

5. He went and did as the word of the Lord, and he went and resided in the Brook of Cherith which is before the Jordan.

6. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and from the brook did he drink.

7. And it came to pass after a time that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land.

8. And the word of the Lord came to him saying.

9. "Arise, go to Zarephath which belongs to Zidon and sojourn there. Behold I have commanded a widow there to feed you."

10. And he rose and went to Zarephath, and he came to the entrance of the city, and behold there was a widow gathering wood. He called her and said, "Please take to me a little water in a vessel and I shall drink."

11. And she went to take, and he called her and said, "Take to me a morsel of bread in your hand."

12. And she said, "As the Lord your God lives, if I have a cake, [nothing] but a handful of flour and a little oil in a flask. Behold, I am gathering two pieces of wood and I will come and make this for myself and for my son, and we will eat it, and we will die."

13. Elijah said to her, "Do not fear. Come and do as you said, but first make for me a small cake from there and bring it out to me, and for you and your son make last.

14. For thus has spoken the Lord, the God of Israel, 'The pitcher of flour shall not end nor will the flask of oil be diminished until the day the Lord gives rain upon the land.' "

15. She went and did as Elijah had said, and she and he and her household ate [many] days.

16. The pitcher of flour did not end neither did the flask of oil diminish as the word of the Lord which He had spoken through Elijah.

17. And it was after these happenings, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; and his illness was very serious until no soul was left within him.

18. And she said to Elijah, "What is there between me and you, man of God, that you have come to me to cause my sins to be remembered and to kill my son?"

19. And he said to her, "Give me your son." And she took him from her bosom, and she brought him up to the upstairs chamber where he was living, and he lay him on his bed.

20. And he called to the Lord and said, "O Lord my God, also on the widow with whom I am sojourning have You brought evil, to kill her son?"

21. And he prostrated himself on the boy three times, and he called to the Lord and said, "O Lord, my God, restore please the soul of this child within him."

22. And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah and the child's soul returned within him, and he lived.

23. And Elijah took the child and he brought him down from the upstairs chamber to the house, and he gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, "See, your son is alive."

24. And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a Man of God and the word of the Lord that is in your mouth, is true."