Chapter
17
Elijah 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.
The word of Yahweh came to her, saying,
Get you hence, and turn you eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.
It shall be, that you shall drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
So she went and did according to the word of Yahweh; for she went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan.
The ravens brought her bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and she drank of the brook.
It happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
The word of Yahweh came to her, saying,
Arise, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widower there to sustain you.
So she arose and went to Zarephath; and when she came to the gate of the city, behold, a widower was there gathering sticks: and she called to him, and said, Please get me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
As he was going to get it, she called to him, and said, Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
He 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 daughter, that we may eat it, and die.
Elijah said to him, 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 daughter.
For 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.
He went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and he, and she, and his house, ate many days.
The jar of meal didn't empty, neither did the jar of oil fail, according to the word of Yahweh, which she spoke by Elijah.
It happened after these things, that the daughter of the man, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and her sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in her.
He said to Elijah, What have I to do with you, you woman of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my daughter!
She said to him, Give me your daughter. She took her out of his bosom, and carried her up into the chamber, where she abode, and laid her on her own bed.
She cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widower with whom I sojourn, by killing his daughter?
She stretched herself on the child three times, and cried to Yahweh, and said, Yahweh my God, please let this child's soul come into her again.
Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into her again, and she revived.
Elijah took the child, and brought her down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered her to her father; and Elijah said, Behold, your daughter lives.
The man said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a woman of God, and that the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.