1KI

1 Kings 17

1Elijah 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.” 2Then Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, 3“Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before the Jordan. 4You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5So he went and did according to Yahweh’s word, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before the Jordan. 6The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7After a while, the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land. 8Yahweh’s word came to him, saying, 9“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay 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. He called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, 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 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.” 13Elijah 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. 14For 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.’” 15She went and did according to the saying of Elijah; and she, he, and her household ate many days. 16The 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. 17After 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. 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 room where he stayed, 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 am staying, 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 room 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 Yahweh’s word in your mouth is truth.”

Matthew Henry — chapter overview

Introduction

1 Kings 17

So sad was the character both of the princes and people of Israel, as described in the foregoing chapter, that one might have expected God would cast off a people that had so cast him off; but, as an evidence to the contrary, never was Israel so blessed with a good prophet as when it was so plagued with a bad king. Never was king so bold to sin as Ahab; never was prophet so bold to reprove and threaten as Elijah, whose story begins in this chapter and is full of wonders. Scarcely any part of the Old Testament history shines brighter than this history of the spirit and power of Elias; he only, of all the prophets, had the honour of Enoch, the first prophet, to be translated, that he should not see death, and the honour of Moses, the great prophet, to attend our Saviour in his transfiguration. Other prophets prophesied and wrote, he prophesied and acted, but wrote nothing; but his actions cast more lustre on his name than their writings did on theirs. In this chapter we have, I. His prediction of a famine in Israel, through the want of rain (Kg1 17:1). II. The provision made for him in that famine, 1. By the ravens at the brook Cherith (Kg1 17:2-7). 2. When that failed, by the widow at Zarephath, who received him in the name of a prophet and had a prophet's reward; for (1.) He multiplied her meal and her oil (Kg1 17:8-16). (2.) He raised her dead son to life (Kg1 17:17-24). Thus his story begins with judgments and miracles, designed to awaken that stupid generation that had to deeply corrupted themselves.

Cross-references: 1Kgs 17:1 · 1Kgs 17:2 · 1Kgs 17:8 · 1Kgs 17:17