Open English Translation 1KI Chapter 17

17 One day the prophet Eliyyah (Elijah) from the Tishbites in the Gilead region said to Ahav, “As Israel’s God Yahweh lives, the one who I serve, there won’t be any rain or even dew these next years unless I give the command.”[ref] 2 Then Yahweh told Eliyyah, 3 “Get away from here and travel eastward towards the Kerit stream that enters the Yordan river to hide. 4 You’ll be able to drink from the stream, and I’ve commanded the ravens to bring food to you there.”

5 So he did what Yahweh told him, and went and lived by the Kerit stream near the Yordan. 6 Ravens brought bread and meat to him every morning and again in the evening, and he was able to drink from the stream. 7 However, the stream dried up after a while because there was no rain anywhere in the country.

8 Then Yahweh told Eliyyah, 9 “Leave here and go to Tserefat in the Tsidon region and stay there. Listen, I’ve commanded a widow lady there to keep you fed.”[ref] 10 So he got ready and went to Tserefat. As he entered the town, he saw a woman picking up bits of firewood, and he asked her, “Can you please get me a drink of water.” 11 As she went to get it, he called out, “Would you have a piece of bread to go with it?.”

12 But she replied, “As your God Yahweh lives, I don’t have any bread at all—only a handful of flour in the jar, and a little bit of oil in the jug. See, I’m gathering a few bits of firewood so I can make a little bread for me and my son. After we’ve eaten that, then we’ll die.”

13 But Eliyyah told her, “Don’t be worried. Go and do what you said, except make some bread for me first and bring it out to me. Then after that, you can make some for you and for your son, 14 because Israel’s God Yahweh has told me that your flour won’t run out and your oil won’t come to an end until the day when Yahweh gives us rain again.”

15 So the woman went and did what Eliyyah said, then sure enough Eliyyah and the widow and her household had enough food every day. 16 The jar of flour never got empty and the jug of oil never ran out, just as Yahweh had promised via Eliyyah.

17 Some time afterwards, the woman’s son got sick and then it got so bad that he died, 18 so she hassled Eliyyah, “You man of God, why did you come here! Now my sins have been brought to God’s mind, and he’s caused my son to die!”

19 But he told her to bring her son to him, and taking the boy from her arms, he took the body upstairs to the room he was staying in, and laid him down on his bed. 20 Then he called out to Yahweh, “Yahweh, my God, would you really bring tragedy to this widow that I’m staying with by causing her son to die?” 21 Then three times he stretched himself over the boy’s body and begged Yahweh, “Yahweh, my God, please let this child’s life return into his organs.”[ref] 22 Yahweh took notice of Eliyyah and the boy’s life returned and he revived.

23 Then Eliyyah carried the boy back downstairs and gave him to his mother and told her, “Look, your son’s alive.”

24 “Now I certainly know that you’re a man of God,” the woman responded, “And when you say that you’re speaking for Yahweh, it’s really true.”