A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
1 Kings 17
1 Kings 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the first book of Kings and the first appearance of the prophet Elijah. The 24-verse chapter records the beginning of a drought, Elijah being fed by ravens, and two miracles involving a widow of Zarephath.
The chapter opens abruptly with Elijah announcing to King Ahab that there will be neither dew nor rain in the coming years except at his word. God then tells Elijah to hide by the Brook of Cherith, where ravens bring him bread and meat each morning and evening. When the brook dries up from the drought, God sends him to Zarephath, to a widow he has commanded to provide for him.
At the town gate Elijah finds the widow gathering sticks. She is preparing what she expects to be a last meal for herself and her son, having only a handful of flour and a little oil. Elijah tells her not to be afraid and to make him a small cake first, promising in the name of the LORD that "the jar of flour will not be exhausted and the jug of oil will not run dry" until rain returns. She does as he says, and the flour and oil last, feeding her household day after day.
Later the widow's son becomes ill and dies. In her grief she blames Elijah, but he takes the boy to his room, lays him on his bed, stretches himself over him three times, and cries out to the LORD. The boy's life returns to him. Elijah brings him down alive to his mother, who declares, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is truth."
Verse 1. Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
Verse 2. Then a revelation from the LORD came to Elijah:
Verse 3. “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan.
Verse 4. And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
Verse 5. So Elijah did what the LORD had told him, and he went and lived by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan.
Verse 6. The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he would drink from the brook.
Verse 7. Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.
Verse 8. Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:
Verse 9. “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
Verse 10. So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.”
Verse 11. And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread.”
Verse 12. But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
Verse 13. “Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake of bread from what you have, and bring it out to me. Afterward, make some for yourself and your son,
Verse 14. for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be exhausted and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain upon the face of the earth.’”
Verse 15. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and there was food every day for Elijah and the woman and her household.
Verse 16. The jar of flour was not exhausted and the jug of oil did not run dry, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through Elijah.
Verse 17. Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him.
Verse 18. “O man of God,” said the woman to Elijah, “what have you done to me? Have you come to remind me of my iniquity and cause the death of my son?”
Verse 19. But Elijah said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.
Verse 20. Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on this widow who has opened her home to me, by causing her son to die?”
Verse 21. Then he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, please let this boy’s life return to him!”
Verse 22. And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the child’s life returned to him, and he lived.
Verse 23. Then Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. “Look, your son is alive,” Elijah declared.
Verse 24. Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is truth.”
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