Elijah and the Widow

"And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." He hides by the brook Cherith, "and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening."

"Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon… I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." She has "but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die." "Fear not… make me thereof a little cake first… For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain."

Her son falls sick and stops breathing. "What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" Elijah carries him to the upper room, stretches himself on the child three times and cries, "O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again." The child revives. "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth."

Zarephath

Zarephath is identified with Sarafand on the Lebanese coast between Sidon and Tyre. James Pritchard's excavations (1969–74) found a Phoenician town with pottery kilns, olive presses and a small shrine with an inscription to Tanit-Ashtart. Tishbe and the brook Cherith have not been securely located.

Drought in Phoenicia

Josephus quotes the Tyrian historian Menander that in the reign of Ithobaal (Ethbaal, Jezebel's father) there was a year-long drought, ended when the king prayed. This is a later quotation of a lost source; it is suggestive, not confirmation of Elijah's drought. Climate studies of the region show droughts in the Iron Age but cannot date a particular one this precisely.

Widows

A widow with a son and no land had almost no security. Jesus cites this story in Nazareth: "many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias… But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon" (Luke 4:25–26).