17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."

17:2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah:

17:3 "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

17:4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there."

17:5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there.

17:6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

17:7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

17:8 Then the word of the LORD came to him:

17:9 "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."

17:10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, "Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?"

17:11 As she was going to get it, he called, "And bring me, please, a piece of bread."

17:12 "As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it--and die."

17:13 Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small cake of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son.

17:14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land.'"

17:15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family.

17:16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.

17:17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing.

17:18 She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

17:19 "Give me your son," Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed.

17:20 Then he cried out to the LORD, "O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?"

17:21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"

17:22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived.

17:23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

17:24 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 the truth."