1 Elijah the Tishbite, of the settlers of Gilead, told Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, in whose presence I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain these years unless I give the word."
2 Then the word of the LORD came to him:
3 "Leave this place, turn east and hide by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
4 You will drink from the wadi, and I have ordered the ravens to provide for you there."
5 He went and did as the LORD had said; he went and stayed by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
6 The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the wadi.
7 Some time later the wadi ran dry, since there had been no rain in the land.
8 Then the word of the LORD came to him:
9 "Get up and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to provide for you."
10 So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he reached the town gate, there was a widow gathering wood. He called to her, "Please get me a little water in a cup, so I can drink."
11 As she was going off to get it, he called after her, "Please bring me a bit of bread in your hand as well."
12 She answered, "As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in the jar and a little oil in the jug. I am gathering a couple of sticks now so I can go in and make it for myself and my son, and we will eat it and die."
13 "Do not be afraid," Elijah told her. "Go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake from it and bring it out to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.
14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'The jar of flour will not run out and the jug of oil will not be empty until the day the LORD gives rain on the face of the land.'"
15 She went and did as Elijah told her, and there was food for her, for him and for her household for many days.
16 The jar of flour did not run out and the jug of oil was not emptied, as the LORD had said through Elijah.
17 Afterward the son of the woman who owned the house fell ill. His illness grew so severe that he stopped breathing.
18 She said to Elijah, "What have you against me, man of God? Did you come to me to bring my sin to mind and put my son to death?"
19 "Give me your son," he told her. He took him from her arms, carried him up to the upper room where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed.
20 Then he called out to the LORD, "LORD my God, have you brought evil even on this widow I am staying with, by putting her son to death?"
21 Three times he stretched himself out over the boy, and he called out to the LORD, "LORD my God, please let this boy's soul come back into him!"
22 The LORD heard Elijah's cry; the boy's soul came back into him, and he lived.
23 Elijah took the boy, brought him down from the upper room into the house and handed him to his mother. "Look, your son is alive," said Elijah.
24 The woman said to Elijah, "Now I know for certain that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is true."