1 Kings 17

1Elijah was a prophet from the town of Tishbe in Gilead. He said to King Ahab, I serve the Lord, the God of Israel. By his power, I promise that no dew or rain will fall for 3 years. The rain will fall only when I command it to fall.

2Then the Lord said to Elijah:

3You must go away. Go east over the Jordan River and hide in the Kerith Valley.

4You can drink water from the stream in the valley and I have told the ravens to bring you food.

5Elijah did what the Lord told him. He went to the brook of Cherith, which is on the other side of the Jordan River.

6Every morning and every evening the ravens brought him bread and meat and he had water from the stream in the valley.

7It did not rain and later there was no more water in the Kerith Valley.

8Then the Lord said to Elijah:

9You must go to the town of Zarephath in the land of Zidon. Go and stay there. I have told a widow who lives there to give you food.

10Elijah went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there getting wood to make a fire. He called her and said: Please give me a jar of water to drink.

11She went to get the water and Elijah said: Please bring me a piece of bread too.

12She said: I do not have any bread. That is as true as the Lord your God lives. I have only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a bottle. I am getting wood to make a fire to make the last meal for my son and myself, and then we will have no food and we will die.

13Elijah said to her: ‘Do not fear. Go and do what you have said, but first make me a small loaf of bread and bring it to me, and then you can make bread for yourself and your son.

14The Lord God of Israel says the jar of flour will not become empty and there will always be enough oil in the bottle until the day when the Lord makes it rain again in the land.

15The widow went home and she did what Elijah told her and every day she had food to eat, she and Elijah and her family.

16The jar of flour did not become empty and there was always oil in the bottle, as the Lord had told Elijah to tell her.