Chapter Seventeen

1. The appearance of the prophet Elijah before Ahab and the prediction of drought. 2–7. The prophet Elijah’s stay at the brook Cherith and his miraculous nourishment here. 8–24. The prophet Elijah in the house of the widow of Zarephath; miraculous nourishment of her family (13–16) and the raising of her son (17–24).

1 Kings 17:1. And Elijah the prophet, the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab: As the Lord, God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain in these years, save by my word. The sudden appearance of the prophet Elijah, noted also in the words of Ben Sira: “the prophet Elijah rose up like fire, and his word burned like a torch. He brought famine upon them” (Sir 48:1-2), and the abruptness of his first speech to Ahab have long raised the supposition that the beginning of Elijah’s history, as well as the beginning of his denunciatory speech to Ahab, have not been preserved in the Bible. The Talmud even attempts to fill in the supposed gap. However, there is no need for such a supposition, for the sudden appearance is characteristic of the prophet Elijah (Sir 48:1-2), and the abrupt appearance of the prophet, previously hidden in obscurity, best answered the purpose of striking conviction of Ahab’s unprecedented impiety. The name “Elijah,” Hebrew Eliyahu, Eliyah (LXX: ´Ηλιού, ´Ηλίας, Vulg.: Elias) means: “my God is the Lord” and of itself points to the calling or task of the prophet’s entire life: the preaching and defense of pure religion of the Lord against the cult of Baal (there is no need, however, to suppose with some interpreters that the prophet himself adopted this name, expressing the idea of his religious service; rather it may be thought that the family in which the prophet was born held the Lord in reverence, absolutely rejected the cult of Baal, and expressed the confession of their faith in the name of the future prophet). The usual epithet of the prophet Elijah – “the Tishbite” (1 Kgs 17:1; 2 Kgs 1:3) – comes from the prophet’s native city Tishbe. The position of the city in the Bible is not exactly defined, and interpreters point to it in two ways. Some identify Tishbe, the native country of the prophet Elijah, with Thisbe, Θίσβη, “located on the right side of the river Kidron of Naphtali, in Galilee” (Tob 1:2), from which the known Tobit was led into captivity (for example, K. Bahr in Lunge. Bibelwak. Th. 7: Die Bucher der Konige, 1868, p. 172). However, the other opinion is more probable, according to which Tishbe – the prophet’s native country – lay in Gilead, close to the Jordan, which is confirmed by the appended phrase (v. 1 in the Hebrew text): “of the inhabitants (dwellers) of Gilead” (Vulg.: de habilatoribus Galaad). The LXX, however, apparently expressed the idea of the location of the city of Tishbe itself in Gilead, when they rendered the Hebrew miktoshav (“from the inhabitants”) as ´εκ Θεσβῶν (Θεσσεβῶν) τῆς Γαλαάδ. Josephus (Antiquities VIII, 13, 2) directly states that the prophet Elijah “appeared from the Gilead city of Thisbony” (cf. Onomast. 517). Now it is identified with el-istib – a locality lying 13 kilometers to the north of the Jabbok and known by the name Mar-Elyas. Appearing suddenly in Samaria, the prophet Elijah in a brief but inexpressibly powerful speech confessed before Ahab his faith in the sole Lord, and declared himself the appointed servant of His and executor of His commands, and in the name of this faith and this confession, swearing (“As the Lord lives!”, hay – Yehovah,) cf. (Ruth 3:13; 1 Sam 14:39) announces to the impious king and people, who had trampled the covenant of the Lord, the most grievous disaster for an agricultural people – drought and the inevitable famine that would follow: this was the fulfillment of the threat of the law for Israel’s abandonment of the Lord (Lev 26:19-20; Deut 11:16-17; cf. 1 Kgs 8:35), and at the same time was the most evident refutation of the cult of Baal introduced into Israel, in which the productive power of nature was preeminently embodied and deified: drought and barrenness of the land was factual testimony to the impotence of the idol. The prophet indicates the duration of the drought indefinitely: “in these years” (not less, however, than 3 years, as is shown by the plural samin, cf. (1 Kgs 18:1); according to (Luke 4:25; Jas 5:17) – 3.5 years), – making the duration of punishment dependent on a new revelation through him in the future, that is, in essence, on the time and degree of the king’s and people’s repentance. “Elijah was a prophet, first among prophets, burned with divine zeal and uttered this by the action of the Holy Spirit. Therefore what he uttered was fulfilled” (question 51). The historian Menander in Josephus (Antiquities VIII, 13, 2) mentions a drought lasting a year under the Tyrian king Ithobal; this confirms the historicity of the narrative of 3 Kings about the drought under Ahab.

1 Kings 17:2. And the word of the Lord came to him: 1 Kings 17:3. “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan; Since the Lord’s command to the prophet to leave the king, withdraw eastward, and hide himself by the brook Cherith presupposes danger for the prophet from the king, it is evident that Ahab, as seen from the following, together with his wife Jezebel, generally persecuted the prophets of the Lord (1 Kgs 18:4) and especially carefully searched for the prophet Elijah (1 Kgs 18:10). The brook Cherith (Hebrew Kerith; LXX: Σορράθ; Vulg.: Carith) is sometimes by tradition indicated on this (western) side of the Jordan and identified with wadi-el-Kalt (Onomast. 968). But the very expression in the Hebrew text “al-pnei ha-yarden” (Slavonic: “opposite the Jordan”), according to biblical usage (cf. Gen 18:1-2; 1 Sam 15:7; 1 Kgs 11:7), can only denote the eastern side of the Jordan; moreover, on the eastern side of the Jordan, partly forested, partly desert, but always more remote from Samaria, the prophet Elijah was in greater safety from Ahab’s persecution than on the west of the Jordan. The stay in desert solitude, besides safety, was intended to prepare the prophet for the hardships of the public ministry awaiting him – as later for the New Covenant Elijah – John the Baptist (Luke 1:80; Matt 11:14). Finally, the water of the brook Cherith probably a tributary of the Jordan (from the east) nourished the prophet for some time during the drought.

1 Kings 17:4. and from the brook you will drink; and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. 1 Kings 17:5. And he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is opposite the Jordan. 1 Kings 17:6. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. If the brook provided the prophet with natural drink (in the LXX the Slavonic adds the word ὕδωρ, “water”, v. 4 and 6), then he received food in a miraculous way: bread and meat in the morning and evening the prophet received, by God’s command, brought to him by ravens. The abundance of miracles in the history of the prophets Elijah and Elisha testifies to God’s merciful care for the pious in Israel and at the same time speaks to the crude sensuality of the people, who could be influenced only by extraordinary things. The ravens could have been chosen by providence to feed the prophet as birds of the desert (Isa 34:11). In a ritual sense, the raven in the Old Testament was considered an unclean bird (Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14); but by His command to the ravens, the “Lawgiver teaches us that He established such ritual laws only because of the weakness of the Jews. For He Himself commanded the transgression of them (thus He commanded seven times to go around Jericho on the Sabbath; thus also He commanded Elijah to receive food, prepared by ravens). And sometimes He did not rebuke those who transgressed such laws (Samson was not accused for eating honey from the carcass of a dead lion)”, the blessed Theodoret, question 52. In v. 6, the LXX somewhat alter the sense of the text: instead of the Hebrew “brought to him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening,” the LXX have: ἄρτους τό πρωί καί τω κρέα τὸ δείλης, bread in the morning and meat in the evening – in parallel (Exod 16:8). At Cherith the prophet stayed about a year (Hebrew yamim, days, often denotes a year-long period: (Lev 25:29; Judg 17:10)), – until the brook dried up from the drought.

1 Kings 17:8. And the word of the Lord came to him: 1 Kings 17:9. “Arise and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to provide for you. Now providence points the prophet to a new path, commanding him to go to Zarephath of Sidon, where a certain widow woman, by the command of the Lord, was to nourish the prophet. Zarephath (cf. Obad 1:20), Hebrew Tzarfat; LXX: Σαρεπτὰ; Vulg.: Sarephta; in Josephus Σαρεφθά, – an ancient seaside Phoenician city between Tyre and Sidon, 10 Roman miles (15 kilometers, about 14+ versts) from the latter; now the village of Sarafand (Robinson, Palestine III, 690. Cf. Onomastic. 831. Josephus, Antiquities VIII, 13, 2). This command of God to the prophet to leave the land of Israel and seek shelter beyond its borders, in a pagan city and in the family of a foreigner, according to the blessed Theodoret (question 53), shows that if God had seen constant disposition and firm faith in the Jews, He would not have commanded to avoid fellowship with foreigners, but on the contrary would have required them to live with them and preach piety to them (Exod 34:16). To the prophet, who could do good, He not only did not forbid, but even commanded to go to the foreigner. Although the immediate purpose of the prophet’s removal beyond the border could be greater safety from the hand of the Israelite king, at the same time the choice of precisely the house of the Zarephath widow for the prophet’s stay shows, and the word of Christ the Savior unquestionably assures us of this (Luke 4:25-26), that in Israel in those days there was not found so believing, pious, and in general worthy a family as the person and family of the widow of Zarephath.

1 Kings 17:10. And he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow woman was gathering sticks. And he called to her and said: Bring me a little water in a cup to drink. 1 Kings 17:11. And she went to get it; and he called after her and said: Bring me also a morsel of bread in your hand. 1 Kings 17:12. And she said: As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug; and behold, I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son; we will eat it and die. 1 Kings 17:13. And Elijah said to her: Fear not; go, do as you have said; but first make me a small cake from this and bring it to me, and afterward make for yourself and your son; 1 Kings 17:14. for thus says the Lord, God of Israel: The jar of flour shall not be exhausted, and the jug of oil shall not fail, until the day when the Lord gives rain upon the earth. 1 Kings 17:15. And she went and did as Elijah said; and she and he and her household ate for many days. 1 Kings 17:16. The jar of flour was not exhausted, and the jug of oil did not fail, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke through Elijah. The remarkable meekness of the widow, her submission to her fate, her wonderful faith in divine providence and her unprecedented obedience to the prophet’s word – all these qualities in the widow of Zarephath present in her the image of a righteous woman outside the law with heartfelt faith in the Lord, and in this sense she was a prefigurement of the church from the nations, formerly barren, and afterward prospering as a lily. The blessed Theodoret says: “I marvel at the meekness in the wife’s answer; she did not murmur that in such calamities they were asking her for food, but only presented her extreme poverty. But this great and righteous man, although he promised her inexhaustible sources of flour and oil, nevertheless commanded that she first prepare and bring him bread. And the wife was not grieved again, worn out by the cares of poverty and widowhood, but with faith heeding the promise, brought food. She even did this, not knowing the man; because he was a foreigner – not having tested by experience his prophetic power. I think, moreover, that she was a prefigurement of the Church from the nations; because this wife, persecuted by the Israelites, received with faith, as also the church received by these same Israelites the exiled apostles” (question 53). The text, LXX, and Slavonic in v. 12 presuppose that the widow had several sons: τοίς τέκνοις μον – “to her children” (Hebrew singular: livni; Russian Synodal: “for her son”); likewise in v. 15: τὰ τέκνα αὐτῆς – “her children” (Hebrew betah, “her house”). But in both cases preference should be given to the Hebrew text: from the whole narrative it can be seen that the widow had an only son, and that in v. 15 reference is made to the widow’s house, not to her sons.

1 Kings 17:17. Afterward the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell ill, and his illness was so severe that he stopped breathing. 1 Kings 17:18. And she said to Elijah: What do you want with me, man of God? You came to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to kill my son. 1 Kings 17:19. And he said to her: Give me your son. And he took him from her arms, and carried him into the upper room where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed, 1 Kings 17:20. and cried to the Lord and said: O Lord my God! Have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son? 1 Kings 17:21. And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried to the Lord and said: O Lord my God! Let the life of this child come into him again! 1 Kings 17:22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 1 Kings 17:23. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said: See, your son lives. 1 Kings 17:24. And the woman said to Elijah: Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is true. Josephus (Antiquities VIII, 13, 3) supposes that the widow’s son did not die, but only “had the appearance of a corpse” (a kind of fainting); the same thought was held by some interpreters (for example, Bahr, op. cit: p. 174), but the biblical text clearly states (v. 22, cf. 18) that here there was a case of actual death and actual resurrection from the dead. The remarkable view of the widow (v. 18) is that through the prophet (and his holiness) her sins were revealed in all their force and provoked God’s punishment. “She did not say, although she was a foreigner: you came as an evil portent for me, the coming of you became the cause of calamity for me; on the contrary, what happened to her she attributed more to her own sins,” the blessed Theodoret, question 54). The very manner of the prophet’s action at the raising of the dead (v. 19–21) closely resembles the subsequent raising of the Shunnamite’s son by the prophet Elisha (2 Kgs 4:34-35): the symbolism in both cases is all the more intelligible if Christ the Savior Himself was not averse to using it in His miracles (Mark 7:33; John 9:6-7). “The prophet prayed to the Lord for the dead child, and after prayer, breathing three times upon the child, returned it to life. The threefold number indicates the adorable Trinity, and the breathing indicates the original creation of the soul,” the blessed Theodoret. The miracle served to finally establish the widow in faith in the Lord and His prophet (v. 22–24). * * * Here (Sanhedr. 113a) it is related that the prophet Elijah and Ahab together visited Hiel (see 1 Kgs 16:34) for the purpose of comforting him in the loss of his sons; at this the prophet pointed out to him the fulfillment upon him of the word of Joshua (Josh 6:25). Ahab replied that here is the word of Joshua, the disciple of Moses, fulfilled, but the terrible word of Moses himself concerning the sending of drought and famine for idolatry (Deut 11:16-17) has not yet been fulfilled, although the people serve idols. At this the prophet Elijah said: As the Lord lives, etc. (1 Kgs 17:1) According to a later Jewish tradition, the prophet Elijah was descended from a whole line of priests; the city of Tishbe itself was supposedly a priestly city