1 Kings 17.8-16:
| 17.8 ויהי דבר יהוה אליו לאמר׃ | The Word of Yahweh comes to Eliyahuα to say: |
|---|---|
| 17.9 קום לך צרפתה | “Get yourself to Tsarfatha,β |
| אשר לצידון | which belongs to Tsidon. |
| וישבת שם | Live there. |
| הנה צויתי שם אשה אלמנה | Look, I place there a woman, a widow, |
| לכלכלך׃ | to sustain you.” |
| 17.10 ויקם וילך צרפתה | He gets up and walks to Tsarfatha. |
| ויבא אל פתח העיר | He comes to the gate of the city. |
| והנה שם אשה אלמנה מקששת עצים | Look there, a woman, a widow, gathers wood. |
| ויקרא אליה ויאמר | He calls to her and says, |
| קחי נא לי מעט מים בכלי | “Please bring me a little water in a thingy,γ |
| ואשתה׃ | and I drink it.” |
| 17.11 ותלך לקחת | She goes to get it. |
| ויקרא אליה ויאמר | He calls to her and says, |
| לקחי נא לי פת לחם | “Please get me a piece of bread |
| בידך׃ | by your hand.” |
| 17.12 ותאמר | She says, |
| חי יהוה אלהיך | “By the life of Yahweh, your God, |
| אם יש לי מעוג | I have no baked goods— |
| כי אם מלא כף קמח בכד | just a scoopful of flour in a pail, |
| ומעט שמן בצפחת | and a little oil in a dish. |
| והנני מקששת שנים עצים | Look: I gather two sticks. |
| ובאתי ועשיתיהו | I go and make something of it |
| לי ולבני | for me and for my son. |
| ואכלנהו ומתנו׃ | We eat it, and we die.” |
| 17.13 ויאמר אליה אליהו | Eliyahu says to her, |
| אל תיראי באי עשי כדברך | “No fear. Go do what you say.δ |
| אך עשי לי משם עגה קטנה בראשנה | Only first make out of that a small ash-cake for me. |
| והוצאת לי | Bring it out to me. |
| ולך ולבנך | For yourself and your son, |
| תעשי באחרנה׃ | make that afterward. |
| כי כה אמר יהוה אלהי ישראל | Because Yahweh, God of Israel, says this: |
| כד הקמח לא תכלה | The pail of flour won’t end. |
| וצפחת השמן לא תחסר | The saucer of oil won’t lack. |
| עד יום תתן [תת] יהוה גשם | Not till the day Yahweh sendsε a downpour |
| על פני האדמה׃ | upon the face of the soil.” |
| 17.15 ותלך ותעשה כדבר אליהו | She goes and does what Eliyahu says.ζ |
| ותאכל הוא [היא] והיא [והוא] וביתה ימים׃ | She, he, and her house eats for days— |
| 17.16 כד הקמח לא כלתה | because the pail of flour won’t end |
| וצפחת השמן לא חסר | and the saucer of oil won’t lack, |
| כדבר יהוה | because of Yahweh’s word |
| אשר דבר ביד אליהו׃ | which is said by the hand of Eliyahu. |
Time has run out at the wadi, so Jesus (the Word of God, you know) sends Elijah to the other side of northern Israel—to Tsarfatha, a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast, present-day Sarafand, Lebanon, just across the Israeli border into Sidon. It had a big pagan shrine to Ashtart, Ba’al’s wife; just the sort of place God’s prophet would never be seen in, right? Well, perhaps that’s Ahab’s line of thinking, but where evil takes place is exactly where God’s prophets should be.
Based on the fact that the wadi dried up, we can estimate that Elijah is leaving by the beginning of the dry season—late spring or early summer, right around Pentecost, when people are supposed to be celebrating the first harvest of the year, except that the drought has produced a really awful harvest. People are starting to feel its effects. People are likely screaming out to Ba’al about their crops, and taking Elijah’s name in vain at about this point. If he had a minor reputation before this point, he’s got a much bigger one now.
Jesus assigned Elijah to stay with a widow, and from the look of things, she was dirt poor and likewise suffering from the drought. I don’t know if she farmed, but if she did, her crops were as dead as everyone else’s. There were no laws in Sidon to provide for the poor and needy—she couldn’t glean another person’s fields or she’d be shot; she couldn’t call upon a family member to take care of her; and she had a dependent. The only way she could earn money was either to sell what few possessions she had, or resort to prostitution—and she wasn’t doing that. So she was gonna eat the last of the food, then starve to death. First she needed firewood—and this is where Elijah encounters her.
He asks for water. Middle Eastern hospitality being what it is, she goes to find him some, even though that won’t be an easy task. It’s when he asks her for bread that she tells him her story.
It’s interesting—she seems to believe in God because she swears by His life. However, she refers to Him as “your God.” (Obviously she’s identified Elijah’s nationality by his accent, the tassels on his clothes, or his lack of fluency with Ugaritic.) It’s possible that she’s a little annoyed with Him due to the drought and the coming death by starvation; she feels abandoned, and feels He’s certainly not behaving like He’s her God. When times are tough it’s easy to feel that way. But it appears, from what she does next, that she hasn’t completely given up on Him.
Elijah was told that this woman was going to sustain him. Despite her impoverished circumstances, Elijah trusted God more than the circumstances. She would provide for him. There would be flour and oil. She just had to trust God as much as Elijah did. She had to show it by baking something for Elijah first, and then starving to death on what was left.
This is a serious test of faith, but the widow passed with flying colors, and got to continue to eat throughout the drought.
I’m not sure how well I would do in such a test. I’d like to think I’d pass like the widow—or, if I’m looking at things from Elijah’s perspective, I‘d like to think that I trust God’s previous message enough to be able to say, “Look, God sent me to you to take care of me; obviously He’s gonna make it possible for you to do that one way or another.” Either perspective takes good, strong faith. If we don‘t have that degree of faith, we need to develop it. You never know when we might be in impoverished circumstances, and need it.
α. Lit. “him.”
β. Usu. “Zarephath.”
γ. Literal; usu. “container.”
δ. Or “Go do according to your word.”
ε. Lit. “gives.”
ζ. Lit. “does according to Eliyahu’s word.”
