“Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
Parallel translations
- WEB “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”
- KJV Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
- NKJV “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
- NASB “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide food for you.”
- NLT “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God sends Elijah to Zarephath in Sidon, where He has commanded a widow to sustain him.
Overview
Remarkably, God sends Elijah into Gentile territory, the very homeland of Jezebel's Baalism, and to a poor widow rather than a wealthy patron. That God says He has 'commanded' her shows His sovereign arrangement of even an unlikely provider. Jesus later cites this episode (Luke 4:25-26) to show God's grace reaching beyond Israel, foreshadowing the gospel's mission to the nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Luke 4:26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon.
- Obad 1:20And the exiles of this host of the Israelites will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev.
- 2 Cor 4:7Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.
- 1 Kgs 17:4And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
- Matt 15:21–22Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
- Rom 4:17–21As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.
- Judg 7:4Then the LORD said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Take them down to the water, and I will sift them for you there. If I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go. But if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”
- Judg 7:2Then the LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many people for Me to deliver Midian into their hands, lest Israel glorify themselves over Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Solomon's glory, wisdom, and temple where God's presence dwells are a shadow of the greater Son of David — 'one greater than Solomon is here' — and of the true Temple, Christ himself.
How 1 Kings 17:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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