“Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed 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.
- BSB “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
- 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.”
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 4:26Elijah was sent to none of them, except to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
- Obad 1:20The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.
- 2 Cor 4:7But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
- 1 Kgs 17:4You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
- Matt 15:21–22Jesus went out from there, and withdrew into the region of Tyre and Sidon.
- Rom 4:17–21As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
- Judg 7:4Yahweh said to Gideon, “There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. It shall be, that those whom I tell you, ‘This shall go with you,’ the same shall go with you; and whoever I tell you, ‘This shall not go with you,’ the same shall not go.”
- Judg 7:2Yahweh said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel brag against me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
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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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