Elias shutteth up the heaven from raining. He is fed by ravens, and
afterwards by a widow of Sarephta. He raiseth the window’s son to life.
17:1. And Elias the Thesbite, of the inhabitants of Galaad, said to
Achab: As the Lord liveth, the God of Israel, in whose sight I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to the words
of my mouth.
17:2. And the word of the Lord came to him, saying:
17:3. Get thee hence, and go towards the east, and hide thyself by the
torrent of Carith, which is over against the Jordan;
17:4. And there thou shalt drink of the torrent: and I have commanded
the ravens to feed thee there.
17:5. So he went, and did according to the word of the Lord: and going,
he dwelt by the torrent Carith, which is over against the Jordan.
17:6. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and
bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the torrent.
17:7. But after some time the torrent was dried up: for it had not
rained upon the earth.
17:8. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying:
17:9. Arise, and go to Sarephta of the Sidonians, and dwell there: for
I have commanded a widow woman there to feed thee.
Sarephta of the Sidonians.... That is, a city of the Sidonians.
17:10. He arose, and went to Sarephta. And when he was come to the gate
of the city, he saw the widow woman gathering sticks, and he called
her, and said to her: Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may
drink.
17:11. And when she was going to fetch it, he called after her, saying:
Bring me also, I beseech thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.
17:12. And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread,
but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruise:
behold I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it, for me
and my son, that we may eat it and die.
17:13. And Elias said to her: Fear not; but go, and do as thou hast
said but first make for me of the same meal a little hearth cake, and
bring it to me, and after make for thyself and thy son.
17:14. For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: The pot of meal
shall not waste, nor the cruise of oil be diminished, until the day
wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth.
17:15. She went, and did according to the word of Elias: and he ate,
and she, and her house: and from that day
17:16. The pot of meal wasted not, and the cruise of oil was not
diminished according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke in the
hand of Elias.
17:17. And it came to pass after this, that the son of the woman, the
mistress of the house, fell sick, and the sickness was very grievous,
so that there was no breath left in him.
17:18. And she said to Elias: What have I to do with thee, thou man of
God? art thou come to me, that my iniquities should be remembered, and
that thou shouldst kill my son?
17:19. And Elias said to her: Give me thy son. And he took him out of
her bosom, and carried him into the upper chamber where he abode, and
laid him upon his own bed.
17:20. And he cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord, my God, hast thou
afflicted also the widow, with whom I am after a sort maintained, so as
to kill her son?
17:21. And he stretched, and measured himself upon the child three
times, and cried to the Lord, and said: O Lord, my God, let the soul of
this child, I beseech thee, return into his body.
17:22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elias: and the soul of the child
returned into him, and he revived.
17:23. And Elias took the child, and brought him down from the upper
chamber to the house below, and delivered him to his mother, and said
to her: Behold thy son liveth.
17:24. And the woman said to Elias: Now by this I know that thou art a
man of God, and the word of the Lord in thy mouth is true.