The Divided Kingdom

So he set out and went to Tzarfat. On reaching the gate of the city, he saw a widow there gathering sticks. He called out to her, "Please bring a little water in a container for me to drink."

As she was going to get it, he called after her, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand."

She answered, "As ADONAI your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a pot and a little oil in the jug. Here I am, gathering a couple sticks of wood, so that I can go and cook it for myself and my son. After we have eaten that, we will die."

Eliyahu said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go; and do what you said; but first, use a little of it to make me a small loaf of bread; and bring it out to me. After that, make food for yourself and your son.

For this is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el, says: 'The pot of meal will not get used up, nor will there fail to be oil in the jug, until the day ADONAI sends rain down on the land.'"

She went and acted according to what Eliyahu had said; and she, he and her household had food to eat for a long time.

The pot of meal did not get used up, nor did there fail to be oil in the jug, in fulfillment of the word of ADONAI spoken through Eliyahu.

A while later, the son of the woman whose house it was fell ill; his illness grew increasingly serious until his breathing stopped.

She said to Eliyahu, "What do you have against me, you man of God? Did you come to me just to remind me how sinful I am by killing my son?"

"Give me your son," he said to her. Taking him from her lap, he carried him into the room upstairs where he was staying and laid him on his own bed.

Then he cried out to ADONAI: "ADONAI my God! Have you brought also this misery on the widow I'm staying with by killing her son?"

He stretched himself out on the child three times and cried out to ADONAI: "ADONAI my God, please! Let this child's soul come back into him!"

ADONAI heard Eliyahu's cry, the child's soul came back into him, and he revived.

Eliyahu took the child, brought him down from the upstairs room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Eliyahu said, "See? Your son is alive."

The woman replied to Eliyahu, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of ADONAI that you speak is the truth."

A long time passed. Then, in the third year, the word of ADONAI came to Eliyahu: "Go, present yourself to Ach'av, and I will send rain down on the land."

When Eliyahu went to present himself to Ach'av, the famine in Shomron had become severe.

Ach'av called 'Ovadyah, who was in charge of the palace. Now 'Ovadyah greatly revered ADONAI;

for example, when Izevel was murdering ADONAI's prophets, 'Ovadyah took a hundred prophets, hid them in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water.

Ach'av said to 'Ovadyah, "Go throughout the land, and check all the springs and vadis; maybe we can find grass somewhere, so that we can keep the horses and mules alive and not lose all the animals."

So they divided between them the territory to be visited; Ach'av went one way by himself, and 'Ovadyah went another way by himself.

'Ovadyah was on the road when suddenly Eliyahu encountered him. 'Ovadyah recognized him, fell on his face and said, "Is it really you, my lord Eliyahu?"

He answered, "Yes, it is I; go, tell your master, 'Eliyahu is here.'"

'Ovadyah replied, "How have I sinned, that you would hand your servant over to Ach'av to kill me?

As ADONAI your God lives, there can't be a single nation or kingdom where my master hasn't sent to search you out; and in each kingdom or nation where they said, 'He isn't here,' he made them take an oath that they hadn't found you.