The Divided Kingdom

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She went, and did according to the word of Elias: and he ate, and she, and her house: and from that day

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.

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.

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?

And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.

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?

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.

And the Lord heard the voice of Elias: and the soul of the child returned into him, and he revived.

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.

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.

After many days, the word of the Lord came to Elias, in the third year, saying: Go, and shew thyself to Achab, that I may give rain upon the face of the earth.

And Elias went to shew himself to Achab, and there was a grievous famine in Samaria.

And Achab called Abdias the governor of his house: now Abdias feared the Lord very much.

For when Jezabel killed the prophets of the Lord, he took a hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty and fifty in caves, and fed them with bread and water.

And Achab said to Abdias: Go into the land unto all fountains of waters, and into all valleys, to see if we can find grass, and save the horses and mules, that the beasts may not utterly perish.

And they divided the countries between them, that they might go round about them: Achab went one way, and Abdias another way by himself.

And as Abdias was in the way, Elias met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said: Art thou my lord Elias?

And he answered: I am. Go, and tell thy master: Elias is here.

And he said: What have I sinned, that thou wouldst deliver me, thy servant, into the hand of Achab, that he should kill me?

As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when all answered: He is not here: he took an oath of every kingdom and nation, because thou wast not found.