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ed this by an oath, he departed into the southern parts, and made his abode by a brook, out of which he had water to drink; as for his food, ravens brought it to him every day. But when that river was dried up, for want of rain, he came to Zarephath, a city between Sidon and Tyre; and this at the command of God. For God told him that he should there find a woman who was a widow, that should give him sustenance. So when he was not far off the city, he saw a woman gathering of sticks. So God informed him that this was the person who was to give him sustenance; so he came and saluted her, and desired her to bring him some water to drink. But as she was going so to do, he called to her, and asked her to bring him a loaf of bread also. She affirmed upon oath, that she had at home nothing more than one handful of meal, and a little oil; and that she was going to gather some sticks that she might knead it, and make bread for herself and her son; after which she said, they must perish by the famine, for they had nothing for themselves any longer. Hereupon he said, "Go on with good courage, and hope for better things: but first of all make me a little cake and bring it to me; for I foretell to thee, that this vessel of meal, and this cruse of oil, shall not fail, until God send rain." When the prophet had said this, she came to him, and made the cakes; of which she had part for herself, and gave the rest to her son, and to the prophet also. Nor did any thing of this fail, until the drought ceased.* Now Menander mentions this drought, in his account of the acts of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians: where he says, "Under him there was a want of rain from the month Hyperberetous, till the month Hyperberetous of the year following. But when he made supplications, there came great thunders. This Ethbaal built the city Botrys in Phoenicia, and the city Auza in Lybia." By these words he designed this want of rain that was in the days of Ahab; for at that time it was that Ethbaal also reigned over the Tyrians, as Menander wrote.

The woman had sufficient reason to believe that Elijah was a prophet, or person sent from God, when she saw the miraculous increase of the meal and oil; but upon his not curing her son when he lay sick, but rather suffering him to die, her faith began to droop; whereas, upon seeing him revive, her faith revived with him; and through the joy of having him restored to her again, she accounted this fatter miracle much greater than the former. Le Clerc's Commentary. B.

Desg & Engs by E.Prudhome, New York.

ELIJAH FED BY RAVENS

THE NEW YORK PUBLICLIBRARY

ASTOR. LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

Now the son of this woman, who sustained the prophet, fell into a distemper, till he gave up the ghost, and appeared to be dead.* The mother, therefore came to the prophet, weeping and beating her breast, and uttering such expressions as her passions dictated to her, and complained to him, that he had come to reproach her for her sins, and that on this account it was that her son was dead. But he bade her be of good cheer, and deliver her son to him; for that he would restore him again to her alive. So when she had delivered her son up to him, he carried him into an upper room, where he himself lodged, and laid him down upon the bed; and cried unto God, and said that God had not done so well in rewarding the woman who had sustained him, by taking away her son; and he prayed that he would send again the soul of the child into him, and bring him to life again. Accordingly God took pity on the mother, and was willing to gratify the prophet; that he might not seem to have come to her to do her a mischief; and the child, beyond all expectation, came to life again. So the mother returned the prophet thanks, and said, she was then clearly satisfied that God did converse with him.†

After a little while Elijah came to king Ahab, according to God's will, to inform him that rain was coming. Now the

* Some of the Hebrew doctors (and herein they are followed by some Christians) are of opinion, that this widow's son was the prophet Jonas; that after bis restoration, his mother gave him to Elijah; that after he attended on the prophet, as long as he lived; and on a certain occasion was despatched by him to Nineveh, as every one knows. But besides that these traditions are destitute of any real proof, Jonah was a Hebrew as he himself declares, chap. i. 9, and a native of Gath-hepher, as we read, 2 Kings xiv. 25, whereas the widow's son was a native of Zerephtha, a town belonging to the kingdom of Sidon, and by birth a stranger to the race of Israel. Calmet's Commentary. B.

See 1 Kings xvii. 17-24.

Josephus, in his present copies, says, that a little while after the recovery of the widow's son at Sarepta, God sent rain upon the earth; whereas, in our other copies, it is after many days, 1 Kings xviii. 1. Several years are also intimated there, as belonging to this drought and famine. Nay we have the express mention of the third year; which I suppose was reckoned from the recovery of the widow's son, and the ceasing of this drought in Phoenicia, which, as Menander informs us here, lasted one whole year. And both our Saviour and St. James affirm, that this drought lasted in all three years and six months, as their copies of the Old Testament then informed them, Luke iv. 25, James v. 17. I suspect, therefore, that Josephus's original reading was, No small time afterward.

About an. 907,

famine had seized upon the whole country; and there was a great want of what was necessary for sustenance; insomuch that it was not only men that wanted it, but the earth itself also; which did not produce enough for the horses, and the other beasts, of what was useful for them to feed on, by reason of the drought. So the king called for Obadiah,* who was steward over his cattle, and said to him, that he would have him go to the fountains of water, and to the brooks; that if any herbage could be found for them he might mow it down, and reserve it for the beasts. And when he had sent persons all over the habitablet earth to discover the prophet Elijah, and they could not find him, he bade Obadiah accompany him. So it was resolved they should make a progress, and divide the ways between them; and Obadiah and the king went the one way, and the other another. Now it had happened, that at the same time when Queen Jezebel slew the prophets, that this Obadiah had concealed a hundred prophets, and had fed them with bread and water. But when Obadiah was alone, and absent from the king, the prophet Elijah met him, and asked him who he was? And when he had learned it from him, he worshipped him. Elijah then bade him go to the king, and tell him, that he was ready to wait on him. But Obadiah replied, "What evil have I done to thee, that thou sendest me to one who seeketh to kill thee; and bath sought over all the earth for thee? Or art thou so ignorant as not to know, that the king

There are some Jewish doctors who think that this Obadiah was the same with him whose writings we have among the twelve minor prophets. They pretend that he was married to that woman of Shunem, where Elisha used to lodge; that he was a disciple of the prophet Elijah, and the last of the three captains whom king Ahaziah sent to apprehend him; and that for this reason he had com. passion on him, though he had destroyed the others that came before him, with fire from heaven, 2 Kings i. 9. &c. but all these things are pure apocrypha. Obadiah himself, in his discourse with Elijah, sufficiently tells us who he was, viz. a person truly religious, who worshipped God alone, had a singular affection for his servants; enough, one would think, to have made Abab discard, if not persecute him, had he not found him so highly useful in the management of his domes. tic affairs, as to connive at his not worshipping Baal, or the calves; especially as we read nothing of his going up to Jerusalem, which was a defect that God might perhaps think proper to dispense with. Calmet's and Patrick's Commentaries. B t Josephus here seems to mean, that this drought affected all the habitable earth.

+1 Kings xviii. 4,

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