The Widow of Zarephath
The LORD sends Elijah to Zarephath, where he meets a widow gathering sticks and asks her for water and bread. She answers that she has only one last small meal left for herself and her son before they die.
T8hen the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 9“Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.” 11And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread.” 12But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread— only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”
Elijah tells the widow not to fear but to feed him first, promising that her flour and oil will not fail until rain returns. She obeys, and the LORD keeps food in the house day after day.
13“Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake of bread from what you have, and bring it out to me. Afterward, make some for yourself and your son, 14for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be exhausted and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain upon the face of the earth.’” 15So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and there was food every day for Elijah and the woman and her household. 16The jar of flour was not exhausted and the jug of oil did not run dry, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through Elijah.