She yielded to the prophet's command that he himself should be first fed from her scanty store and in return enjoyed the fulfillment of his promise, uttered in the name of Yahweh, that neither barrel of meal nor cruse of oil should be exhausted before the breaking of the drought. There the widow to whom Yahweh sent him was found gathering a few sticks from the ground at the city gate, to prepare a last meal for herself and her son. Elijah was then directed, by the "word of Yahweh," as constantly, to betake himself beyond the western limit of Ahab's kingdom to the Phoenician village of Zarephath, near Sidon. As the drought advanced the brook dried up. Guided, as true prophets were continually, by the "word of Yahweh," Elijah then hid himself in one of the ravines east of ("before") the Jordan, where the brook Cherith afforded him water, and ravens brought him abundant food ("bread and flesh" twice daily), 1 Kings 17:2-6. The term is to be fixed, indeed, not by Elijah but by Yahweh it is not to be short ("these years"), and it is to end only when the chastisement is seen to be sufficient. Elijah declared in few words that Yahweh, true and only rightful God of Israel, whose messenger he was, was even at the very time sending a drought which should continue until the prophet himself declared it at an end. His garb and manner identified him as a prophet, in any case ( 2 Kings 1:8 compare Zechariah 13:4). Whether Elijah was already a familiar figure at the court of Ahab, the narrative beginning with 1 Kings 17:1 does not state. This is the situation which calls for a judgment of Yahweh, announced beforehand, as is often the case, by a faithful prophet of Yahweh. 1 Kings 16:34 mentions as another instance of the little weight attached in Ahab's time to ancient prophetic threatenings, the rebuilding by Hiel the Bethelite of the banned city of Jericho, "with the loss" of Hiel's eldest and youngest sons. In 1 Kings 16:29-34 we read of the impieties of Ahab, culminating in his patronage of the worship of the Tyrian Baal, god of his Tyrian queen Jezebel ( 1 Kings 16:31). A Tishbeh (Thisbe) in the territory of Naphtali is known from Tobit 1:2 but if (with most modern commentators) the reading of the Septuagint in 1Ki is followed, the word translated "sojourners" is itself "Tishbeh," locating the place in Gilead and making the prophet a native of that mountain region and not merely a "sojourner" there. Elijah is identified at his first appearance ( 1 Kings 17:1) as "Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the sojourners of Gilead." Thus his native place must have been called Tishbeh. (1) The great prophet of the times of Ahab, king of Israel. E-li'-ja ('eliyahu or (4 times) 'eliyah, "Yah is God" Septuagint Eleiou, New Testament Eleias or Elias, the King James Version of New Testament Elias):ฤก.
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