World English Bible · The divided kingdom
1 Kings 17
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the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of , said to , "As , the of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be nor these years, but according to my word." Then word came to him, saying, "Go away from here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, that is before . You shall drink from the brook. I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." So he went and did according to word, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith that is before . The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. After a while, the brook dried up, because there was no in the land. word came to him, saying, "Arise, go to , which belongs to , and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a there to sustain you." So he arose and went to ; and when he came to the , behold, a was there gathering sticks. He called to her and said, "Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink." As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." She said, "As your lives, I don't have anything baked, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and ." said to her, "Don't be afraid. Go and do as you have said; but make me a little cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward make some for you and for your son. For , the of Israel, says, 'The jar of meal will not run out, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that sends on the earth.'" She went and did according to the saying of ; and she, he, and her household ate many days. The jar of meal didn't run out and the jar of oil didn't fail, according to word, which he spoke by . After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. She said to , "What have I to do with you, you ? You have come to me to bring my to memory, and to kill my son!" He said to her, "Give me your son." He took him out of her , and carried him up into the room where he stayed, and laid him on his own bed. He cried to and said, " my , have you also brought evil on the with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" He stretched himself on the child three times, and cried to and said, " my , please let this child's come into him again." listened to the voice of ; and the of the child came into him again, and he revived. took the child and brought him down out of the room into the house, and him to his mother; and said, "Behold, your son lives." The woman said to , "Now I know that you are a , and that word in your is truth."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.