4. You can drink from the brook. I have also ordered the ravens to provide for you there.
5. Elijah went and did just what the Lord said. He stayed by the Cherith Brook that faced the Jordan River.
6. The ravens brought bread and meat in the mornings and evenings. He drank from the Cherith Brook.
7. After a while the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land.
8. The Lord’s word came to Elijah:
9. Get up and go to Zarephath near Sidon and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to take care of you.
10. Elijah left and went to Zarephath. As he came to the town gate, he saw a widow collecting sticks. He called out to her, "Please get a little water for me in this cup so I can drink."
11. She went to get some water. He then said to her, "Please get me a piece of bread."
12. "As surely as the Lord your God lives," she replied, "I don’t have any food; only a handful of flour in a jar and a bit of oil in a bottle. Look at me. I’m collecting two sticks so that I can make some food for myself and my son. We’ll eat the last of the food and then die."
13. Elijah said to her, "Don’t be afraid! Go and do what you said. Only make a little loaf of bread for me first. Then bring it to me. You can make something for yourself and your son after that.
14. This is what Israel’s God, the Lord, says: The jar of flour won’t decrease and the bottle of oil won’t run out until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth."