1 Kings 17:12

And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth [Bähr, Keil, al . conclude from this formula that the woman was a worshipper of the God of Israel. Bähr is extremely positive on this point, affirming that, had she been a heathen, the words would have been positively hypocritical, and more, that Elijah would never have been sent ( Luke 4:26 ) to an idolater. He further suggests that possibly she was an Israelite by birth, who had been married to a Phoenician. But all this is extremely doubtful. In the first place, it is noteworthy that the words are, "Jehovah thy God," words which show that she recognized Elijah, perhaps by his Jewish face, probably by his prophetic dress ( 2 Kings 1:8 ) as a worshipper of Jehovah. But had she also been the same, it is probable that she would have said "my God," for that form would not only have given greater force to her obtestation, but would have established a bond of sympathy—such as Jews in a foreign land were only too glad to recognize—between them. And the remark that it is hypocrisy to swear by a god in whom one does not believe is disposed of by the consideration that she may well have believed in the Lord as well as in Baal. See note on 1 Kings 5:7 . The Tyrians knew nothing of monotheism], I have not a cake [ מָעוןֹ , the synonym of עֻגָּה ( 1 Kings 5:13 ), the smallest kind of bread. It was baked in the ashes; hence the LXX . ἐγρυφίας . We gather from this pitiful disclosure that the famine had already extended to Phoenicia, as it naturally would do, considering how dependent that country was on Israel for its breadstuffs; see note on 1 Kings 5:9 , 1 Kings 5:11 . Josephus (Ant. 8.13, 2) cites Menander as attesting to a year's drought in the reign of Ethbaal], but an handful of meal in a [Heb. the ] barrel [ כַד , probably connected with cadus, cadeau, etc.; bucket, pail], and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks [ i.e; a few sticks (Gesenius). We may compare the German idiom ein Paar and our "two or three." But "two" in this sense occurs nowhere else in the Bible—"two or three" is found in 2 Kings 9:32 ; Isaiah 17:6 ; Amos 4:8 . According to Roberts, the word is constantly used for "few" by the natives of India. This widow was evidently reduced to the greatest extremities], that I may go in and dress it for me and my son [The LXX . has τέκνοις here and in Amos 4:13 , and τὰ τέκνα in verse 15. Bähr contends that Elijah first learnt from these words—the mention of a son and the absence of any mention of her husband—that he was addressing a "widow woman." But we read Genesis 38:14 , Genesis 38:19 , of "garments of widowhood" (cf. Deuteronomy 24:17 ), and Genesis 38:10 , "a widow woman," etc; almost implies that Elijah from the first recognized her as such], that we may eat it, and die.