1 Kings 17:12

1Ki 17:12 And she said, [As] the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I [am] gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

Ver. 12. I have not a cake.] Not so much food ready as a cake. Half a cake, we say, is better than no bread: but here it was not to be had. It is God’s glory to help at a pinch. This poor widow was not alone distressed, but the rest of the Zidonians also, who as they had sent their idolatry to Israel, together with their daughter Jezebel, so do they partake of their punishment. Menander, a heathen historian, brought in by Josephus, telleth of a great drought and dearth in the time of Ithobaal, king of the Zidonians, and that when he had appointed supplications to be made, a great thunder followed, and much rain fell. Ita Diabolus operum Dei Momus et Mimus, per Menandrum hoc egit, ut divinum miraculum in Iudaea editum vilesceret, fidem et authoritatem amitteret, et tanti operis gloria ad turpissima dola rediret!

But a handful of meal in a barrel.] Happy was it for this widow, that she was no niggard of her last handful. Her barrel and cruse had thereby no bottom. The mercy of God crowneth our beneficence with abundance. Not getting, but giving, is the right way to wealth.

For me and my son.] The Greek version hath it, My sons, as if she had many: and then her goodness was the greater in parting with any to the prophet, as Eucherius observeth.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17:12 by the Lord your God (literally as surely as the Lord your God lives): The wording reflects Elijah’s oath and pronouncement to Ahab (17:1). The Gentile woman’s oath does not necessarily claim that the Lord is her god, but it does affirm to Elijah that what she says is the truth.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hebrew, two.

For there is no hope of any more sustenance.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 12. A handful of meal in a barrel] The word כד cad is to be understood as implying an earthen jar; not a wooden vessel, or barrel of any kind. In the East they preserve their corn and meal in such vessels; without which precaution the insects would destroy them. Travellers in Asiatic countries abound with observations of this kind.

The word cruse, צפחת tsappachath, says Jarchi, signifies what in our tongue is expressed by bouteille, a bottle. Jarchi was a French rabbin.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12) I have not a cake.—The famine may have already extended to Phœnicia; for there, according to Menander, it lasted for a year; or, since the country depended upon Israel for supplies, the distress may have been only the reflex effect of the famine in Israel.

As the Lord thy God liveth.—The phrase indicates a recognition of Elijah as a prophet of Jehovah the God of Israel, but probably (as, indeed, seems to be implied by the use of the words “thy God”) no acknowledgment of Him as yet by the woman herself, such as the neighbouring heathen (as, for example, Hiram in the days of Solomon) often yielded.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. meal in a [R.V. the] barrel … oil in a [R.V. the] cruse] The definite article is expressed in the original, and represented by the LXX. The barrel and the cruse were the special domestic articles in every house, and would be spoken of definitely.

two sticks] i.e. some small quantity. Thus we often say ‘a couple’ when we do not mean ‘two’ only.

my son] The LXX. renders by the plural ‘sons,’ perhaps because it is said, in 1Ki_17:15, that ‘she and he and her house did eat many days.’ Josephus gives the singular ‘my son’ as the Hebrew.

eat it, and die] The drought had already brought so poor a person to the point of starvation.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth,.... Which shows her to be a good woman, swearing by the living God, and him only, and that she took Elijah to be a good man, and a prophet of the Lord:

I have not a cake; greater or less, not a morsel of bread in the house:

but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; these separate and unmixed, and not made into a cake, and dressed as she intended to do with them:

and, behold, I am gathering two sticks; or a few, which would be sufficient to bake such a quantity as her meal and oil would make; she speaks by the figure "meiosis", which expresses less than what is meant, as Ben Melech observes:

that I may go in and dress it for me, and my son, that we may eat it, and die; having nothing more left, and no expectation of any elsewhere, and the famine strong in the land; so that she could look for nothing but death after this was eaten.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

As the Lord thy God liveth - The words do not prove that the woman was an Israelite, or a worshipper of the true God; any Phoenician, recognizing in Elijah’s appearance the garb and manner of a Jehovistic prophet, might have thus addressed him: Baal-worshippers would have admitted Yahweh to be “a” living God. The woman does not say “as the Lord my God liveth.”

That we may eat it and die - Phoenicia always depended for its cereal supplies on the harvests of Palestine (1Ki 5:9 note); and it is evident that the famine was afflicting the Phoenicians at this time no less than the Israelites.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

As the Lord thy God liveth; by which she discovers, that though she was a Gentile, yet she owned the God of Israel as the true God.

Two sticks, i.e. a few sticks, that number being oft used indefinitely for any small number, both in Scripture, as Hos 6:2, and by other authors. That we may eat it, and die; for having no more provision, we must needs perish with hunger. For though the famine was only in the land of Israel, yet the effects of it were in Tyre and Zidon, which were fed by the corn of that land. See Act 12:20. Or the same famine might be in those parts also; the chief cause of the famine, to wit, the worship of Baal, being common to both places.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. As the Lord thy God liveth — This was a formula somewhat peculiar to Elijah, (see 1Ki_17:1,) and her use of it indicates in her a knowledge and reverence of the God of Israel. But that she was a heathen, and not belonging to the tribes of Israel, seems evident from the manner in which she is mentioned in this passage, and also from the manner in which Jesus speaks of her in Luk_4:26. It is significant that in the time of famine Elijah finds a home and food in the land of Ethbaal, the father of the wicked Jezebel, (1Ki_16:31,) and in the house of a poor heathen widow, in whom he finds, as Jesus found in a woman of this same land, (Mat_15:28,) a faith unequalled in Israel

A barrel — כד, a pitcher, a bucket, or jar, for holding meal or carrying water. Gen_24:14.

Cruse — A flask for holding liquids. See cut at 1Sa_26:11.

Two sticks — That is, a few sticks. So two sheep, (Isa_7:21;) and two days, (Hos_6:2,) mean a few sheep and a few days.

Eat it, and die — A picture of uttermost woe and want; but a means of developing in her a noble faith.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth Bahr, Keil, al. conclude from this formula that the woman was a worshipper of the God of Israel. Bahr 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 (Luk_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 (2Ki_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, 1Ki_5:7. The Tyrians knew nothing of monotheism I have not a cake nowm; , the synonym of hGu (ver. 13), the smallest kind of bread. It was baked in the ashes; hence the LXX ejgrufiav. 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 1Ki_5:9, 1Ki_5:11. Josephus (Ant. 8:13, 2) cites Menander as attesting to a year"s drought in the reign of Ethbaal, but a handful of meal in a Heb. the barrel dK 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 or three" is found in 2 Kings Isa_17:6; Amo_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 teknoiv here and in ver. 13, and takna in ver. 15. Bahr 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 Gen_38:14, Gen_38:19, of "garments of widowhood" (cf., Deu_24:17) and ver. 10, "a widow woman," etc., almost implies that Elijah from the first recognized her as such, that we may eat it, and die.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

She said - Therefore though she was a Gentile, yet she owned the God of Israel as the true God. Two sticks - A few sticks, that number being often used indefinitely for any small number. And die - For having no more provision, we must needs perish with hunger. For though the famine was chiefly in the land of Israel, yet the effects of it were in Tyre and Sidon, which were fed by the corn of that land. But what a poor supporter was this likely to be? who had no fuel, but what she gathered in the streets, and nothing to live upon herself, but an handful of meal and a little oil! To her Elijah is sent, that he might live upon providence, as much as he had done when the ravens fed him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Cake. [מעוג means] the same as עוגה [=cake].

A handful. [Targum] Yonoson rendered, “the palm of a handful.”

In a bottle. Bouteille, in O.F., as it is stated regarding Shaul, “the flask of water that was at [Shaul’s] head.”

We will die. From then on, we will die of hunger.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.