Bible Strands
1 Kings 17:10
So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elijah travels to Zarephath and stops at the city gate where a widow is gathering sticks, leading him to request a cup of water for himself.
The words — The Hebrew terms וַיָּקָם (va-yāqom) and וַיֵּלֵךְ (va-yēlēkh) literally render "and he arose" and "and he went," documenting Elijah's physical movement toward the commanded location.
The thread — This request for water mirrors Abraham’s servant asking Rebekah for a drink (Genesis 24:17) and Jesus asking the Samaritan woman for water (John 4:7).
Why it lands — The text records a prophet relying on a destitute woman for basic sustenance, establishing that divine provision operates through ordinary human need and action.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:17 So the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me have a little water from your jar.”
- John 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
- Genesis 21:15 When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes.
- 2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
- Hebrews 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated.