1 Kings 17:1

Elijah Visits a Widow in Sidonian Territory

17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As certainly as the Lord God of Israel lives (whom I serve), ¹  there will be no dew or rain in the years ahead unless I give the command.” ² 

Luke 4:25

4:25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, ³  when the sky ⁴  was shut up three and a half years, and ⁵  there was a great famine over all the land.

James 5:16-18

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ⁶  5:17 Elijah was a human being ⁷  like us, and he prayed earnestly ⁸  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months! 5:18 Then ⁹  he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest.

¹ tn Heb “before whom I stand.”

² tn Heb “except at the command of my word.”

³ sn Elijah’s days. Jesus, by discussing Elijah and Elisha, pictures one of the lowest periods in Israel’s history. These examples, along with v. 24, also show that Jesus is making prophetic claims as well as messianic ones. See 1 Kgs 17-18.

⁴ tn Or “the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. Since the context here refers to a drought (which produced the famine), “sky” is preferable.

⁵ tn Grk “as.” The particle ὡς can also function temporally (see BDAG 1105-6 s.v. 8).

⁶ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”

⁷ tn Although it is certainly true that Elijah was a “man,” here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") has been translated as “human being” because the emphasis in context is not on Elijah’s masculine gender, but on the common humanity he shared with the author and the readers.

⁸ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events.