Luke 4:25

4:25 But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s days, ¹  when the sky ²  was shut up three and a half years, and ³  there was a great famine over all the land.

James 5:17

5:17 Elijah was a human being ⁴  like us, and he prayed earnestly ⁵  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!

Revelation 11:6

11:6 These two have the power ⁶  to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the time ⁷  they are prophesying. They ⁸  have power ⁹  to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want.

¹ 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.

² 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.

³ tn Grk “as.” The particle ὡς can also function temporally (see BDAG 1105-6 s.v. 8).

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn Grk “he prayed with prayer” (using a Hebrew idiom to show intensity).

⁶ tn Or “authority.”

⁷ tn Grk “the days.”

⁸ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁹ tn Or “authority.”