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

3tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came to him, saying.”

4tn Heb “commanded.”

5tn Heb “to provide for you.”

6tn Heb “So he went and did.”

7tn Heb “And it came about at the end of days.”

8tn Heb “And the word of the Lord came to him, saying.”

9tn Heb “Look, I have commanded.”

10tn Heb “a little.”

11tn The Hebrew text also includes the phrase “in your hand.”

12tn Heb “Look, I am gathering two sticks and then I will go and make it for me and my son and we will eat it and we will die.”

13tn Heb “according to your word.”

14tn Heb “and she ate, she and he and her house [for] days.”

15tn Heb “out, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke.”

16tn Heb “after these things.”

17tn Heb “What to me and to you, man of God, that you have come.”

18tn Heb “to make me remember.”

19tn Heb “you are a man of God and the word of the Lord is truly in your mouth.”

sn This episode is especially significant in light of Ahab’s decision to promote Baal worship in Israel. In Canaanite mythology the drought that swept over the region (v. 1) would signal that Baal, a fertility god responsible for providing food for his subjects, had been defeated by the god of death and was imprisoned in the underworld. While Baal was overcome by death and unable to function like a king, Israel’s God demonstrated his sovereignty and superiority to death by providing food for a widow and restoring life to her son. And he did it all in Sidonian territory, Baal’s back yard, as it were. The episode demonstrates that Israel’s God, not Baal, is the true king who provides food and controls life and death. This polemic against Baalism reaches its climax in the next chapter, when the Lord proves that he, not Baal, controls the elements of the storm and determines when the rains will fall.