Zarephath of Sidon
A place in the Bible
A town on the coast, in the land of Sidon, north of Israel. It was not an Israelite town.
What happened here
- The widow: the Lord sent Elijah to Zarephath. At the entrance of the town he found a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her for water and a little bread.
- The flour and the oil: she had only a handful of flour and a little oil. She first made a small cake for Elijah, and from that day on she never ran out of flour or oil.
- Jesus remembers her: in Nazareth, Jesus said that in the time of Elijah there were many widows in Israel, but Elijah was sent to a widow in Zarephath.
Today
It is identified with Sarafand, in southern Lebanon.
Where it appears in the Bible
1 Kings 17:9-11; 1 Kings 17:12-16; Luke 4:25-26
What the Bible says
1 Kings 17:9-11
9Arise, and go to Sarephta of the Sidonians, and dwell there: for I have commanded a widow woman there to feed thee. 10He arose, and went to Sarephta. And when he was come to the gate of the city, he saw the widow woman gathering sticks, and he called her, and said to her: Give me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. 11And when she was going to fetch it he called after her, saying: Bring me also, I beseech thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.
1 Kings 17:12-16
12And she answered: As the Lord thy God liveth, I have no bread, but only a handful of meal in a pot, and a little oil in a cruse: 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. 13And Elias said to her: Fear not, but go, and do as thou hast said: but first make for me of the same meal a little hearth cake, and bring it to me: and after make for thyself and thy son. 14For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: The pot of meal shall not waste, nor the cruse of oil be diminished, until the day wherein the Lord will give rain upon the face of the earth. 15She went and did according to the word of Elias: and he ate, and she, and her house: and from that day 16The pot of meal wasted not, and the cruse of oil was not diminished, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke in the hand of Elias.
Luke 4:25-26
25In truth I say to you, there were many widows in the days of Elias in Israel, when heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there was a great famine throughout all the earth. 26And to none of them was Elias sent, but to Sarepta of Sidon, to a widow woman.
Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.
Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Sarepta”; Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), “Zarephath”