²⁸ One of them, named Agabus,^(A) stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.^(B) (This happened during the reign of Claudius.)^(C)

¹⁰ After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus^(A) came down from Judea.

² There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla,^(A) because Claudius^(B) had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them,

John the Baptist Prepares the Way^(A)(B)

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate^(C) was governor of Judea, Herod^(D) tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus^(A) issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.^(B)

Elijah Announces a Great Drought

17 Now Elijah^(A) the Tishbite, from Tishbe^[a] in Gilead,^(B) said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain^(C) in the next few years except at my word.”

Elijah Fed by Ravens

² Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward and hide^(D) in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens^(E) to supply you with food there.”

⁵ So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning^(F) and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Elijah and the Widow at Zarephath

⁷ Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹ “Go at once to Zarephath^(G) in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a widow^(H) there to supply you with food.” ¹⁰ So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?”^{(I) 11} As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”

¹² “As surely as the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil^(J) in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”

¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain^(K) on the land.’”

¹⁵ She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. ¹⁶ For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

The Shunammite’s Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman^(A) whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine^(B) in the land that will last seven years.”^{(C) 2} The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³⁸ So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God^[a]?”^(A)

³⁰ but seven years of famine^(A) will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land.^{(B) 31} The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe.