²⁸ One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world, and this took place during the reign of Claudius.^(A)

¹⁰ While we were staying there for several days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

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

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

3 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,^(A)

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

Elijah Predicts a Drought

17 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe^[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”^{(A) 2} The word of the Lord came to him, saying, ³ “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴ You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the wadi. ⁷ But after a while the wadi dried up because there was no rain in the land.

The Widow of Zarephath

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ⁹ “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there, for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”^{(B) 10} So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” ¹¹ As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”^{(C) 13} Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.”^{(D) 15} She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

The Shunammite Woman’s Land Restored

8 Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Get up and go with your household and settle wherever you can, for the Lord has called for a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years.”^{(A) 2} So the woman got up and did according to the word of the man of God; she went with her household and settled in the land of the Philistines seven years.

³⁸ Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find anyone else like this, one in whom is the spirit of God?”^(A)

³⁰ After them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; the famine will consume the land.^{(A) 31} The plenty will no longer be known in the land because of the famine that will follow, for it will be very grievous.

¹⁴ And this good news^[a] of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.^(A)