Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Elijah Visits the Widowed Mother of Zarephath

⁸ Then this message came to him from the Lord: ⁹ “Get up, move to Zarephath in Sidon, and stay there. Look! I’ve commanded a widow to sustain you there.”

¹⁰ So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance to the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. So he asked her, “Please, may I have some water in a cup so I can have a drink.” ¹¹ While she was on her way to get the water, he called out to her, “Would you please also bring me a piece of bread while you’re at it?”^[a]

¹² “As the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have so much as a muffin, just a handful of flour in a bowl and some oil left in a bottle. Now I’m going to find some sticks so I can cook a last meal for my son and for me. Then we’re going to eat it and die.”

¹³ But Elijah told her, “You can stop being afraid. Go and do what you said, but first make me a muffin and bring it to me. Then make a meal for yourself and for your son, ¹⁴ because this is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘That jar of flour will not run out, nor will that bottle of oil become empty until the very day that the Lord sends rain on the surface of the ground.’”

¹⁵ So she went out and did precisely what Elijah told her to do. As a result, Elijah,^[b] the widow,^[c] and her son^[d] were fed for days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour never ran out and the bottle of oil never became empty, just as the Lord had promised^[e] through^[f] Elijah.

Elijah Restores the Widow’s Son

¹⁷ Sometime later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. In fact, his illness became so severe that he died.^{[a] 18} “What do we have in common, you man of God?” she accused Elijah. “You came to me so you could uncover my guilt! And you’re responsible for the death of my son!”

¹⁹ “Give me your son,” he replied. Then he took him from her lap, carried him upstairs to the room where he lived, and laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he called out to the Lord and asked him, “Lord my God, have you also brought evil to this dear widow with whom I am living as her guest? Have you caused the death of her son?” ²¹ Then he stretched himself three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, please cause the soul of this little boy to return to him.”

²² The Lord listened to Elijah, and the soul of the little boy returned to him, and he revived. ²³ Then Elijah took the little boy downstairs from the upper chamber back into the main house and delivered him to his mother. “Look,” Elijah told her, “your son is alive.”

²⁴ The woman responded to Elijah, “Now at last I’ve really learned that you are a man of God and that what you have to say about the Lord^[b] is the truth.”

Praise to God the Help of Israel

Jesus Himself Gave Paul His Message

¹¹ For^[a] I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin. ¹² For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.^{[b] 13} For you have heard about my earlier life in Judaism—how I kept violently persecuting God’s church and was trying to destroy it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, because I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him among the gentiles, I did not confer with another human being^[c] at any time, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see^[d] those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away to Arabia and then came back to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas,^[e] and I stayed with him for fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Before God, what I’m writing to you is the truth.)^{[f] 21} Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² But the churches of the Messiah^[g] that are in Judea did not yet know me personally. ²³ The only thing they kept hearing was this: “The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!” ²⁴ So they kept glorifying God for what had happened to^[h] me.

Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son

¹¹ Soon afterwards, Jesus^[a] went to a city called Nain. His disciples and a large crowd were going along with him. ¹² As he approached the entrance to the city, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only living^[b] son, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her.

¹³ When the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her. He told her, “You can stop crying.” ¹⁴ Then he went up and touched the bier, and the men who were carrying it stopped. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ The man who had been dead sat up and began to speak, and Jesus^[c] gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶ Fear gripped everyone, and they began to praise God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said, and “God has helped his people.” ¹⁷ This news about Jesus^[d] spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding countryside.