Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁸ Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, ⁹ “Get up and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to sustain you.” ¹⁰ So he arose and went to Zarephath and came to the gate of the city. There was a widow woman gathering wood, so he called to her, and he said, “Please bring a little water for me in a vessel so that I can drink.” ¹¹ She went to fetch it, and he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” ¹² She said, “As Yahweh your God lives,^[a] surely I do not have a cake, but only a handful of flour^[b] in the jar and a little olive oil in the jug. Here I am gathering a few pieces of wood, and I will go and prepare it for me and my son, that we might eat it and die.” ¹³ Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go and do according to your word; only make for me a small bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me. Make it for yourself and for your son afterward. ¹⁴ For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: ‘The jar of flour will not be emptied and the jug of olive oil will not run out until the day Yahweh gives rain on the surface of the earth.’” ¹⁵ So she went and did according to the word of Elijah; then both she and he ate with her household for many days. ¹⁶ The jar of flour was not emptied and the jug of olive oil did not run out, according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke by the hand of Elijah.

¹⁷ It happened after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; and his illness was very severe until there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me,^[a] O man of God, that you have come to me to make known my guilt and to cause my son to die?” ¹⁹ Then he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her lap and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and he laid him on his bed. ²⁰ Then he called to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh my God, are you also causing evil to come upon the widow with whom I am dwelling as an alien by causing her son to die?” ²¹ He stretched himself out on the child three times and called to Yahweh and said, “O Yahweh my God, please let the life of this child return within him.” ²² Yahweh listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned within him, and he lived. ²³ Elijah then took the child and brought him down from the upper room to the house and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, “Look, your son is alive.” ²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now this I know, that you are a man of God and the word of Yahweh in your mouth is truth.”

Praise to Yahweh for His Help

Paul’s Defense of His Apostleship

¹¹ For I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that has been proclaimed by me, that it is not of human origin^[a]. ¹² For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³ For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism, that to an extraordinary degree I was persecuting the church of God, and trying to destroy it, ¹⁴ and was progressing in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my nation, because^[b] I was a far more zealous adherent of the traditions handed down by my forefathers.

¹⁵ But when the one who set me apart^[c] from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me in order that I would proclaim the gospel about him among the Gentiles, immediately I did not consult with flesh and blood, ¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and I returned again to Damascus. ¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days, ¹⁹ but I did not see any others of the apostles except James, the brother of the Lord. ²⁰ (Now the things which I am writing to you, behold, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) ²¹ Then I came to the regions of Syria and of Cilicia, ²² but I was unknown in person^[d] to the churches of Judea that are in Christ, ²³ and they were only hearing, “The one formerly persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith that formerly he was attempting to destroy,” ²⁴ and they were glorifying God because of me.

A Widow’s Son Raised

¹¹ And it happened that on the next day he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. ¹² And as he approached the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, his mother’s only son, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³ And when^[a] the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep!” ¹⁴ And he came up and^[b] touched the bier, and those who were carrying it^[c] stopped. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” ¹⁵ And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and he gave him to his mother. ¹⁶ And fear seized them all, and they began to glorify^[d] God, saying, “A great prophet has appeared among us!” and “God has visited to help his people!” ¹⁷ And this report about him went out in the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.