1 Kings 17 18

1 Kings 17:18 kjv

And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?

1 Kings 17:18 nkjv

So she said to Elijah, "What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?"

1 Kings 17:18 niv

She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?"

1 Kings 17:18 esv

And she said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!"

1 Kings 17:18 nlt

Then she said to Elijah, "O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?"

1 Kings 17 verses

1 Kings 17 18 Meaning

The woman of Zarephath, distraught over her son's sudden death, confronts Elijah, accusing him of being the cause. She perceives his presence as a "man of God" to have highlighted her hidden sin to the Almighty, leading to divine judgment and her son's demise. This reveals a common ancient understanding that misfortune and death were direct consequences of specific divine retribution for undisclosed sins.

1 Kings 17 18 Context

First Kings chapter 17 establishes Elijah as a prophet empowered by YHWH. It opens with Elijah's audacious declaration of a severe drought, a direct challenge to the idol worship of Baal (who was believed to control rain) rampant under King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. God then commands Elijah to withdraw to Kerith Ravine, where ravens supernaturally provide for him. When the ravine dries up, God sends him to Zarephath, a Sidonian town, ironically in Jezebel's homeland and a center for Baal worship. There, Elijah encounters a destitute widow. Despite her dire situation, with only a little flour and oil left for a final meal before she and her son perish, she obeys Elijah's request to first make him a small cake. In response to her faith, YHWH miraculously sustains her household with an unending supply of flour and oil. This sets the stage for the deeply personal crisis in verse 18: the miraculous sustenance is interrupted by the son's illness and sudden death, leading to the widow's emotional outburst and accusation against Elijah.

1 Kings 17 18 Word analysis

• "And she said" (וַתֹּ֙אמֶר֙ - vattōʾmer): This marks a sudden, distressed shift in the narrative as the widow, heretofore obedient and faithful, now directly addresses Elijah with deep anguish.
• "to Elijah," (אֶל־אֵלִיָּ֔הוּ - ʾel-ʾēliyyāhû): The direct address underscores the immediate emotional impact of her son's death on her relationship with the prophet.
• "What have you against me," (מַה־לִּ֣י וָלָךְ - mah-llî wālāḵ): Literally translated as "What to me and to you?" This is a powerful Hebrew idiom expressing dissociation, a strong protest, or an accusation. It conveys a sense of intrusive interference or conflict, implying: "Why are you meddling in my life, and what do you want with me that has resulted in this calamity?" It suggests she feels unjustly targeted or that his holy presence has disturbed her equilibrium.
• "O man of God?" (אִ֖ישׁ הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים - ʾîš hāʾĕlōhîm): This title signifies Elijah's intimate connection to YHWH and divine authority. Paradoxically, the widow uses it here to accuse him, implying that because he is YHWH's representative, his very presence must be the cause of her suffering, specifically through divine judgment. Her fear attributes punitive power to God's messenger rather than seeing the possibility of divine compassion or alternative reasons for affliction.
• "You have come to me" (בָּ֙אתָה֙ אֵלַ֔י - bāʾtâ ʾēlay): She sees his arrival as a specific, targeted event that directly led to her calamity, not just a casual encounter. It underscores her feeling of personal implication.
• "to bring my sin to remembrance" (לְהַזְכִּ֥יר אֶת־עֲוֹנִ֖י - ləhazkîr ʾet-ʿawōnî):
  • "to bring to remembrance" (לְהַזְכִּיר - ləhazkîr, Hiphil of zakhar): To cause to be remembered or recalled, especially in a legal or divine context for judgment. The widow believes Elijah’s presence as a holy man made her hidden sin prominent to God, inciting divine action.
  • "my sin" (עֲוֹנִי - ʿawōnî): Refers to her iniquity, guilt, or the punishment resulting from it. The specificity ("my sin") points to an existing inner awareness or fear of transgression on her part, which she now believes has been divinely exposed. She attributes her son's death not to a random event, but to a just, albeit painful, consequence of her wrongdoing.
• "and to cause the death of my son!" (וּלְהָמִ֖ית אֶת־בְּנִֽי - ûləhāmît ʾet-bənî):
  • "to cause to die" (לְהָמִית - ləhāmît, Hiphil of mûth): This causative verb directly attributes the son's death to Elijah’s (and by extension, YHWH's) perceived action, provoked by her sin being "remembered." This is the climactic and tragic outcome she laments, revealing her deep grief and a worldview tightly linking misfortune to divine judgment for personal sin. Her desperation overrides her prior faith.
• "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me": This phrase expresses the widow's profound sense of injustice and violation. She perceives Elijah’s holy presence not as a source of comfort or life, but as a catalyst for divine reckoning that shattered her fragile peace.
• "to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!": This forms a direct cause-and-effect accusation. For the widow, the sequence is clear: Elijah's holiness brought her sin to God's attention, and as a result, her son died as a divine punishment. This statement powerfully illustrates the widespread ANE belief in direct divine retribution for specific transgressions, and her profound, grief-stricken, albeit flawed, understanding of God's ways.

1 Kings 17 18 Bonus section

• The Zarephath widow, living in a foreign, Baal-worshipping land, displays an underlying knowledge or fear of YHWH's punitive power. Her use of "man of God" (אִيشׁ הָאֱלֹהִים) confirms her recognition of Elijah's unique status, contrasting the superficial "gods" of her culture with the true God whose power she now feels directly.
• This verse provides a crucial theological pivot, highlighting a common, yet often incomplete, Old Testament perspective on suffering as divine judgment. It sets the stage for God to reveal a broader aspect of His character: not just judge, but also life-giver and compassionate healer, a truth explored more fully throughout the prophetic books and profoundly exemplified in Jesus Christ.
• Her desperate outcry underscores the gravity of losing a son in that culture, where he represented future support and the continuation of the family line, particularly vital for a widow with no husband. Her immediate recourse to attributing the death to her own sin reflects the ultimate and severe nature of the loss.

1 Kings 17 18 Commentary

1 Kings 17:18 vividly captures the raw anguish and profound misunderstanding of a mother in crisis. Having previously experienced YHWH's miraculous provision through Elijah, the widow's theology defaults to a simplistic, fear-driven interpretation when tragedy strikes. Her cry, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!", exposes a deep-seated belief that severe misfortune, particularly the death of a child, must be a direct divine judgment for an undisclosed sin. She projects her internal guilt or cultural understanding onto Elijah's presence, believing his holiness 'activated' a dormant divine decree against her. This lament prepares the reader for the subsequent miraculous intervention, where YHWH's power over life and death is spectacularly demonstrated, transforming her despair into renewed faith and a truer understanding of divine compassion beyond mere retribution. The verse underscores humanity's struggle to reconcile suffering with God's goodness, often resorting to an immediate blame for sin.