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Hebrew Modern Translation
לוקם 4:26
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וְאֵלִיָּהוּ לֹא־נִשְׁלַח אֶל־אַחַת מֵהֵנָּה זוּלָתִי צָרְפַתָה אֲשֶׁר לְצִידוֹן אֶל־אִשָּׁה אַלְמָנָה׃
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
save: 1 Kings 17:9-24, Zarephath, Obadiah 1:20
Sarepta: Sarepta, a city of Phoenicia, on the coast of the Mediterranean, is called Zarphand by the Arabian geographer Sherif Ibn Idris, who places it twenty miles n of Tyre, and ten s of Sidon; but its real distance from Tyre is about fifteen miles, the whole distance from that city to Sidon being only twenty-five miles. Maundrell states that the place shown him for this city, called Sarphan, consisted of only a few houses, on the tops of the mountains, within about half a mile of the sea; between which there were ruins of considerable extent.
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 17:1 - Elijah John 17:12 - and
Gill's Notes on the Bible
But unto none of them was Elias sent,.... That is, to none of the poor widows in the land of Israel was the prophet sent, to supply them with food, and relieve them in their famishing circumstances, as might most reasonably have been expected:
save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon; which in 1 Kings 17:10 is called "Zarephath"; and by the Septuagint there, "Sarepta of Sidon", as here. Pliny r speaks of it by the same name, and reckons it to Sidon:
unto a woman that was a widow: she is said by the Jews s, to be the mother of Jonah the prophet. Our Lord meant to observe, by this instance, as by the following, that God bestows his favours on persons in a sovereign way, and sometimes upon the most unlikely; as in a time of famine, he overlooked the poor widows in Israel, his peculiar people, and sent his prophet to a Gentile woman in one of the cities of Sidon; and therefore they should cease to wonder if he wrought his miracles in other places, and not in his own country; since this was agreeable to the divine procedure in other cases, especially since they were a cavilling and unbelieving people. The Jews say t, that in all that generation there was not found any one that was worthy, as this woman.
r L. 5. c. 19. s Pirke Eliezer, c. 33. t Zohar in Exod. fol. 89. 2.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Save unto Sarepta - Sarepta was a town between Tyre and Sidon, near the Mediterranean Sea. It was not a âJewishâ city, but a Sidonian, and therefore a âGentileâ town. The word âsaveâ in this verse does not express the meaning of the original. It would seem to imply that the city was Jewish. The meaning of the verse is this: âHe was sent to none of the widows in Israel. He was not sent except to Sarepta, to a woman that was a âSidonian.â Dr. Thomson (âThe Land and the Book,â vol. i. p. 232-236) regards Sarepta as the modern Sarafend. He says that the ruins have been frequently dug over for stone to build the barracks at Beirut, and that the broken columns, marble slabs, sarcophagi, and other ruins indicate that it was once a flourishing city. A large town was built there in the time of the Crusades.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. Unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta — The sentence is elliptical, and means this: To none of them was Elias sent; he was not sent except to Sarepta; for the widow at Sarepta was a Sidonian, not a widow of Israel. PEARCE. - Sarepta was a pagan city in the country of Sidon, in the vicinity of Galilee.