Elijah was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, during the reign of Ahab and his Sidonian wife Jezebel (1 Kings 16:29-34). Elijah appears from out of nowhere to announce to King Ahab that it would not rain in Israel until Elijah spoke the word. This Elijah declares in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel (17:1). God then instructs Elijah to hide himself by the brook Cherith, where he could drink from its waters and be fed bread and meat morning and evening by the ravens (17:2-6). When the drought became extreme and the brook dried up, God instructed Elijah to go to Zarephath, a city in Sidon, not far from where Jezebel used to live. In other words, God had Elijah hide out in the heart of Baal country, where no one would have been more eager to capture and to kill Elijah than Jezebels father, the king of the Sidonians (16:31). There in Sidon, God cares for Elijah through a Gentile widow. They are saved from death by starvation, and the boy is raised from the dead, all by the word of God through Elijah (see 17:24).