Q&A- For which three women did Elijah or Elisha perform a miracle and where in the Bible can I find these stories?

Question

I am confused! For which three women did Elijah or Elisha perform a miracle and where in the Bible can I find these stories?

Answer

There were three women, two widows and a great woman who was not a widow, about which the Bible tells us. They are as follows:

Elijah and The Widow of Zarephath

(I Kings 17:9–24)

The Lord told Elijah to go to Zarephath where he would there find a widow woman who would sustain him. When he arrived at the gate of the city, a woman was there gathering sticks. “He called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand” (verses 10, 11). The widow tells him how poor she and her son are, with just a little oil and a little meal left for one last cake (verse 12). She generously gave what she had to the prophet, and God blessed her by performing a miracle. Each day the woman had just a little oil and a little meal to provide for her and her son and Elijah, until the drought broke (verses 13–15).

Elisha and The Widow with Two Sons

(II Kings 4:1–7)

The woman’s husband was dead, and she found out she had no means to pay her debt. Desperate to know what to do, for the creditor had come to take the widow’s two sons in lieu of payment, she reached out to Elisha, the prophet. The only commodity she had in her house was a pot of oil. Elisha told her to go and borrow as many empty vessels as she could from all of her neighbors. When she got home with them, she was to go in and shut the door behind her and her sons and start pouring the oil she had into the vessels, setting them aside as they filled. To her amazement all the vessels were filled, and when she asked for more vessels, her sons told her there were no more. The oil stopped pouring as soon as the last jar was full. When she told Elisha what had happened, he told her to go sell the oil, pay off her debt, and use the remaining oil for her family.

Elisha and The Great Woman of Shunem

(II Kings 4:8–37)

The woman of Shunem whom the Bible describes as great or notable (possibly for her generosity), was not a widow, but she was childless. Because of her kindness to Elisha, he prayed to the Lord that she may have a child. She did conceive, and the following year she bore a son. Later, the child died, so she ran to Elisha for help. God worked a miracle through Elisha, and the child was restored to his mother.