The following is my translation of the notes and useful applications for the Old Testament Reading for the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1 Kings 17:17–24 as they are found in Das Weimarische Bibelwerk (1877). Square brackets indicate my own notes and additions. For the useful applications, I recommend the reader see this very helpful article by Dr. Benjamin T. G. Mayes.
IV. The Resurrection of the Son of the Widow from Death (v. 17–24)
Notes
17. And after these things, the son of the woman (the widow), his hostess, became ill, and his illness was so severe, that no breath remained in him (so that his soul departed from him and he died).
18. And she (the widow) said to Elijah, * “What have I to do with you, you man of God (how badly do we harmonize together)? You have come to me that my misdeeds be remembered, and that my son would die (you are a holy man and I am a poor sinner, and I have not regarded you as one should treat such a man; therefore, I am now so heavily afflicted).
* Judges 11:12; 2 Samuel 16:10
19. He said to her, “Give me * your son.” And he took him from her bosom, and went into the room where he dwelt, and laid him upon the bed.
* 2 Kings 4:32
20. And he called upon the Lord (that He would give him grace and power to raise the dead boy), and said, “O Lord, my God, have You also done evil to the widow, with whom I am a guest, that You should kill her son?”
21. And he stretched himself over the child (he laid himself upon the child, spread himself over him, to warm his dead body) three times, and called upon the Lord, and said, “O Lord, my God, let the soul of this child come again to him (to his body).
(2 Kings 4:34; Acts 20:10)
22. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came back to him, and he became alive.
23. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the room into the house, and * gave him to his mother, and said, “See here, * your son lives.”
* Luke 7:15
** John 4:50
24. And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God (a true prophet), and the * Word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”
* 2 Samuel 7:28
Useful Applications
IV. COMFORT: Elijah’s prayer, which was granted by God, reminds us that believers do not call upon God vainly in their concerns, v. 21–22. DOCTRINE: On the other hand, this woman gives an example of an unstable and timid disposition, which one ought to guard oneself against, v. 18.
PATTERN OF SOUND WORDS 