Bible Location
Meaning: ambush of the mouth · 4 cross references · Modern-day map available
Zarephath, called Sarepta in the New Testament, was a Phoenician town between Tyre and Sidon. It is important because Elijah was sent there to the widow during the famine and Jesus later cited that episode. First appears in 1 Kgs 17:9.1
AI summary: Zarephath is one of the clearest examples of God's concern reaching beyond Israel in the Elijah narratives. During famine, Elijah is sustained there through a vulnerable widow, and the place becomes associated with miraculous provision and the expansion of prophetic mercy beyond Israel's borders. Jesus later recalls Zarephath precisely because the story challenges assumptions about who receives God's attention. The cross references present Zarephath as a Phoenician town of famine, hospitality, miracle, and prophetic surprise.1
Smelting-shop, “a workshop for the refining and smelting of metals”, a small Phoenician town, now Surafend, about a mile from the coast, almost midway on the road between Tyre and Sidon. Here Elijah sojourned with a poor widow during the “great famine,” when the “heaven was shut up three years and six months” (Luke 4:26; 1 Kings 17:10). It is called Sarepta in the New Testament (Luke 4:26). 3
AI-assisted summary prepared for ai-BIBLE and stored as page content, based on dictionary material, place metadata, and linked Bible cross references.
Alistair de Blacquiere-Clarkson, “ai-BIBLE Bible Names JSON Factsheet Aggregating Material from Smith’s Bible Dictionary & Hitcocks’s New and Complete Analysis of the Bible.” ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
M.G.Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
Robert Rouse, “Theographic Bible Information,” Theographic-Bible-Metadata, 2020, https://github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata.