1 Kings 1:3-4

1:3 So they looked through all Israel 1  for a beautiful young woman and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 1:4 The young woman was very beautiful; she became the king’s nurse and served him, but the king did not have sexual relations with her. 2 

1 Kings 3:17

3:17 One of the women said, “My master, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was with me in the house.

1 Kings 17:17

17:17 After this 3  the son of the woman who owned the house got sick. His illness was so severe he could no longer breathe.

1 Kings 17:24

17:24 The woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a prophet and that the Lord really does speak through you.” 4 

1 tn Heb “through all the territory of Israel.”

2 tn Heb “did not know her.”

3 tn Heb “after these things.”

4 tn Heb “you are a man of God and the word of the Lord is truly in your mouth.”

sn This episode is especially significant in light of Ahab’s decision to promote Baal worship in Israel. In Canaanite mythology the drought that swept over the region (v. 1) would signal that Baal, a fertility god responsible for providing food for his subjects, had been defeated by the god of death and was imprisoned in the underworld. While Baal was overcome by death and unable to function like a king, Israel’s God demonstrated his sovereignty and superiority to death by providing food for a widow and restoring life to her son. And he did it all in Sidonian territory, Baal’s back yard, as it were. The episode demonstrates that Israel’s God, not Baal, is the true king who provides food and controls life and death. This polemic against Baalism reaches its climax in the next chapter, when the Lord proves that he, not Baal, controls the elements of the storm and determines when the rains will fall.