Topic
Zarephath
7 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Luke 4:26Easton · Smith · ISBE · Nave Called SAREPTA (A. V.) in
But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
- 1 Kings 17:9Smith · ISBE
Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
- 1 Kings 17:10Easton · Smith
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
- Joshua 11:8ISBE
And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephoth-maim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.
- 1 Kings 17:8–24Nave Elijah performs two miracles in
¶ And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the…
- Obadiah 1:20ISBE
And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
- Mark 7:24–31ISBE
¶ And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at…
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 3 references
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).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 3 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 7 references
zar'-e-fath (tsarephath; Sarepta): The Sidonian town in which Elijah was entertained by a widow after he left the brook Cherith (1Ki 17:9). Obadiah refers to it as a Canaanite (probably meaning Phoenicia) town (Ob 1:20). It appears in the Greek form Sarepta in Lu 4:26 (the King James Version), and is said to be in the land of Sidon. Josephus (Ant., VIII, xiii, 2) says it was not "far from Sidon and Tyre, for it lay between them." Eusebius, Onomasticon (s.v. "Sarefta"), places it on the public road, i.e. the road along the seashore. It can be no other than the modern Sarafend, about 13 miles North of Tyre, on the spur of the mountain which divides the plain of Tyre from that of Sidon.
The site of the ancient town is marked by the ruins on the shore to the South of the modern village, about 8 miles to the South of Sidon, which extend along the shore for a mile or more. They are in two distinct groups, one on a headland to the West of a fountain called Ain el-Qantara, which is not far from the shore. Here was the ancient harbor which still affords shelter for small craft. The other group of ruins is to the South, and consists of columns, sarcophagi and marble slabs, indicating a city of considerable importance. The modern village of Sarafend was built some time after the 12th century, since at the time of the Crusades the town was still on the shore.
It is conjectured that the Syrophoenician woman mentioned in Lu 4:26 was an inhabitant of Zarephath., and it is possible that our Lord visited the place in His journey to the region as narrated in Mr 7:24-31, for it is said that he "came through Sidon unto the sea of Galilee."
The place has been identified by some with Misrephoth-maim of Jos 11:8 and 13:6, but the latter passage would indicate that Misrephoth-maim was at the limit of the territory of the Sidonians, which Zarephath was not in the days of Joshua.
See MISREPHOTH-MAIM; SIDON.
Originally Sidonian, the town passed to the Tyrians after the invasian of Shalmaneser IV, 722 BC. It fell to Sennacherib 701 BC. The Wely, or shrine bearing the name of el-Khudr, the saint in whom George is blended with Elijah, stands near the shore. Probably here the Crusaders erected a chapel on what they believed to be the site of the widow's house.
W. Ewing
In the topical indexes
Nave's Topical Bible (1896) · 2 references, grouped by sub-topic
- → (A city between Tyre and Sidon)
- → Elijah performs two miracles in 1Ki 17:8-24
- → Called SAREPTA (A. V.) in Lu 4:26
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.