ZAREPHATH

(Zarʹe·phath) [possibly from a root meaning “refine”].

A Phoenician town ‘belonging to’ or apparently dependent upon Sidon in Elijah’s day. At Zarephath the prophet was shown hospitality by a poor widow, whose flour and oil were miraculously sustained during a great famine and whose son Elijah, in God’s power, subsequently raised from death. (1Ki 17:8-24; Lu 4:25, 26) It later marked an extremity of former Canaanite territory foretold to become the possession of Israelite exiles. (Ob 20) The name is preserved in that of Sarafand, about 13 km (8 mi) SSW of Sidon, though the ancient site may have been a short distance away on the Mediterranean shore.