Luke 4:25
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Cross-reference
1 Kings 17:1 records Elijah's drought declaration — the exact event Jesus references in Luke 4:25, setting the scene for the widow's story.
1 Kings 17:1 records Elijah's drought declaration — the exact event Jesus references in Luke 4:25, setting the scene for the widow's story.
In 1 Kings 18:2, the severe famine in Samaria during Elijah's time provides the historical background for Jesus' reference to the three-and-a-half-year drought.
Mark 7:26-29 shows a Gentile woman receiving mercy from Jesus — mirroring the widow of Zarephath, a Gentile, who received Elijah's help.
Romans 9:15 cites God's sovereign mercy — the same principle illustrated when God sent Elijah to a Gentile widow over many in Israel.
James 5:17 confirms the exact three-and-a-half-year duration of the drought, emphasizing Elijah's prayer as the cause.
Revelation 11:6 describes two witnesses with power to shut the sky, directly echoing Elijah's miracle — a typological fulfillment.
1 Kings 8:35 uses the same phrase 'heaven shut up' for drought as judgment, echoing the condition during Elijah's time.
Leviticus 26:19 warns of heaven made like iron (no rain) as a covenant curse—a theological pattern behind the drought Jesus mentions.
2 Chronicles 6:26 repeats the 'heaven shut up' drought motif from Solomon's prayer, similar to 1 Kings 8:35.
2 Chronicles 7:13 describes God shutting the sky to cause drought — the same divine action that occurred during Elijah's famine.