1 Kings 17:10-12

Behold, the widow woman was gathering sticks He knew, by some secret divine intimations, that this was the woman that was to sustain him. Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water Water, in consequence of the long drought, was doubtless scarce there as well as in the land of Israel; yet, being a pious woman, and therefore ready to succour a stranger in distress, she readily goes to fetch it. He called and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand This he probably said chiefly to try her, and to make way for what follows. She said, As the Lord thy God liveth By this she discovers, that though she was a Gentile, yet she owned the God of Israel as the true God. I am gathering two sticks A few sticks, that number being often used indefinitely for any small number. That we may eat it and die For having no more provision, we must needs perish with hunger. Although the famine was chiefly in the land of Israel, yet the effects of it were felt in Tyre and Sidon, which were supported by the corn of that land. But what a poor supporter was this widow likely to be! who had no fuel, but what she gathered in the streets, and nothing to live upon herself, but a handful of meal and a little oil! To her Elijah is sent, that he might live upon Providence, as much as he had done when the ravens fed him.