In 1 Kings 17:4-6 is Elijah fed by ravens or Arabians?

Question

A couple of commentaries mention that scholars dispute that Elijah was fed by ravens and instead think the word in 1 Kings 17:4-6 ought to be translated black arabs or perhaps "Orbites, i.e., inhabitants of Orbo." I'm also told though:

In support of the received rendering is the very powerful consideration, that it is the interpretation of all the versions (except the Arabic) and of Josephus, who, beyond all question, represented the belief current in his own time (Ant. viii. 13. 2).

1 Kings. 1909 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.). The Pulpit Commentary (382). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

Is there any merit to translating this as something other than ravens? Or is it simply an attempt to accommodate the story to something consider more historically plausible (i.e. non-miraculous)? Or perhaps an incredulity that someone so zealous as Elijah would eat what unclean birds brought him?

Answer 1

This is an ancient question... The rabbis of the Talmud [BT Hullin 5a] discuss both opinions:

What is meant by ‘the ravens’ ['orevim]? Ravina said: It means actual ravens. R. Ada ben Manyomi said to him: "Could it not mean two men whose names were Orev?" He replied, "How could it have happened that both were named Orev?" "But perhaps they were so named after the town in which they lived?"... "If so, the verse should read Orebites ['orevi'im]."

A similar back-and-forth is found in Genesis Rabba 33:5 [a compilation of rabbinic commentary, probably 5th-6th century CE].

There is no philological basis for translating it as anything but "ravens". The hesitation is, as you noted, that ravens are unclean scavengers and thus perhaps unfit (not, in my opinion, a particularly strong argument), and also that having humans feed Elijah here makes a nice parallel to the widow of Sarephath who feeds him a few verses later. But in my opinion it's a stretch.

Answer 2

It is not uncommon for God to use animals to perform tasks in the Tanakh/Old Testament, so this would not be an anomaly. At the same time, ancient Near East (ANE) hospitality makes 'Arabs' a possibility (it is plausible).

Concerning the issue of ritual impurity, Elijah was out in the wilderness, nowhere near the temple nor other Jews. Who cares if he became ritually impure? Other prophets cooked food on dung (Ezekiel) and married hookers (Hosea). This is still a weak argument.

But modern scholars generally agree with 'ravens' as the best translation. "It is now generally admitted that הָעֹרְבִים does not mean either Arabs or Orebites (the inhabitants of an imaginary city named Oreb), but ravens."¹ "The word orev likely refers to the short-tailed black species corvus rhipidurus that nests around the Dead Sea and Jordan Valley."² Not to mention, the LXX also translates this as 'ravens.'

So while it's possible that it was Arabs who fed Elijah, it is unlikely.

Footnotes

¹ Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 1 Ki 17:2–9.

² John D. Barry, Michael R. Grigoni, Michael S. Heiser et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2012), 1 Ki 17:4.

Answer 3

According to Strongs 06158 on the eight other occasions this word is used it definitely has a connection to bird life. cf Gen 8:7; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14; Job 38:14; Ps 147:9; Pro 30:17; So 5:11; Is 34:11. That makes me believe it was ravens.

Answer 4

Rabbi Joseph Kara makes a novel suggestion in his commentary to 1 Kings 17:4 (available at this link in Hebrew), that these were people from the nearby town of Oreb (he understands that it is situated near the Jordan river, based on Judges 7:25, see additional commentaries there for their takes on the location of the "Rock of Oreb"). Therefore, there would be merit to such a translation being that the city of Oreb was geographically close.

Answer 5

Just some food for thought. I am convinced that it was people that brought Elijah food, but I will not rule out that if God so ordered birds to bring Elijah food, it was so. I want to add my observations that lead me to believe what I do. First, We are all aware of the fact that there is strong proability that things were added, changed or removed by those who either copied or translated original texts. We also know that there were ancient Hebrew words were that were so similar in spelling to others and that often, just the slightest error in copying could easily result in the wrong word being spelled. Since all humans are flawed and do make mistakes, this has to be considered. There are a number of factors that could cause a copyist to make a mistake, headache, physically ill, lighting, distraction, stress, interruptions, eyesight, personal interpretation etc. The problem is if one scribe were to get a word wrong, and if not caught, his work, with an incorrect word in place, would later be copied by others. I am not aware of one manuscript, seperated by dozens or hundreds of years, being an exact duplicate of earlier manuscripts. Second, there are other disputed words that have been debated over for hundreds of years with no agreement between scholars and linguistics. For Example, was Isaiah writting about a virgin or young girl in Isa 7:14? Was Rahab a prostitute or an inn keeper?

Third, Scripture reads that the ravens brought bread and meat in the morning and in the evening. It is possible that the ravens could have hunted small animals to bring Elijah meat, but where would they obtain bread? Ravens would not have been able to make bread, which means that they would have had to swoop down on people and snatch bread. If the ravens located in that geographical area were in the habit of stealing food from people, that those people would have protected their food from being snatched by ravens. While ravens do hunt, they also eat carrion. Fourth, by the phrasing of the words and real life, it is clear to see that the food brought was prepared food, ready to eat. There is no mention of Elijah preparing the meat brought to him, or of him preparing and baking bread. In the morning and evening sounds a lot like a somewhat scheduled time, based on the practice of mankind throughout history of normally preparing food at the same times every day.

Fourth, God said He commanded the ravens to feed Elijah. There are no other verses in the Old Testament about God "commanding" animals. Every time God "comnandes" it is always to people. When it came to nature, it is always that God either caused an event to happen or He sent it.

Fifth, IKings 17:8-9, God commanded a widow to feed Elijah. Again, Elijah does not have to prepare his food. In 1Kings 19:5-6, we see an angel prepares a cake for Elijah to eat and provides water for Elijah to eat. As I previously stated, I am not going to rule out that God used the birds known as ravens to feed Elijah, but to me, this wouldn't make sense. When one studied Scripture, one has to compare Scripture with Scripture and one has to try and figure out how any event in Scripture ties in with the whole of Scripture.

Answer 6

Although i upvoted the accepted answer i must say that without diacritial marks ( Nikud ) והערבים as "...and the Arabs..." can be proper read.

Even if few in the past mention this possibility - this kind of theological thinking welcomes peace and love and not hate to the other.

Answer 7

In the Strong's Concordance under the Hebrew meanings there is an example that a meaning for raven's could be Midianites, which makes a whole lot more sense than the birds flying to him every day with something. This also is an example of how GOD takes care of HIS children's needs. GOD Bless All.

Answer 8

The Arabs fed Elijah; "without diacritical marks והערבים "...and the Arabs..." can be properly read." "The consonantal text allows for the reading of Strong's 6163 "Arab" instead of raven", indeed the Hebrew alphabet has no vowel letters. We can find Arabs (in plural) 5 times in the Old Testament and it's written with the same letters (consonants) as ravens. II Chronicles 17:11, II Chronicles 21:16, II Chron. 22:1, II Chron. 26:7 and Nehemiah 4:7. II Chro. 21:16: ויער יהוה על־יהורם את רוח הפלשׁתים .והערבים אשׁר על־יד כושׁים׃

Answer 9

Another possible and logical kind of messenger that G-D might have sent to aid Elijah could have been nomads. The phonetics and spelling are similar.