Zarephath

Zarephath (meaning smelting-shop or refinery, Luke 4:26 Sarepta) was a small Phoenician coastal town between Tyre and Sidon, now identified with Sarafand about a mile from the coast. It was here that the prophet Elijah was sustained during the great three-and-a-half-year drought in the reign of Ahab. God directed him to a widow there — a Phoenician woman, not an Israelite — who miraculously fed Elijah with the last of her flour and oil, which were then replenished daily for the duration of the famine (1 Kings 17:8–16). When her son died, Elijah raised him to life (1 Kings 17:17–24).

Jesus cited this episode in his synagogue sermon at Nazareth (Luke 4:25–26) to illustrate that prophetic ministry is not confined to Israel: there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah... yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. Obadiah 20 lists Zarephath as a territory that will be recovered in the eschatological restoration.