1-kings 17:4

I have commanded the ravens to feed thee - Thou shalt not lack the necessaries of life; thou shalt be supplied by an especial providence.

See more on this subject at the end of the chapter, 1 Kings 17:24 (note).

The ravens - This is the translation of most of the ancient versions; others, omitting the points, which are generally allowed to have no authority, read "Arabians;" others, retaining the present pointing, translate either "merchants" (compare the original of Ezekiel 27:9, Ezekiel 27:27), or "Orbites." Jerome took it in this last sense, and so does the Arabic Version.

17:4 Have commanded - Or, I shall command, that is, effectually move them, by instincts which shall be as forcible with them, as a law orcommand is to men. God is said to command both brute creatures, andsenseless things; when he causeth them to do the things which he intends toeffect by them. The ravens - Which he chuseth for this work; to shew hiscare and power in providing for the prophet by those creatures, which arenoted for their greediness, that by this strange experiment he might betaught to trust God in those many and great difficulties to which he was tobe exposed. God could have sent angels to minister to him. But he chosewinged messengers of another kind to shew he can serve his own purposes aseffectually, by the meanest creatures as by the mightiest. Ravens neglecttheir own young, and do not feed them: yet when God pleaseth, they shallfeed his prophet.