308. The Meal Jar
• 1 min. read • grade level: 8
1 Kings 17:1212And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. (1 Kings 17:12). She said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel.
The kad was not what we understand by a barrel, a wooden vessel with staves and hoops, but a vessel made of clay. The same word is translated “pitcher” in several other places. It is still common in the East to keep grain in earthen jars. The same sort of vessel which was used for meal by this widow was afterward used for water on the occasion of Elijah’s sacrifice (1 Kings 18:3333And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. (1 Kings 18:33)).