Scripture · Proverbs 4:20-27
1 Kings 17:22–23 · Elijah returns the revived child to his mother
Elijah and the Widow’s Son
And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah, and the child’s life returned to him, and he lived. Then Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. “Look, your son is alive,” Elijah declared.
The miracle arrives at the bottom of a staircase. Elijah brings the child toward his mother, who kneels below with her hands clasped. Brown places the return to life inside a crowded, brightly colored household.
What does Elijah and the Widow’s Son show?
Elijah descends at the right in a red garment, holding the child against his side. The boy is wrapped in yellow cloth crossed by red bands. Below, his mother leans forward, her attention fixed on the two figures coming toward her.
A hen and chicks gather beside the steps. Writing marks the doorway, and everyday objects occupy the small interior. These details bring the extraordinary event close to domestic life: the boy is being returned to the house and the person from whom death had taken him.
The image shown here matches the Birmingham Museums Trust painting dated 1864. Brown returned to this subject in other versions, including a later watercolor. The date and collection here refer to this particular oil painting.
What does 1 Kings 17:22–23 mean?
The widow has already offered Elijah hospitality when her son becomes ill and stops breathing. In her grief, she asks whether the prophet has come to bring her sin to remembrance and cause her child’s death. Elijah carries him upstairs and cries to the LORD for his life to return.
First Kings 17:22–23 gives the answer and the return: the LORD listens, the child lives, and Elijah brings him down to his mother. The passage attributes the restoration to God’s response to prayer. Brown chooses the reunion, allowing the mother’s waiting posture to carry the force of the news.
First Kings 17:22–23 moves from answered prayer upstairs to a child given back to his mother; Brown paints that return down the steps.
Sources
Art UK and Birmingham Museums Trust — Elijah and the Widow’s Son. Exact Birmingham painting and its 1864 date.
Sotheby’s — Elijah and the Widow. Comparison record distinguishes Brown’s Birmingham oil painting from his watercolor versions.
1 Kings 17 — Berean Standard Bible. The widow’s loss, Elijah’s prayer, and the return of the child.
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