You shall drink from the brook is literally “And it shall be from the brook you drink.” The future tense in You shall drink is used to translate an imperfect verb in Hebrew, which has the force of a command. So NET Bible says “Drink from the stream.” New Jerusalem Bible has “You can drink from the stream,” which seems rather a weak translation. The point is that the necessities of life (food and drink) will be provided. Since verse 7 says that the wadi dried up when there was no longer any rain, this verse does not mean that God will miraculously provide the water.

I have commanded the ravens to feed you there: Ravens are members of the crow family and are scavengers and birds of prey. In Hebrew the words for ravens (ʿorebim) and “Arabs” (ʿarabim) are similar in spelling, so some interpreters have suggested that the Hebrew noun here should be corrected to read “Arabs” (so Gray both here and in verse 6). In support of this correction is the fact that in the next part of the story the widow of Zarephath is a non-Israelite. But there is no support for the reading “Arabs” in the ancient manuscripts, and the context seems to favor a miraculous feeding by ravens.

Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew by saying the ravens. The Hebrew is not referring to ravens that have been mentioned earlier in the story, nor to specific ravens. Since a class or kind of bird is referred to, Hebrew uses the definite article. But English usage permits the translation “ravens” (Good News Translation, New American Bible) or “some ravens.”

The phrase to feed you may be better translated in certain languages as “to bring you food” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible). For the last half of the verse, Contemporary English Version says “eat the food I’ve told the ravens to bring you.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .