Exegesis:

ep’ alētheias de legō humin ‘but in truth I say to you,’ cf. on 3.8.

ep’ alētheias lit. ‘on the basis of truth,’ the same expression in 20.21 and 22.59), ‘in truth,’ though less solemn than amēn yet a strong expression which indicates, as it were, that the speaker vouches for the truth of what he is going to say.

en tais hēmerais Ēliou ‘in the days of Elijah,’ a chronological indication.

en tō Israēl ‘in Israel.’ Israēl elsewhere denotes the nation, here the country where this nation lives.

hote ekleisthē ho ouranos epi etē tria kai mēnas hex, hōs egeneto limos megas epi pasan tēn gēn ‘when the sky was closed for three years and six months, when there was a great famine over the whole land,’ two temporal clauses, the second with consecutive force, depicting the situation in Elijah’s days. In this setting it happened that Elijah was not sent to one of the widows of Israel but to one outside. There is here no semantic difference between hote and hōs. In both clauses the verbs ekleisthē and egeneto are in the aorist, though the period of duration, three years and six months, is mentioned. But the aorist tense shows that the events are not viewed in their duration but as facts of the past.

ekleisthē ho ouranos ‘the sky was closed,’ an obvious metaphor for “no rain fell” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation). kleiō also 11.7.

egeneto ‘there was,’ cf. on 1.5.

limos ‘famine,’ ‘hunger.’

epi pasan tēn gēn ‘over the whole country,’ i.e. of Israel.

(V. 26) kai pros oudemian autōn epemphthē Ēlias ‘and (yet) to none of them was Elijah sent.’ kai emphasizes as surprising the fact to which the clause refers.

ei mē lit. ‘unless,’ here ‘but.’

eis Sarepta tēs Sidōnias, scil. chōras ‘to Sarepta in the Sidonian country.’ Sarepta represents Hebrew tsarapat, cf. 1 Kings 17.9f. The genitive tēs Sidōnias is a genitive of relationship.

pros gunaika chēran ‘to a woman (who was a) widow,’ hence ‘to a widow.’ chēra ‘widow’ has here its original function of an adjective.

Translation:

The principal feature of these two verses is the contrast between the many widows in Israel and the one outside. That the introductory formula, synonymous with the one used in v. 24, serves to call attention to this contrast, should become clear from its wording and position in the sentence, e.g. ‘remember what happened in the days of E., when…, when … the land I tell you there certainly were many widows in Israel then, yet E. was not sent to one of them but to a widow in Z….’

Widows, cf. on 2.37.

When … when …, preferably, ‘when … and…,’ or, ‘when…, so that, or, with the result that….’

The heaven was shut up, or with an equivalent metaphorical expression, ‘the sky had drawn up/withdrawn’ (Batak Toba). Often a non or less metaphorical rendering is necessary, e.g. ‘rain did not come’ (Tzeltal), ‘the sky refused to rain’ (Shona 1966), or such a rendering has to be added, ‘the heavens were closed up without rain’ (Kele).

Three years and six months, or, ‘three and a half years’ (Marathi, similarly in Ekari, where the idiom is ‘for the half of the fourth year’).

There came a great famine, or, ‘great was people’s hunger’ (Tae’), ‘people were very hungry, or, had not any food to eat,’ ‘food became very scarce/expensive’ (Low Malay), ‘people died because they could not obtain any food,’ in Toraja-Sa’dan the phrase ‘the soil collapses’ indicates ‘crop failure,’ ‘famine.’

(V. 26) Elijah was sent to none of them, or, in active construction, ‘to no one of them God sent E.’ (Sranan Tongo). It may be preferable to be more explicit, e.g. “sent to help” (The Four Gospels – a New Translation).

To Zarephath…, to a woman who was a widow. Since it is the woman and not the locality which is in focus, it is usually better to reverse the phrase order. The verb has sometimes to be repeated, for reasons of grammar (Marathi, Balinese) or of emphasis, cf. ‘but he was sent to a widow at Z…..’

Quoted with permission from Reiling, J. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1971. For this and other handbooks for translators see here . Make sure to also consult the Handbook on the Gospel of Mark for parallel or similar verses.