Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook. (I Kings 17: 2-6, NIV)
From the first mention of the raven sent from Noah's Ark to search for dry land in the Book of Genesis, these brilliant black birds appear again in other Bible passages, mostly as recipients of divine care, as we see in the question posed in Job 38:41: "Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?" That role is reversed in this engaging story from the life of the Prophet Elijah, where these able avians serve as a divine catering service, bringing him two square meals a day. American Wood Engraver Barry Moser depicts these wing-borne food deliveries in realistic detail in a serigraph poster promoting his 1999 Pennyroyal Caxton Bible, the only twentieth century edition with illustrations for every book of the Old and New Testaments, designed and executed by a single artist. (John Kohan)