What is…
Zarephath

also known as: Sarepta, Sarafand, Sarafend, Ṣarfanda (Sarfanda), Tsarephath, Tzrifin

Meaning: smelting-shop, “a workshop for the refining and smelting of metals”

This was a small Phoenician town about a mile from the Mediterranean coast that was subject to Sidon, and located almost midway on the road between Sidon and Tyre.

Here the famed prophet Elijah lived with a poor widow during the “great famine,” when the “heaven was shut up 3 years and 6 months” (Luke 4:26; 1 Kings 17:10).

It is called Sarepta in the New Testament (Luke 4:26). In later years it was a Christian town the 6th century call it a small town but very Christian with a church dedicated to Elijah.

It is located near modern Sarafand, Lebanon.