Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Kings 17:12

"And she said, As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die." — 1 Kings 17:12 (ASV)

As the Lord your God liveth—The words do not prove that the woman was an Israelite or a worshipper of the true God. Any Phoenician, recognizing in Elijah’s appearance the garb and manner of a prophet of the LORD, might have addressed him this way, for Baal-worshippers would have admitted Yahweh to be “a” living God. The woman does not say, “as the Lord my God liveth.”

That we may eat it and die—Phoenicia always depended for its grain supplies on the harvests of Palestine (see the note on 1 Kings 5:9), and it is evident that the famine was afflicting the Phoenicians at this time no less than the Israelites.