1 Kings 18:1

After many days - in the third year - We learn from our Lord, Luke 4:25 , that the drought which brought on the famine in Israel lasted three years and six months. St. James, James 5:17 , gives it the same duration. Probably Elijah spent six months at the brook Cherith, and three years with the widow at Sarepta.

I will send rain upon the earth - The word האדמה haadamah should be translated the ground or the land, as it is probable that this drought did not extend beyond the land of Judea.