Did the widow's son die?

The chapter tells it in its own words, and these notes keep to them. The narrator says, "his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him" (17:17). His mother says Elijah has come "to kill my son" (17:18), and Elijah prays, "have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?" (17:20). He asks, "please let this child’s soul come into him again" (17:21), and "the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived" (17:22). Then Elijah says, "Behold, your son lives" (17:23). The narrator doesn't use the word died of him; his mother and Elijah both use the word kill, and the chapter tells of his soul coming into him again.