In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”
Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
Acts 9:36-39 NIV
Tunics, garments, coats—weaver for the widows,
her shuttles and needles flew like leaping antelopes,
like her name, Dorcas or Tabitha or gazelle.
Through the warp and woof of her loom, orchestrating
second skins against the cold, giving widows
with no resources a second chance.
And Peter, summoned to that port city room
where she fell ill and died,
spoke to her: “Tabitha, arise.” She opened her eyes.
Having called on the Holy Spirit
to reweave and mend her flesh
on an invisible embroidery frame.
He offered her his hand and led her
to leap up, like the gazelle
she was, to again run this sacred race
For the rest of her earthly life.
Tabitha Dorcas gazelle
Simon Peter rock
Joppa Jaffa Tel Aviv
Aramaic Greek Hebrew
life sickness death
raised from death second death resurrection