1 Reyes 13

A man of God from Judah

¹Just then a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. ²By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar, “Altar, altar! The LORD says this: ‘A son will be born to the house of David, and his name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn their incense here, and human bones will be burned on you.’”^{a 3}That same day he gave a sign: “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: The altar will be split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out.” ⁴When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he had stretched out against him withered, so that he could not pull it back. ⁵The altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, in keeping with the sign that the man of God, by the word of the LORD, had given. ⁶Then the king said to the man of God, “Please plead with the LORD your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before. ⁷Then the king said to the man of God, “Come to the palace with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.” ⁸But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you gave me half your palace, I would not go in with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water in this place. ⁹For this is the command I was given by the word of the LORD: ‘Eat no bread and drink no water, and do not go back by the way you came.’” ¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the road on which he had come to Bethel.

The old prophet of Bethel

¹¹Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. One of his sons came and told him everything the man of God had done in Bethel that day. His sons also told their father the words he had spoken to the king.^{b 12}Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen which road the man of God from Judah had taken.^{c 13}“Saddle the donkey for me,” he told his sons. They saddled it for him, and he mounted and rode off. ¹⁴He followed the man of God and found him sitting under the terebinth. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied. ¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat a meal.” ¹⁶He replied, “I cannot turn back with you or go home with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you here in this place. ¹⁷For a word came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Eat no bread and drink no water there, and do not go back by the way you came.’” ¹⁸The old prophet said to him, “I am a prophet as well, just as you are, and by the word of the LORD an angel told me, ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he can eat bread and drink water.’” But he was lying to him.^{d 19}So the man of God went back with him and ate bread and drank water in his house. ²⁰As they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet, the very one who had brought him back. ²¹He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “The LORD says this: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD. Because you did not keep the command that the LORD your God gave you, ²²and you came back and ate bread and drank water in the very place where he told you, “Do not eat bread or drink water,” your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’” ²³After the man of God had eaten bread and drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for him, the prophet he had brought back. ²⁴He set off, and on the way a lion met him and killed him. His body lay thrown down on the road, with the donkey standing beside it, and the lion standing beside the body too. ²⁵Some men passing by saw the body thrown down on the road and the lion standing beside the body. They went and told about it in the town where the old prophet lived. ²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has handed him over to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, in keeping with the word of the LORD that he spoke to him.” ²⁷Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they saddled it. ²⁸He went and found the body thrown down on the road, and the donkey and the lion were standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. ²⁹The prophet lifted the body of the man of God onto the donkey and brought it back. He came into the old prophet’s own town to mourn him and bury him. ³⁰He laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, saying, “Oh, my brother!” ³¹After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, you are to bury me in the same tomb as the man of God. Put my bones beside his.^{e 32}What he cried out by the word of the LORD will certainly come true, both against the altar in Bethel and against every shrine on the high places in the towns of Samaria.”

Jeroboam’s sin continues

³³Even after this, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way. Instead he again appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wished, he ordained, and that man became one of the priests of the high places. ³⁴This became the sin of the house of Jeroboam, and because of it the family was cut off and destroyed from the face of the earth.^f