The Shared Word Translation · Study & Discuss
1 Kings 13
Look, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense.
He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “Altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.”
That day he gave a sign, saying, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: Look, the altar will be torn apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.”
When the king heard the word of the man of God, which he had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from beside the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand, which he had stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself.
The altar was torn apart, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
The king answered and said to the man of God, “Please seek the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may return to me.” So the man of God sought the favor of the LORD, and the king’s hand returned to him; it was as before.
The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a gift.”
But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your house, I would not go with you. I would not eat bread or drink water in this place,
for this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water, and you must not return by the way you came.’”
So he went by another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, and the words that he had spoken to the king. They told them to their father.
Their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
He said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.
He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
He said, “I am.”
Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
But he said, “I cannot return with you or go in with you. I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place,
for a word came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there. You must not return by the way you came.’”
He said to him, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him.
So he returned with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
As they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back.
He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: Because you have rebelled against the command of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God commanded you,
but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water,’ your body will not come to the grave of your ancestors.”
After he had eaten bread and drunk, the prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.
He went away, and a lion found him on the road and killed him. His body lay thrown in the road, with the donkey standing beside it and the lion standing beside the body.
Look, people passed by and saw the body thrown in the road, with the lion standing beside the body. They came and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who rebelled against the command of the LORD. The LORD gave him to the lion, and it tore him apart and killed him, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke to him.”
He said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it.
He went and found his body thrown in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn apart the donkey.
The prophet lifted up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to the city of the old prophet, to mourn and to bury him.
He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, “Alas, my brother!”
After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones,
for the word that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar at Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”
After this, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way. Again he made from all the people priests of high places; whoever wished, he ordained, and they became priests of high places.
This matter became sin for the house of Jeroboam, leading to its destruction and removal from the face of the earth.