1 Kings
Chapter 13
1 A man of God came from Judah to Bethel because God told him to, and Jeroboam was by the altar burning incense.
2 He shouted to the altar with God’s message: “Listen, altar! God says, ‘A boy named Josiah will be born to David’s family. He will sacrifice on you the priests from the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.’”
3 That day, he gave a sign, saying, This is the sign God told of; Look, the altar will break, and the ashes on it will be scattered.
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God shouted about the altar in Bethel, he reached out from the altar and said, “Grab him.” But the hand he reached out withered, so he couldn’t pull it back.
5 The altar split, and the ashes spilled from it, just as the man of God had predicted by God’s message.
6 The king replied to the man of God, “Please ask God to heal me so my hand will be fixed.” The man of God prayed to God, and the king’s hand was healed and became like it was before.
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come to my home and rest, and I will give you a reward.”
8 The man of God told the king, “Even if you offer me half of your house, I will not come inside with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water here.”
9 I was ordered by God’s command, saying, Do not eat bread, do not drink water, and do not go back the same way you came.
10 So he went a different way and did not come back by the same path he used to go to Bethel.
11 An old prophet lived in Bethel, and when his sons came, they told him everything the man of God did that day in Bethel, including the words he spoke to the king, which they also shared with their father.
12 Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” because his sons had seen the direction the man of God from Judah had taken.
13 He told his sons, “Get the donkey ready for me.” So they prepared the donkey and he rode on it.
14 He followed the man of God, found him sitting under an oak tree, and asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He replied, “I am.”
15 He said to him, “Come to my house and have some food.”
16 He said, “I can’t go back with you or enter with you. I won’t eat bread or drink water with you here.”
17 God told me not to eat bread, drink water, or go back the same way I came.
18 He told him, “I’m a prophet like you; an angel told me by God’s command, ‘Bring him back to your home so he can have food and water.’” But he was lying to him.
19 He returned with him and ate food in his house and drank water.
20 As they were sitting at the table, God spoke to the prophet who had brought him back.
21 He called out to the man of God from Judah, “This is what God says: Because you did not listen to God’s word and did not follow the command that God gave you,
22 You came back and ate bread and drank water where God told you not to. Now you will not be buried with your ancestors.
23 After he ate bread and drank, he saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back.
24 After he left, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown onto the road, and the donkey and the lion stood beside it.
25 Look, men walked by, saw the dead body on the road, and the lion standing near the body; they went and reported it in the town where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who did not obey God’s command. So God has given him to the lion, which has mauled and killed him, just as God had said.”
27 He said to his sons, “Get the donkey ready for me.” So they got it ready.
28 He went and saw the body lying on the road with the donkey and the lion standing by it; the lion had not eaten the body or hurt the donkey.
29 The prophet picked up the body of the man of God, put it on the donkey, and took it back. The old prophet returned to the city to grieve and bury him.
30 He put his body in his own grave, and they cried for him, saying, “Oh, my brother!”
31 After he buried him, he told his sons, “When I die, bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; put my bones next to his bones.”
32 The message he shouted by God’s command against the altar in Bethel, and against all the worship sites in the Samaria towns, will definitely happen.
33 After this, Jeroboam did not stop his bad ways, but again made the least of the people into priests for the high places. Anyone who wanted to, he made holy, and that person became a priest of the high places.
34 This act became a sin for Jeroboam’s family, leading to its total destruction from the earth.