1 Kings 13
13
A Prophet Condemns the Altar at Bethel
1-2 #
2 K 23.15,16. One day, Jeroboam was standing at the altar in Bethel, ready to make an offering. Suddenly one of God's prophets#13.1,2 one of God's prophets: Hebrew “a man of God.” arrived from Judah and shouted:
The Lord sent me with a message about this altar. A child named Josiah will be born into David's family. He will sacrifice on this altar the priests who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on it.
3You will know that the Lord has said these things when the altar splits in half, and the ashes on it fall to the ground.
4Jeroboam pointed at the prophet and shouted, “Grab him!” But at once, Jeroboam's hand became stiff, and he could not move it. 5The altar split in half, and the ashes fell to the ground, just as the prophet had warned.
6“Please pray to the Lord your God and ask him to heal my hand,” Jeroboam begged.
The prophet prayed, and Jeroboam's hand was healed.
7“Come home with me and eat something,” Jeroboam said. “I want to give you a gift for what you have done.”
8“No, I wouldn't go with you, even if you offered me half of your kingdom. I won't eat or drink here either. 9The Lord said I can't eat or drink anything and that I can't go home the same way I came.” 10Then he started home down a different road.
An Old Prophet from Bethel
11At that time an old prophet lived in Bethel, and one of his sons told him what the prophet from Judah had said and done.
12“Show me which way he went,” the old prophet said, and his sons pointed out the road. 13“Put a saddle on my donkey,” he told them. After they did, he got on the donkey 14and rode off to look for the prophet from Judah.
The old prophet found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the prophet from Judah?”
“Yes, I am.”
15“Come home with me,” the old prophet said, “and have something to eat.”
16“I can't go back with you,” the prophet replied, “and I can't eat or drink anything with you. 17The Lord warned me not to eat or drink or to go home the same way I came.”
18The old prophet said, “I'm a prophet too. One of the Lord's angels told me to take you to my house and give you something to eat and drink.”
The prophet from Judah did not know that the old prophet was lying, 19so he went home with him and ate and drank.
20During the meal the Lord gave the old prophet 21a message for the prophet from Judah:
Listen to the Lord's message. You have disobeyed the Lord your God. 22He told you not to eat or drink anything here, but you came home and ate with me. And so, when you die, your body won't be buried in your family tomb.
23After the meal the old prophet got a donkey ready, 24and the prophet from Judah left. Along the way, a lion attacked and killed him, and the donkey and the lion stood there beside his dead body.
25Some people walked by and saw the body with the lion standing there. They ran into Bethel, telling everyone what they had seen.
26When the old prophet heard the news, he said, “That must be the prophet from Judah. The Lord warned him, but he disobeyed. So the Lord sent a lion to kill him.”
27The old prophet told his sons to saddle his donkey, and when it was ready, 28he left. He found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and lion standing there. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey. 29The old prophet picked up the body, put it on his own donkey, and took it back to Bethel, so he could bury it and mourn for the prophet from Judah.
30He buried the body in his own family tomb and cried for the prophet. 31He said to his sons, “When I die, bury my body next to this prophet. 32I'm sure that everything he said about the altar in Bethel and the shrines in Samaria will happen.”
33But Jeroboam kept on doing evil things. He appointed men to be priests at the local shrines, even if they were not Levites. In fact, anyone who wanted to be a priest could be one. 34This sinful thing led to the downfall of his kingdom.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
I Kings 13
13
The Message of the Man of God
1And behold, #2 Kin. 23:17a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, #1 Kin. 12:32, 33and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a child, #2 Kin. 23:15, 16Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be #(Lev. 26:30)burned on you.’ ” 3And he gave #Ex. 4:1–5; Judg. 6:17; Is. 7:14; 38:7; John 2:18; 1 Cor. 1:22a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”
4So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. 5The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. 6Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please #Ex. 8:8; 9:28; 10:17; Num. 21:7; Jer. 37:3; Acts 8:24; (James 5:16)entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.”
So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before. 7Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and #1 Sam. 9:7; 2 Kin. 5:15I will give you a reward.”
8But the man of God said to the king, #Num. 22:18; 24:13; 1 Kin. 13:16, 17“If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. 9For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, #(1 Cor. 5:11)‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” 10So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.
Death of the Man of God
11Now an #1 Kin. 13:25old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. 12And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. 13Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, 14and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
And he said, “I am.”
15Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16And he said, #1 Kin. 13:8, 9“I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17For I have been told #1 Kin. 20:35; 1 Thess. 4:15by the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ”
18He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, 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.’ ” (He was lying to him.)
19So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
20Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, 22but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the #1 Kin. 13:9place of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”
23So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. 24When he was gone, #1 Kin. 20:36a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. 25And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
26Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.” 27And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it. 28Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. 29And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. 30Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, #Jer. 22:18“Alas, my brother!” 31So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; #Ruth 1:17; 2 Kin. 23:17, 18lay my bones beside his bones. 32#1 Kin. 13:2; 2 Kin. 23:16, 19For the saying which he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of #1 Kin. 16:24; John 4:5; Acts 8:14Samaria, will surely come to pass.”
33#1 Kin. 12:31, 32; 2 Chr. 11:15; 13:9After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. 34#1 Kin. 12:30; 2 Kin. 17:21And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as #(1 Kin. 14:10; 15:29, 30)to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.