1 Kings 13

1And behold, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.

2And he cried out against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, “Altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: Behold, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.”

3And on that day he gave a sign, saying, “This is the sign that Yahweh has spoken: behold, the altar will be torn apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.”

4And when the king heard the word of the man of God, who cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, and he could not draw it back to himself.

5And 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 Yahweh.

6Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the favor of Yahweh, 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 home with me and eat, and I will give you a gift.”

8But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.”

9For this is what he commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way that you went.’

10So he went by another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

11An old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deed 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.

12And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen the way that the man of God, who came from Judah, had gone.

13And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.

14So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under the terebinth, and 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, “I cannot return with you or go with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.”

17For a word came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘You shall not eat bread, and you shall not drink water there; you shall not return by going on the way by which you went.’

18And he said to him, “I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him.

19So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

20And it happened, as they were sitting at the table, that the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who had brought him back.

21And he cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh: Because you have rebelled against the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command that Yahweh your God commanded you,”

22but you came back and ate bread and drank water in the place about which he said to you, ‘Do not eat bread, and do not drink water’—your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.

23And it happened, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back.

24And he went, and a lion found him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was cast on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it, and the lion was standing beside the corpse.

25And behold, men were passing by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the corpse; and they came and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

26When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who rebelled against the word of Yahweh; therefore Yahweh gave him to the lion, and it mauled him and killed him, according to the word of Yahweh that he spoke to him.”

27Then he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it.

28He went and found his corpse thrown on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse, nor had it torn apart the donkey.

29Then the prophet lifted up the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. And he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him.

30And he laid his corpse in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!”

31And it happened, after he had buried him, that he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.”

32For the word that he cried out by the word of Yahweh against the altar that is in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.

33After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again made priests of high places from among all the people. Whoever desired it, he ordained him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

34And this matter became sin for the house of Yarovam, to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the ground.