1 Kings 13

1Just then a man of God came from Judah to Bethel at the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn incense.

2By the word of Yahweh he cried out against the altar, “Altar, altar! This is what Yahweh says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.’”

3That same day he gave a sign: “This is the sign that Yahweh has spoken: The altar will be split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

4When the king heard what the man of God cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he had stretched out against him shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.

5The altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign the man of God had given by the word of Yahweh.

6Then the king said to the man of God, “Please seek the favor of Yahweh your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God sought the favor of Yahweh, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before.

7The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.”

8But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half your house, I would not go in with you, and I would not eat bread or drink water in this place.

9For this is what I was commanded by the word of Yahweh: ‘Do not eat bread or drink 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.

11Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. His son came and told him everything the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words he had spoken to the king.

12Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen the way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

13So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it

14and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under the oak and asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he said.

15Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat some bread.”

16He said, “I cannot go back with you or go in with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

17For I was told by the word of Yahweh, ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there, and you must not go back by the way you came.’”

18The old prophet said to him, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he was lying to him.

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

20While they were sitting at the table, 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, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Because you have defied the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command that Yahweh your God gave you,

22but came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you, “Do not eat bread or drink water,” your body will not be laid in the tomb of your ancestors.’”

23After the man of God had eaten bread and drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back.

24As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body lay thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it and the lion standing beside the body.

25Some men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and told about it in the town where the old prophet lived.

26When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of Yahweh. Yahweh has given him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, just as the word of Yahweh warned him.”

27He said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they saddled it.

28He went and found the body thrown on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey.

29The prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to 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, “Alas, my brother!”

31After he had buried him, 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 message he proclaimed by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

33Even after this, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way. Once again he appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to, he ordained, and they became priests of the high places.

34This thing became the sin of the house of Jeroboam, and it led to their being cut off and wiped from the face of the earth.