1 KingsChapter 13

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¹Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense. Suddenly a man of God came from Judah to Bethel. The LORD's word had sent him. ²By the LORD's word, the man shouted against the altar. He said, "Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: 'A son named Josiah will be born into the family of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.'" ³That same day the man of God gave a sign. He said, "Here is the sign the LORD has spoken: 'This altar will surely split apart. The ashes on it will pour out.'" ⁴King Jeroboam was at the altar in Bethel. He heard what the man of God shouted against the altar. He stretched out his hand and said, "Grab him!" But the hand he pointed at him dried up. He could not pull it back. ⁵Then the altar split apart, and the ashes poured out. It happened just like the sign the man of God had given by the LORD's word. ⁶Then the king said to the man of God, "Ask the LORD your God to be kind to me. Pray for me so my hand will be healed." So the man of God prayed to the LORD. Then the king's hand was healed and was just like it was before. ⁷Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have something to eat. I will give you a reward." ⁸But the man of God answered, "Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat bread or drink water in this place. ⁹The LORD's word gave me this command: 'Do not eat bread or drink water. Do not go back the same way you came.'" ¹⁰So the man of God went home another way. He did not go back the way he had come to Bethel. ¹¹Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything the man of God had done in Bethel that day. They also told their father what the man had said to the king. ¹²Their father asked, "Which way did he go?" His sons showed him the road the man of God from Judah had taken. ¹³So the prophet said to his sons, "Put a saddle on the donkey for me." They saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it. ¹⁴He rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "I am," he answered. ¹⁵So the prophet said to the man of God, "Come home with me and eat some bread." ¹⁶But the man answered, "I can't go home with you. I won't eat bread or drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷The LORD's word told me, 'Do not eat bread or drink water there. Do not go back the same way you came.'" ¹⁸The old prophet answered, "I'm a prophet too, just like you. An angel spoke to me by the LORD's word. He said, 'Bring him back with you to your house. Let him eat bread and drink water there.'" But the old prophet was lying to him. ¹⁹So the man of God went back with him. He ate bread and drank water in his house. ²⁰While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹The prophet cried out to the man of God from Judah, "This is what the LORD says: 'Because you have gone against the LORD's word, and because you have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you, ²²and because you came back and ate bread and drank water in the place he told you not to, your body will never be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.'" ²³The man of God finished eating and drinking. Then the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him. ²⁴As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was left lying on the road. The donkey and the lion stood beside it. ²⁵Some men passed by and saw the body lying on the road. The lion was standing beside it. They went and told about it in the town where the old prophet lived. ²⁶The prophet who had brought him back from his trip heard about it. He said, "It's the man of God who disobeyed the LORD's command. So the LORD handed him over to the lion. It attacked him and killed him, just as the LORD's word had told him." ²⁷Then the old prophet told his sons, "Put a saddle on the donkey for me." So they saddled it. ²⁸He went and found the body lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey. ²⁹So the old prophet picked up the body of the man of God. He laid it on the donkey. He brought it back to his own town to mourn for him and bury him. ³⁰He laid the body in his own tomb. They cried over him, saying, "Oh, my brother!" ³¹After he buried him, the prophet 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. ³²This is because the message will surely come true. He shouted it by the LORD's word against the altar in Bethel. He also shouted it against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria." ³³Even after all this, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways. Again he chose priests for the high places from all kinds of people. He made anyone who wanted to be a priest of the high places into one. ³⁴This was the sin of Jeroboam's family. It led to its being wiped out and destroyed from the face of the earth.