First Book of Kings 13

¹ There came to Bethel at Yahweh’s command a man of God from Judah, just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer the sacrifice,

² and at Yahweh’s command this man denounced the altar. ‘Altar, altar,’ he said ‘Yahweh says this, “A son shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name, who shall immolate on you the priests of the high places who have offered sacrifice on you, and on you shall he burn the bones of men”.’

³ At the same time he gave a sign. ‘This is the sign’ he said ‘that Yahweh has spoken, “This altar here will burst apart and the ashes that are on it will be scattered”.’

⁴ When the king heard how the man of God denounced the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, ‘Seize him!’ But the hand he stretched out against the man withered, and he could not draw it back,

⁵ and the altar burst apart and the ashes from the altar were scattered, in accordance with the sign given by the man of God at Yahweh’s command.

⁶ The king said to the man of God, ‘I beg you to placate Yahweh your God, and so restore me the use of my hand’. The man of God placated Yahweh; the king’s hand was restored as it had been before.

⁷ The king then said to the man of God, ‘Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a present’;

⁸ but the man of God answered the king, ‘Were you to give me half your house, I would not go with you. I will eat and drink nothing here,

⁹ for I have had Yahweh’s order: “You are to eat or drink nothing, nor to return by the way you came”.’

¹⁰ And he left by another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

¹¹ Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel and his sons came to tell him all that the man of God had done in Bethel that day; and the words he had said to the king, they told these to their father too.

¹² ‘Which road did he take?’ their father asked. His sons showed him the road that the man of God who came from Judah had taken.

¹³ ‘Saddle the donkey for me’ he said to his sons; they saddled he donkey for him and he mounted.

¹⁴ He followed the man of God and found him sitting under a terebinth. ‘Are you the man of God’ he said ‘who came from Judah?’ ‘I am’ he replied.

¹⁵ ‘Come home with me’ he said ‘and take some food.’

¹⁶ ‘I cannot go back with you’, he answered ‘or eat or drink anything here,

¹⁷ for I have received Yahweh’s order: “You are to eat or drink nothing there, nor to return by the way you came”.’

¹⁸ ‘I too am a prophet like you,’ the other replied ‘and an angel told me this by Yahweh’s order: “Bring him back with you to your house to eat and drink”.’ He was lying to him.

¹⁹ The man of God went back with him; he ate and drank at his house.

²⁰ As they were sitting at table a word of Yahweh came to the prophet who had brought him back,

²¹ and he addressed the man of God who came from Judah. ‘Yahweh says this,’ he said ‘”Since you have defied Yahweh’s command and not obeyed the orders Yahweh your God gave you,

²² but have come back and eaten and drunk where he forbade you to eat or drink, your corpse will never reach the tomb of your ancestors”.’

²³ After he had eaten and drunk, the prophet saddled the donkey for him, and he turned about and went away.

²⁴ A lion met him on the road and killed him; his corpse lay stretched out on the road; the donkey stood there beside it; the lion stood by the corpse too.

²⁵ People going by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing by the corpse, and went and spoke about it in the town where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ When the prophet who had made the man turn back heard about it, he said, ‘That is the man of God who defied Yahweh’s command! Yahweh has handed him over to the lion, which has mauled and killed him, just as Yahweh had foretold it would.’

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

²⁸ He set off and found the man’s corpse lying on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor mauled the donkey.

²⁹ The prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back to the town where he lived to hold mourning for him and bury him.

³⁰ He laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they raised the mourning cry for him, ‘Alas, my brother!’

³¹ After burying him, the prophet said to his sons, ‘When I die, bury me in the same tomb as the man of God, lay my bones beside his.

³² For the word he uttered at Yahweh’s command against the altar of Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.’

³³ Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways after this incident, but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be.

³⁴ Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.