1 Kings 13

Now a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, sent by the word of the LORD. Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn incense.

1And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

Note"Man of God" is a standard title for a prophet, someone who speaks on God's behalf, and this one is a stranger from the southern kingdom of Judah. Bethel lay about twelve miles north of Jerusalem, just inside the breakaway northern kingdom; Jeroboam, its first king, had set up a golden calf and a state sanctuary there so his people would not travel south to Jerusalem to worship (1 Kings 12). Burning the incense himself shows the king acting as head of that new cult, taking on a role that elsewhere belonged to priests.

2By the word of the LORD he called out against the altar: "Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says. A son will be born to the family of David, and his name will be Josiah. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you."

2And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.

Note"House of David" means the royal family line ruling in Jerusalem. Josiah became king of Judah roughly three hundred years after Jeroboam; 2 Kings 23:15-20 describes him doing exactly what is announced here. "High places" were open-air hilltop shrines with an altar, common throughout the region and used for worship of the LORD as well as other gods. Burning human bones on an altar made it ritually unclean and so permanently unusable, the most complete way to destroy a shrine short of dismantling it.

3That same day he gave a sign. He said, "This is the sign the LORD has spoken: this altar will be split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out."

3And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

NoteA "sign" here is a confirming event, something visible that happens on the spot to show that the longer prediction can be trusted.

4When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God called out against the altar in Bethel, he reached out his hand from the altar and said, "Grab him!" But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, and he could not pull it back.

4And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

NoteThe hand "drying up" means it withered and went rigid, the muscles seized so that he could not draw the outstretched arm back.

5The altar also split apart, and the ashes poured off it, just as the sign said it would, the sign the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

5The altar also was rent, 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 said to the man of God, "Please ask the LORD your God to show me favor. Pray for me, so that my hand will be made well again." So the man of God prayed to the LORD, and the king's hand was made well and was as it had been before.

6And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

NoteThe King James "intreat the face of the LORD" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally something like "soften the face," used for begging a favor from a superior who has reason to be angry.

7Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have a meal, and I will give you a gift."

7And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

NoteOffering a meal and a gift was the normal way a king rewarded a prophet, and accepting it created an ongoing bond of obligation between the two.

8But the man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I will not eat bread or drink water in this place.

8And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:

Note"Half your house" means half of the king's household and property, a set phrase for an extravagant offer.

9For this is the command the LORD gave me: 'Eat no bread, drink no water, and do not go back the same way you came.'"

9For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.

NoteEating and drinking with someone in the ancient Near East signaled acceptance and fellowship; refusing food and drink was a deliberate, public refusal of relations with the place and its king. The text never explains why he was also forbidden to return by the same road.

10So he left by a different road and did not return by the road he had taken to Bethel.

10So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.

11Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father what the man had said to the king.

11Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

12Their father asked them, "Which way did he go?" His sons had seen which road the man of God from Judah had taken, and they showed him.

12And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.

13He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode off on it.

13And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon,

14He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "I am," he answered.

14And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am.

NoteThe Hebrew word covers both the oak and the terebinth, a large, long-lived tree that would have served as a known landmark on the road.

15Then the old prophet said to him, "Come home with me and eat some food."

15Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread.

16But he said, "I cannot go back with you or go into your house. I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

16And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place:

17For the word of the LORD told me, 'You must not eat bread or drink water there, and you must not go back by the road you came on.'"

17For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.

18The old prophet said to him, "I am a prophet too, just like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD and said, 'Bring him back with you to your house, so he can eat bread and drink water.'" But he was lying to him.

18He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.

Note"Angel" means messenger; the old prophet is claiming to have received a later message from God that cancels the earlier one, the one thing that could plausibly override the traveler's orders.

19So the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.

19So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.

20While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back.

20And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back:

21He called out to the man of God who had come from Judah, "This is what the LORD says: you have gone against what the LORD told you. You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.

21And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,

22You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you to eat no bread and drink no water. So your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors."

22But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

Note"Carcase" in 1611 English simply meant a dead body, without the disrespectful tone it carries now. Burial in the family tomb, with the bones of earlier generations, was the expected and honorable end; being left outside it was a severe punishment.

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

23And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.

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

24And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.

NoteLions lived in the Jordan valley and the hill country of Israel until the Middle Ages, so an encounter on a road was a real hazard, though a lion that kills and then stands guard without eating, and without touching the donkey, is not natural behavior, which is the point the passers-by notice.

25Some men passed by and saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it. They went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

25And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

26When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard about it, he said, "That is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD. So the LORD handed him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, just as the LORD said it would."

26And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him.

27He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled it.

27And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled him.

28He went and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey.

28And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass.

29The prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. The old prophet came to the city to mourn for him and bury him.

29And the prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him.

30He laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, crying, "Oh, my brother!"

30And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!

Note"Alas, my brother!" was a set formula in funeral lament, not a claim of family relationship; Jeremiah 22:18 quotes the same cry.

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 next to his bones.

31And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones:

NoteBurying two sets of bones together meant that whatever happened to one grave would happen to the other. 2 Kings 23:17-18 reports that Josiah, when clearing the tombs at Bethel, left this grave alone and so also spared the old prophet's bones.

32For the message he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria, will certainly come true."

32For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

NoteThe city of Samaria was not founded until decades after Jeroboam's reign (1 Kings 16:24); the name is used here for the northern kingdom's territory generally, which suggests this wording comes from a later hand looking back.

33Even after this, Jeroboam did not turn away from his evil ways. He again made priests for the high places out of ordinary people. Anyone who wanted the job, he installed as a priest of the high places.

33After this thing Jeroboam returned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.

NoteIsraelite priesthood was normally restricted to the tribe of Levi and, for the altar itself, to the descendants of Aaron. "Of the lowest of the people" more likely means "from the people generally, from every class" rather than from the poorest; either way the point is that these priests had no priestly descent. "Consecrated" translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "filled his hand," the standard phrase for installing someone in priestly office.

34This became the sin of Jeroboam's family, the sin that cut it off and wiped it off the face of the earth.

34And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.

Note"House" here means dynasty, Jeroboam's descendants and their hold on the throne. 1 Kings 15:27-30 reports the killing of the whole family a generation later.