1 Kings / Prophetic Rebuke at Bethel and Deception

Prophetic Rebuke at Bethel and Deception

1 Kings 13:1-34

Chapter 13

¹ Look, a man of God came from Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel, and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. ² And he called to the altar by the word of the LORD and said, “Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘Look, 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 they will burn on you.’” ³ And he gave a sign on that day, saying, "This is the sign of which the LORD spoke: Behold, the altar is torn open, and the fat portions which are on it are poured out." ⁴ And when the king heard the word of the man of God that he had called out over the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam sent his hand from upon the altar, saying, "Seize him!" And his hand that he had sent against him dried up, and he could not return it to him. ⁵ And the altar was torn apart, and the fat portions poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. ⁶ The king answered and said, "Man of God, please entreat the face of the LORD your God and pray on my behalf." And my hand returned to me. The man of God entreated the face of the LORD, and the king's hand returned to him, and it was as at the first. ⁷ And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and eat, and I will give you a gift.” ⁸ He said to the king, "Man of God, even if you give me half your house, I will not come with you nor eat bread nor drink water in this place." ⁹ For in this way the LORD commanded me by his word, saying, "You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way you came." ¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way he had come to the House of God. ¹¹ Now one old prophet was sitting in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel—the words he had spoken to the king—they told them to their father. ¹² And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God went, who came from Judah. ¹³ He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." They saddled the donkey for him, and he rode away on it. ¹⁴ He went after the man of God and found him sitting under the oak and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵ He said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread." ¹⁶ He said, "No, I cannot return with you or come with you, nor eat bread nor drink water with you in this place." ¹⁷ For a word came to me by the word of the LORD: You shall not eat bread or drink water there. You shall not return by going in the way that you came. ¹⁸ He said to him, "I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house, and let him eat bread and drink water.'" He had lied to him. ¹⁹ He returned with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water. ²⁰ And it happened, as they were sitting at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet whom they had brought back. ²¹ He called out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you rebelled against the mouth of the LORD and did not keep the commandment that the LORD your God commanded you.’” ²² And you returned and ate bread and drank water in the place which he spoke to you, “Do not eat bread and do not drink water”; your impure carcass will not come to the tomb of your fathers. ²³ After they had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for him—the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ And he went, and a lion found him on the way and killed him. And his carcass was thrown on the way, and the donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside the carcass. ²⁵ Look, men passing by saw the carcass thrown on the way, with the lion standing beside the carcass. They came and spoke in the city where the old prophet was sitting. ²⁶ The prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it and said, “Man of God, it is he who rebelled against the mouth of the LORD, and the LORD gave him to a lion, and it broke him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD that he had spoken to him.” ²⁷ He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." And they saddled it. ²⁸ He went and found its carcass thrown on the way and the donkey, and the lion standing beside the carcass; the lion had not eaten the carcass and had not broken the donkey. ²⁹ The prophet lifted the carcass of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, saddled it, and came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and bury him. ³⁰ And he laid his carcass in his own grave, and they mourned over him: "Alas, my brother!" ³¹ After they buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the burial site where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones." ³² For it was, the word that he called by the word of the LORD against the altar that is in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria—it will be. ³³ After this word, Jeroboam did not return from his evil way. Instead, he sat and made cultic priests of the high places from the ends of the people. Whoever desired it, he filled his hand, and he became cultic priests of high places. ³⁴ And this word became sin for the house of Jeroboam, to annihilate it and destroy it from the face of the land.