1 Kings 13–22

A Man of God Confronts Jeroboam

13And behold, ^la man of God came out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam was standing by the altar ^mto make offerings. ²ⁿAnd the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, ^oJosiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’ ” ³And he gave ^pa sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’ ” ⁴And when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” And his hand, which he stretched out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. ⁵The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. ⁶And the king said to the man of God, ^q“Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before. ⁷And the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and ^rI will give you a reward.” ⁸And the man of God said to the king, ^s“If you give me half your house, ^tI will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

The Prophet’s Disobedience

¹¹Now ^uan old prophet lived in Bethel. And his sons¹ came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told to their father the words that he had spoken to the king. ¹²And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted it. ¹⁴And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶And he said, ^v“I may not return with you, or go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷for it was said to me ^wby the word of the Lord, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by the way that you came.’ ” ¹⁸And he said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” But he lied to him. ¹⁹So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command that the Lord your God commanded you, ²²but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ” ²³And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴And as he went away ^xa lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. ²⁵And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown in the road and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where ^ythe old prophet lived.

²⁶And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.” ²⁷And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸And he went and found his body thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey. ²⁹And the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city² to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, ^z“Alas, my brother!” ³¹And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; ^alay my bones beside his bones. ^32bFor the saying that he called out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against ^call the houses of the high places that are in the cities of ^dSamaria shall surely come to pass.”

³³After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. ^34eAnd this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, ^fso as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

Prophecy Against Jeroboam

14At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. ²And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Arise, and disguise yourself, that it not be known that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to ^gShiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, ^hwho said of me that I should be king over this people. ³ⁱTake with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what shall happen to the child.”

⁴Jeroboam’s wife did so. She arose and went to ^gShiloh and came to the house of ^jAhijah. Now ^jAhijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. ⁵And the Lord said to ^jAhijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.”

When she came, she pretended to be another woman. ⁶But when ^jAhijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with unbearable news for you. ⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^k“Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over my people Israel ⁸and ^ltore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, and yet you have not been ^mlike my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, ⁹but you have done evil above all who were before you and have gone and ⁿmade for yourself other gods and ^ometal images, provoking me to anger, and ^phave cast me behind your back, ¹⁰therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and ^qwill cut off from Jeroboam every male, ^rboth bond and free in Israel, and ^swill burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. ^11tAnyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat, for the Lord has spoken it.” ’ ¹²Arise therefore, go to your house. ^uWhen your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him ^vthere is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. ^14wMoreover, the Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam today. And henceforth, ¹⁵the Lord will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and ^xroot up Israel out of ^ythis good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them ^zbeyond the Euphrates,¹ because they have made their ^aAsherim, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed and came to ^bTirzah. And ^cas she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, ^daccording to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

The Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, ^ehow he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. And he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

^21fNow Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^gthe city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. ^hHis mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ²²ⁱAnd Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^jprovoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³For they also built for themselves ^khigh places ^land pillars and ^mAsherim on every high hill and ⁿunder every green tree, ²⁴and there were also ^omale cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

^25pIn the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house. ^qHe took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold ^rthat Solomon had made, ²⁷and King Rehoboam made in their place shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. ²⁸And as often as the king went…