1 Kings 13–22

Judgment on Jeroboam

13A man of God ^ecame from Judah to Bethel by a revelation from the Lord while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense. ^f2The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’ ” ^g3He gave a sign ^hthat day. He said, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.’ ” ⁱ

⁴When the king heard the word that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him!” But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself. ⁵The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

⁶Then the king responded to the man of God, “Plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me ^jso that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.

⁷Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.” ^k

⁸But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, ^lI still wouldn’t go with you, and I wouldn’t eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹for this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ^m‘You must not eat bread or drink water or go back the way you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel.

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

¹¹Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel. ⁿHis son ^ocame and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king. ^p12Then their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen ^qthe way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. ¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it. 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 said.

¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

¹⁶But he answered, “I cannot go back with you, eat bread, or drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷for a message came to me by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there ^ror go back by the way you came.’ ”

¹⁸He said to him, “I am also a prophet ^slike you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” The old prophet deceived him, ^t19and the man of God went back with him, ate 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, ²¹and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you rebelled against the command of the Lord and did not keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you— ²²but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place that He said to you, “Do not eat bread and do not drink water”— ^uyour corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.’ ” ^v

²³So after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. ²⁴When he left, ^wa lion attacked ^xhim along the way and killed him. ^yHis corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

²⁵There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived. ²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the Lord. The Lord has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke to him.”

²⁷Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled it, ^z28and he went and found the corpse of the man of God thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey. ²⁹So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and bury him. ³⁰Then he laid the corpse in his own grave, ^aand they mourned over him: “Oh, my brother!” ^b

³¹After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones, ³²for the word that he cried out by a revelation from the Lord against the altar in Bethel ^cand against all the shrines of the high places ^din the cities of Samaria ^eis certain to happen.” ^f

³³After all this ^gJeroboam did not repent ^hof his evil way but again set up priests for the high places from every class of people. ⁱHe ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places. ^j34This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be wiped out and annihilated from the face of the earth. ^k

Disaster on the House of Jeroboam

14At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick. ^l2Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go disguise yourself, ^mso they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. ⁿAhijah the prophet is there; it was he who told about me becoming king over this people. ^o3Take with you 10 loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, ^pand go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴Jeroboam’s wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see; his gaze was fixed ^qdue to his age. ^r5But the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised.” ^s

⁶When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? ^tI have bad news for you. ⁷Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you. ^uBut you were not like My servant David, who kept My commands and followed Me with all of his heart, doing only what is right in My eyes. ⁹You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you. ^vIn order to provoke Me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images, ^wbut you have flung Me behind your back. ^x10Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam:

I will eliminate all of Jeroboam’s males, ^y

both slave and free, ^zin Israel;

I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam

as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone! ^a

¹¹Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city,

the dogs will eat,

and anyone who dies in the field,

the birds of the sky will eat, ^b

for the Lord has said it!’

¹²“As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die. ^c13All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be put in the family tomb, because out of the house of Jeroboam the Lord God of Israel found something good only in him. ^d14The Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel, who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam. ^eThis is the day, yes, ^feven today! ¹⁵For the Lord will strike Israel and the people will shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that He gave to their ancestors. ^gHe will scatter them beyond the Euphrates ^hbecause they made their Asherah poles, provoking the Lord. ⁱ¹⁶He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.” ^j

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. ^kAs she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸He was buried, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord He had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet. ^l

¹⁹As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war ^mand how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. ²⁰The length of Jeroboam’s reign was 22 years. He rested with his fathers, and his son Nadab became king in his place. ⁿ

Judah’s King Rehoboam

²¹Now Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned in Judah. ^oRehoboam was 41 years old when he became king; he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem, the city where Yahweh had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name. ^pRehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ^q

²²Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. ^rThey provoked Him to jealous anger ^smore than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed. ²³They also built for themselves high places, ^tsacred pillars, ^uand Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree; ²⁴there were even male cult prostitutes in the land. ^vThey imitated all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites. ^w

²⁵In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt ^xwent to war against Jerusalem. ^y26He seized the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made. ^z27King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them into the care of the captains of the royal escorts ^abwho guarded the entrance to the king’s palace. ²⁸Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the royal escorts would carry the shields, then they would take them back to…