1 Kings 13:4–24

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.