1 Kings 13:3–21

³He gave a sign on that day, saying, “This is the sign that Yahweh has predetermined: Look, this altar will be torn apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.”

⁴It happened at the moment the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand which he stretched out to him was paralyzed, and he was not able to draw it back to himself. ⁵Then the altar was torn apart and the ashes from the altar poured out according to the sign which the man of God had announced by the word of Yahweh. ⁶Then the king responded and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me that my hand may return to me.” So the man of God entreated the face of Yahweh, and the hand of the king returned to him, as it was in the beginning. ⁷Then the king spoke to the man of God, “Come with me to the house and refresh yourself, that I may give you a gift.” ⁸Then the man of God said to the king, “Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹for the word of Yahweh has commanded me, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water, and you shall not return on the way that you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he went another way, and he did not return by the way on which he had come to Bethel.

The Man of God Disobeys

¹¹Now a certain older prophet was living in Bethel, and his son came and recounted to him all of the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel and the words he had spoken to the king, and they told them to their father. ¹²Then their father asked them, “Which way did he go?”^a His sons had seen the way which the man of God who had come from Judah had taken. ¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it ¹⁴and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under the oak and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He said, “I am.” ¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come with me to the house and eat some food.” ¹⁶Then he said, “I am not able to return with you or to go with you. I will not eat food nor will I drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷For a word came to me by the word of Yahweh, ‘You shall not eat food, nor shall you drink water there. You shall not return to go by the way that you came.’ ”

¹⁸Then he said, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, ‘Let him return with you to your house that he may eat food and drink water.’ ” He lied to him. ¹⁹So he returned with him and ate food in his house and drank water.

²⁰Now it happened that they were sitting at the table, and the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back. ²¹He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you,