1 Kings 13–22

CHAPTER 13

The Altar Shall Be Torn Apart

¹Now behold, there came ^aa man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar ^bto burn incense.

^2aAnd he cried against the altar by the word of Yahweh, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, ^bJosiah is his name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’”

³Then he gave a miraculous sign the same day, saying, “^aThis is the miraculous sign which Yahweh has spoken, ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn apart and the ¹ashes which are on it shall be poured out.’”

⁴Now it happened that when the king heard the word of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him.” But 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 apart and the ¹ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the miraculous sign which the man of God had given by the word of Yahweh.

⁶Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please ^1aentreat Yahweh your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So ^bthe man of God ²entreated Yahweh, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.

⁷Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and ^aI will give you a gift.”

⁸But the man of God said to the king, “^aIf you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.

⁹“For so ¹it was commanded me by the word of Yahweh, saying, ‘You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.’”

¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel.

The Prophet Rebels Against Yahweh

¹¹Now ^aan old prophet was living in Bethel; and his ¹sons came and recounted to him all the work which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they recounted to their father.

¹²And their father said to them, “¹Which way did he go?” And his sons ²had seen the way which the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it.

¹⁴So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under ¹an 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, “^aI cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷“For a word came to me ^aby the word of Yahweh, ‘You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.’”

¹⁸And he said to him, “^aI also am a prophet like you, and ^ban angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But ^che dealt falsely with him.

¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰Now it happened as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who had brought him back;

²¹and he called out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Because you have rebelled against the ¹word of Yahweh, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you,

²²but have returned and 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 grave of your fathers.’”

²³Now it happened after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back.

²⁴Then he went and on the way ^aa lion met him and put him to death, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body.

²⁵And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and spoke about it in the city where ^athe old prophet lived.

²⁶Then the prophet, who brought him back from the way, heard it and said, “It is the man of God, who rebelled against the ¹command of Yahweh; therefore Yahweh has given him to the lion, which has mauled him and put him to death, according to the word of Yahweh which He spoke to him.”

²⁷Then he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it.

²⁸And he went and found his body thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.

²⁹So the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back, and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him.

³⁰He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “^aAlas, my brother!”

³¹Now it happened after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I die, you shall bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; ^alay my bones beside his bones.

³²“^aFor the word shall surely happen which he cried by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel and ^bagainst all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of ^cSamaria.”

³³After this event Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but ^ahe returned and made priests of the high places from among ¹all the people; ^bany who delighted to be so, he ordained. So ²they became priests of the high places.

^341aAnd this event became sin to the house of Jeroboam, ^beven to blot it out and destroy it from off the face of the earth.

CHAPTER 14

The House of Jeroboam Is Cut Off

¹At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick.

²And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Arise now, and ^adisguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to ^bShiloh; behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who ^cspoke concerning me that I would be king over this people.

³“^aAnd take ten loaves with you, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴Then Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose and went to ^aShiloh, and came to the house of ^bAhijah. Now Ahijah could not see, ^cfor his eyes had ¹set because of his old age.

⁵Now Yahweh had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ¹inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. You shall say thus and thus to her, for it will be when she arrives that ^ashe will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶Now it happened as Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in the doorway, that he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why do you pretend to be another woman? For I am sent to you with a harsh message.

⁷“Go, say to Jeroboam, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “^aBecause I exalted you from among the people and made you ruler over My people Israel,

⁸and ^atore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—^byet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and who walked after Me with all his heart, ^cto do only that which was right in My sight;

⁹you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and ^ahave gone and made for yourself other gods and ^bmolten images to provoke Me to anger, and have ^ccast Me behind your back—

¹⁰therefore behold, I am bringing evil on the house of Jeroboam: I ^awill cut off from Jeroboam ¹every male person, ^bboth bond and free in Israel, and I ^cwill make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone.

¹¹“^aAnyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs will eat. And he who dies in the field the birds of the sky will eat; for Yahweh has spoken it.” ’

¹²“But you, arise, go to your house. ^aWhen your feet enter the city the child will die.

¹³“And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for ¹he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him ^asomething good was found toward Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴“Moreover, ^aYahweh will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam this day ¹and from now on.

¹⁵“So Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and ^aHe will uproot Israel from ^bthis good land which He gave to their fathers, and ^cwill scatter them beyond the ¹River, ^dbecause they have made their ²Asherim, provoking Yahweh to anger.

¹⁶“And He will give Israel over ^aon account of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and with which he made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and went away and came to ^aTirzah. ^bAs she was entering the threshold of the house, the child died.

^18aAnd all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of Yahweh which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

The Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, ^ahow he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

²⁰Now the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son became king in his place.

Rehoboam Reigns over Judah

^21aNow Rehoboam the son of Solomon became king in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^bthe city which Yahweh had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.

^22aAnd Judah did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and they ^bprovoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with ¹the sins which they sinned.

²³They also built for themselves ^ahigh places and sacred ^bpillars and ^1cAsherim on every high hill and ^dbeneath every green tree.

²⁴There were also ^amale cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

^25aNow it happened in the fifth year of…