1 Kings 13–22

Chapter 13

Jeroboam Warned, Stricken

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

^2aHe 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, ^bJosiah by 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 ¹sign the same day, saying, “^aThis is the sign which the Lord has spoken, ‘Behold, the altar shall be split apart and the ²ashes which are on it shall be poured out.’ ”

⁴Now when the king heard the saying 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 split apart and the ¹ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the ²sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

⁶The king said to the man of God, “Please ^1aentreat the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” So ^bthe man of God ²entreated the Lord, 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 reward.”

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 the Lord, 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 Disobedient Prophet

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

¹²Their father said to them, “¹Which way did he go?” Now 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.”

¹⁶He 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 command came to me ^aby the word of the Lord, ‘You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.’ ”

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

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

²⁰Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that 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, saying, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have ¹disobeyed the ²command of the Lord, and have not observed the commandment which the Lord 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.’ ”

²³It came about 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.

²⁴Now when he had gone, ^aa lion met him on the way and killed him, 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 told it in the city where ^athe old prophet lived.

²⁶Now when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God, who ¹disobeyed the ²command of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.”

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

²⁸He 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 torn 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!”

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

³²“^aFor the thing shall surely come to pass which he cried by the word of the Lord 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 ^aagain he made priests of the high places from among ¹all the people; ^bany who would, he ordained, to be priests of the high places.

^341aThis 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

Ahijah Prophesies against the King

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

²Jeroboam 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“^aTake 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.”

⁴Jeroboam’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 were ¹dim because of his age.

⁵Now the Lord 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.”

⁶When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in the doorway, 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 the Lord God of Israel, “^aBecause I exalted you from among the people and made you leader 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 followed 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 calamity on the house of Jeroboam, and ^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 heavens will eat; for the Lord has spoken it.” ’

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

¹³“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 the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

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

¹⁵“For the Lord 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 Euphrates River, ^dbecause they have made their ¹Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger.

¹⁶“He will give up Israel ^aon account of the sins of Jeroboam, which he ¹committed and with which he made Israel to sin.”

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

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

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.

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

Rehoboam Misleads Judah

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

^22aJudah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^bprovoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with ¹the sins which they ²committed.

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

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

^25aNow it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the 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, and ^ahe took everything, ^1beven taking all…