1 Kings 13–22

A Man of God Goes to Bethel

13A man of God went from Judah to Bethel. He had received a message from the Lord. He arrived in Bethel just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer a sacrifice. ²The man cried out. He shouted a message from the Lord against the altar. He said, “Altar! Altar! The Lord says, ‘A son named Josiah will be born into the royal family of David. Altar, listen to me! Josiah will sacrifice the priests of the high places on you. They will be the children of the priests who are offering sacrifices here now. So human bones will be burned on you.’ ”

³That same day the man of God spoke about a miraculous sign. He said, “Here is the sign the Lord has announced. This altar will be broken to pieces. The ashes on it will be spilled out.”

⁴The man of God announced that message against the altar at Bethel. When King Jeroboam heard it, he reached out his hand from the altar. He said, “Grab him!” But as he reached out his hand toward the man, it dried up. He couldn’t even pull it back.

⁵Also, the altar broke into pieces. Its ashes spilled out. That happened in keeping with the miraculous sign the man of God had announced. He had received a message from the Lord.

⁶King Jeroboam spoke to the man of God. He said, “Pray to the Lord your God for me. Pray that my hand will be as good as new again.”

So the man of God prayed to the Lord for the king. And the king’s hand became as good as new. It was just as healthy as it had been before.

⁷The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me. Have something to eat. I’ll give you a gift.”

⁸But the man of God replied to the king. He said, “What if you were to give me half of what you own? Even then I wouldn’t go with you. I wouldn’t eat bread or drink water here. ⁹The Lord gave me a command. He said, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water there. Do not return the same way you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he took another road. He didn’t go back on the same road he had taken when he came to Bethel.

¹¹An old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and spoke to him. They told him everything the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what the man had said to the king.

¹²Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?”

His sons showed him the road the man of God from Judah had taken.

¹³So he said to his sons, “Put a saddle on the donkey for me.”

When they had done it, he got on the donkey. ¹⁴He traveled on the same road the man of God had taken. He found the man sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he replied.

¹⁵So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me. I’ll give you something to eat.”

¹⁶The man of God said, “I can’t go back to Bethel with you. I can’t eat bread or drink water with you there. ¹⁷I’ve received a message from the Lord. He told me, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water there. Do not return the same way you came.’ ”

¹⁸The old prophet answered, “I’m also a prophet, just like you. An angel gave me a message from the Lord. The message said, ‘Bring the man of God back with you to your house. Then he can eat bread and drink water with you.’ ” But the old prophet was telling him a lie.

¹⁹The man of God returned with him. He ate and drank in his house.

²⁰They were sitting at the table. The Lord gave a message to the old prophet who had brought the man of God back. ²¹He cried out to the man who had come from Judah. He told him, “The Lord says, ‘You have not done what I told you to do. You have not obeyed the command I gave you. I am the Lord your God. ²²You came back here and ate bread and drank water. You did it in the place where I told you not to. So your body will not be buried in your family tomb.’ ”

²³The man of God finished eating and drinking. Then the old prophet who had brought him back put a saddle on the man’s donkey for him. ²⁴And the man went on his way. A lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His body was left lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing beside it.

²⁵Some people passed by. They saw the body lying on the road. They saw the lion standing beside the body. Then they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶The prophet who had brought the man back from his journey heard about what had happened. He said, “It’s the man of God. He didn’t do what the Lord told him to do. So the Lord has given him over to the lion. The lion has attacked him and killed him. Everything has happened just as the Lord’s message had warned him it would.”

²⁷The old prophet said to his sons, “Put a saddle on the donkey for me.” So they did. ²⁸Then he went out. He found the body of the man of God lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing beside it. The lion hadn’t eaten the body. It hadn’t attacked the donkey either.

²⁹So the prophet picked up the man’s body. He put it on the donkey. He brought it back to his own city. He wanted to sob over him and bury him. ³⁰Then he placed the body in his own tomb. People sobbed over him. They said, “My friend! My dear friend!”

³¹After the old prophet had buried the body of the man of God, he spoke to his sons. He said, “When I die, bury my body in the grave where the man of God is buried. Put my bones next to his bones. ³²I want you to do that because he announced a message from the Lord. He spoke against the altar in Bethel. He also spoke against all of the temples that were on the high places. They are in the towns of Samaria. What the man of God said will certainly come true.”

³³Even after all of that happened, Jeroboam still didn’t change his evil ways. Once more he appointed priests for the high places. He made priests out of all kinds of people. In fact, he let anyone become a priest who wanted to. He set them apart to serve at the high places. ³⁴All of that was the great sin the royal family of Jeroboam committed. It led to their fall from power. Because of it, they were destroyed from the face of the earth.

Ahijah Prophesies Against Jeroboam

14At that time Abijah became sick. He was the son of Jeroboam. ²Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go. Put on some different clothes. Then no one will recognize you as my wife. Go to Shiloh. That’s where the prophet Ahijah is. He told me I would be king over the people of Israel. ³Take ten loaves of bread with you. Take some cakes and a jar of honey. Go to him. He’ll tell you what will happen to our son.”

⁴So Jeroboam’s wife did what he said. She went to Ahijah’s house in Shiloh.

Ahijah couldn’t see. He was blind because he was so old. ⁵But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming. Her son is sick. She’ll ask you about him. Give her the answer I give you. When she arrives, she’ll pretend to be someone else.”

⁶Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door. He said, “Come in. I know that you are Jeroboam’s wife. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have some bad news for you.

⁷“Go. Tell Jeroboam that the Lord has a message for him. The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, ‘I chose you from among the people. I made you the leader of my people Israel. ⁸I tore the kingdom away from the royal house of David. I gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David. He obeyed my commands. He followed me with all his heart. He did only what was right in my eyes. ⁹You have done more evil things than all those who lived before you. You have made other gods for yourself. You have made statues of gods out of metal. You have made me very angry. You have turned your back on me.

¹⁰“ ‘Because of that, I am going to bring horrible trouble on your royal house. I will cut off from you every male in Israel. It does not matter whether they are slaves or free. I will burn up your royal house, just as someone burns up trash. I will burn it until it is all gone. ¹¹Some of the people who belong to you will die in the city. Dogs will eat them up. Others will die in the country. The birds of the air will eat them. I have spoken!’

¹²“Now go back home. When you enter your city, your son will die. ¹³All of the people of Israel will sob over him. Then his body will be buried. He is the only one who belongs to Jeroboam who will be buried. That is because he is the only one in Jeroboam’s royal house in whom I have found anything good. I am the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁴“I will choose for myself a king over Israel. He will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This very day your son will die. Can that really be true? Yes. Even now, that is what I am telling you.

¹⁵“I will strike Israel down. Israel will be like tall grass swaying in the water. I will pull Israel up from this good land by the roots. I gave it to their people who lived long ago. I will scatter Israel to the east side of the Euphrates River. That is because they made me very angry. They made poles that were used to worship the goddess Asherah.

¹⁶“I will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed. He has also caused Israel to commit those same sins.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left. She went to the city of Tirzah. As soon as she stepped through the doorway of the house, her son died. ¹⁸His body was buried. All of the people of Israel sobbed over him. That’s what the Lord had said would happen. He had said it through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹The other events of Jeroboam’s rule are written down. His wars and how he ruled are written down. They are written in the official records of the kings of Israel. ²⁰Jeroboam ruled for 22 years. Then he joined the members of his family who had already died. Jeroboam’s son Nadab became the next king after him.

Rehoboam, the King of Judah

²¹Rehoboam was king in Judah. He was the son of Solomon. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem. It was the city the Lord had chosen out of all of the cities in the tribes of Israel. He wanted to put his Name there. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah from Ammon.

²²The people of Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. The sins they had committed stirred up his jealous…