1 Kings 13–22

The Message of the Man of God

13And behold, ^aa man of God went from Judah to Bethel ¹by the word of the Lord, ^band Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. ²Then he cried out against the altar ²by the word of the Lord, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a child, ^cJosiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be ^dburned on you.’ ” ³And he gave ^ea sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”

⁴So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. ⁵The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. ⁶Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please ^fentreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.”

So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before. ⁷Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and ^gI will give you a reward.”

⁸But the man of God said to the king, ^h“If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. ⁹For so it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ⁱ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.

Death of the Man of God

¹¹Now an ^jold prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his ³sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. ¹²And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons ⁴had seen which way the man of God went who came from Judah. ¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, ¹⁴and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then 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, ^k“I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷For ⁵I have been told ^lby the word of the Lord, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ”

¹⁸He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an 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.’ ” (He was lying to him.)

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

²⁰Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; ²¹and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ²²but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the ^mplace of which the Lord said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

²³So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴When he was gone, ⁿa lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. ²⁵And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

²⁶Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.” ²⁷And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it. ²⁸Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. ²⁹And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. ³⁰Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, ^o“Alas, my brother!” ³¹So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; ^play my bones beside his bones. ^32qFor the ⁶saying which he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the ⁷shrines on the high places which are in the cities of ^rSamaria, will surely come to pass.”

^33sAfter this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. ^34tAnd this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as ^uto exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

14At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ²And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that ^aI would be king over this people. ^3bAlso take ¹with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” ⁴And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose ^cand went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were ²glazed by reason of his age.

⁵Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^d“Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸and ^etore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, ^fwho kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹but you have done more evil than all who were before you, ^gfor you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and ^hhave cast Me behind your back—¹⁰therefore behold! ⁱI will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^jwill cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, ^kbond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹The dogs shall eat ^lwhoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” ’ ¹²Arise therefore, go to your own house. ^mWhen your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall ³come to the grave, because in him ⁿthere is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

^14o“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; ⁴this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will ^puproot Israel from this ^qgood land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them ^rbeyond ⁵the River, ^sbecause they have made their ⁶wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, ^twho sinned and who made Israel sin.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to ^uTirzah. ^vWhen she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, ^waccording to the word of the Lord which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he ^xmade war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then ^yNadab his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

²¹And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. ^zRehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city ^awhich the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. ^bHis mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. ^22cNow Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^dprovoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³For they also built for themselves ^ehigh ⁷places, ^fsacred pillars, and ^gwooden images on every high hill and ^hunder every green tree. ²⁴ⁱAnd there were also ⁸perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the ^jabominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of ^kIsrael.

^25lIt happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ^26mAnd he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures…