Open English Translation 1KI Chapter 13

11 Now at that time there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel, and his sons[fn] had been and told him all the news about what that man of God had done that day in Bethel and they told him the message that had been passed on to the king. 12 “Oh, what road did he take when he left?” their father asked, and indeed his sons had noticed which road the man of God from Yehudah had taken. 13 So he told his sons to saddle his donkey, and he rode off 14 after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak tree. “Are you the man of God,” he asked him, “who came from Yehudah?”

“I am,” he said.

15 “Come home with me and have something to eat.” he invited him.

16 “Sorry,” he replied. “I can’t go with you or visit your home, and I can’t eat or drink with you in this place, 17 because Yahweh instructed me not to eat or drink here, or to go home by the same road that I came on.”

18 Then the old prophet told him, “I’m also a prophet like you, and Yahweh sent a messenger to tell me that I should take you home with me so you can have something to eat and drink.” (But that was a lie.)

19 So the prophet accompanied him to his house and had a meal there. 20 Then while they were still seated at the table, Yahweh spoke through the old prophet, 21 and he called out to the man of God who’d come from Yehudah, “Yahweh says this: Because you have been rebellious against Yahweh and because you didn’t obey what Yahweh instructed you 22 and you’ve returned and you’ve had food and drink in the place where he told you not to eat or drink, your body won’t be buried in your home town.”

23 After the meal was finished, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet that he’d brought back, 24 and he left. But on the road, a lion came across him and killed him. His corpse ended up lying on the road with the donkey standing beside it, and the lion also standing beside it. 25 Some passers-by saw the corpse on the road and the unusual sight of the lion standing beside it, and when they got to the city where the old prophet lived, they told everyone the news.

26 When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard he said, “That will be the man of God who was rebellious against Yahweh. Yahweh must have given him to the lion, and it tore him into pieces and put him to death according what Yahweh had said would happen.” 27 Then he told his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They put the saddle on, 28 and he went and found the body lying on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by it. The lion hadn’t eaten any of the man of God’s body, nor had it attacked the donkey. 29 The prophet lifted the body and laid it across the donkey and brought it back to his city to be buried in his own tomb. 30 They wailed over him, saying, “Oh dear, my brother,” and they laid his body in the old prophet’s grave. 31 When the period of mourning was over, he told his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. My bones will end up beside his bones. 32 The message from Yahweh that he shouted out against the altar in Bethel will certainly happen, and against all the hilltop worship places in Shomron (Samaria).

33 Despite the man of God’s warning, King Yarobam didn’t stop his evil ways—in fact he chose more people from across the country to become priests. Anyone who wanted to be a priest would be appointed and he would become one of the priests of the hilltop worship places. 34 Those were the sins of Yarobam that would eventually lead to the rejection and destruction of his entire family.