UST 1 KI Chapter 13

◄ 1 KI 13 ► ║ ═ ©

13 Yahweh commanded a prophet to go from where he lived in the kingdom of Judah to the city of Bethel, and the prophet obeyed him. He arrived there right at the time when Jeroboam was standing at the altar, ready to burn incense. 2 Saying what Yahweh told him to say, the prophet shouted, “This is what Yahweh says about this altar! ‘I want you to know that someday King David will have a descendant whose name will be Josiah. He will come to this altar and slaughter the priests who burn incense while offering sacrifices at this shrine. He will burn the bones of dead people on this altar.’ ” 3 Then the prophet told them how they would know that what he had said was true. He said, “Yahweh has announced that he is going to make something happen so that you will know that what he has said is true. This altar will split apart, and the ashes that are on it will fall onto the ground.” 4 When King Jeroboam heard what the prophet said about the altar at Bethel, at which he was standing, he pointed his finger at him and told his servants, “Seize that man!” But immediately his arm stuck in that position, and he could not lower it. 5 Then the altar split apart, and the ashes that were on it spilled out on the ground. That is exactly what the prophet had said that Yahweh had announced would happen. 6 Then the king said to the prophet, “Please pray that Yahweh will be merciful to me and heal my arm!” So the prophet prayed, and Yahweh healed the king’s arm so that he could move it again. 7 Then the king said to the prophet, “Come with me to my house and I will serve you a meal. I will also give you a reward for what you have done!” 8 But the prophet replied, “Even if you gave me half of what you owned, I would not go with you, and I would not eat or drink anything here. 9 When Yahweh spoke to me, he commanded me not to eat or drink anything here, so I will not do that. He also commanded me to go home by traveling on a different road than the one I traveled on to come here.” 10 Then the prophet started to return home. He walked on a different road than the one on which he had walked to come to Bethel.

11 At that time there was an old man living in Bethel who was a prophet himself. His sons came and told him what the prophet from Judah had done there on that day. They also told him what the prophet had said to the king. 12 Their father asked, “On what road did he leave to return home?” His sons had seen what road the prophet from Judah had started walking on, so they told him which road it was. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Get a donkey ready for me to ride.” So they did that, and he got onto that donkey. 14 He went along the road to find the prophet from Judah. He found him sitting to rest under the large oak tree that was in that area. The old man asked him, “Are you the prophet who came from Judah?” He replied, “Yes, I am.” 15 The old man said to him, “Please come home with me so that I can serve you a meal.” 16 He replied, “No, I cannot accept your invitation to go with you to your house. I can not eat or drink anything with you here. 17 I must refuse because Yahweh told me, ‘Do not eat or drink anything there, and do not return home on the road on which you traveled to Bethel.’ ” 18 Then the old man said to him, “I also am a prophet, just as you are. Yahweh sent an angel to tell me that I should bring you home with me and serve you a meal.” (But the old prophet was lying when he said that.) 19 So the prophet from Judah returned with the old man to his home, and he ate a meal with him there.

20 While they were sitting at the table, Yahweh gave the old prophet a message to speak the prophet from Judah. 21 Then the man shouted to the prophet, “This is what Yahweh says to you. ‘You have not done what I commanded you to do, and so you have disobeyed the instructions I gave you! 22 Instead, you have come back to this house and eaten a meal, even though I commanded you not to eat anything there. As a result, you will die, and people will not bury your body in the same place where people buried your ancestors.’ ” 23 When they had finished eating, the old man had his sons get his donkey ready so that the prophet from Judah could ride on it, and the prophet left. 24 But as he was going, a lion met him and killed him. It left the prophet’s body lying on the road. The donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside it. 25 When some men who were walking along that road came to that place, they were surprised to see the prophet’s body on the road and the lion standing next to it. So they went into the city of Bethel, where the old man lived, and they reported what they had seen.

26 When the old man who had brought the prophet from Judah to his home heard what had happened, he said, “The man whom the lion killed is the prophet who disobeyed the instructions that Yahweh gave him. Yahweh allowed the lion to attack him and kill him. That is exactly what Yahweh said would happen in the message he gave me for him!” 27 Then he told his sons, “Get another donkey ready for me to ride.” So they did that. 28 Then the old man rode on that donkey along the road on which the prophet had started to return to Judah. He came to the place where the prophet’s body had fallen on the road. He saw his other donkey and the lion standing there next to the man’s body. But the lion had not eaten any of the prophet’s flesh, and it had not attacked the donkey. 29 The old man picked up the body of the prophet and put it on his donkey. He brought it back to Bethel so that he could mourn for him and bury his body. 30 He buried the prophet’s body in the grave where people had buried other members of his family. Then he and other people who lived in the city mourned for him. They said, “We are so sorry that our fellow Israelite has died!” 31 After they had buried him, the old man told his sons, “When I die, I want you to bury me in this grave where we have just buried the prophet from Judah. Put my body next to his. 32 I want you to bury me in this grave because I am confident that the things Yahweh told this man to say about the altar here in Bethel will happen. What he said about the shrines on the tops of hills here in this kingdom will also surely happen.”

33 But even after these things happened, King Jeroboam did not stop doing the evil things that he had been doing. Instead, he appointed as priests even more men who were not descendants of Levi. He appointed anyone who wanted to be a priest, and as a result, he had many priests who served at the shrines that he had his workers build on the tops of hills. 34 When Jeroboam did these evil things, he sinned against Yahweh. As a result, Yahweh did not allow his descendants to become kings of Israel. Instead, he allowed someone to kill all of Jeroboam’s living descendants.

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UST 1 KI Chapter 13

UST 1 KI Chapter 13