1 Kings 13
1 And behold there came a man of God out of Juda, by the word of the Lord to Bethel, when Jeroboam was standing upon the altar, and burning incense.
The Lord ordered a man of God from Judah to go to Bethel. He arrived just as Jeroboam was standing beside the altar about to present a burnt offering.
2 And he cried out against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said: O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold a child shall be born to the house of David, Josias by name, and he shall immolate upon thee the priests of the high places, who now burn incense upon thee, and he shall burn men’s bones upon thee.
He shouted out the Lord's condemnation of the altar: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says. A son will be born to the house of David. His name will be Josiah, and on you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn offerings on you, and human bones will be burned on you.”
3 And he gave a sign the same day, saying: This shall be the sign, that the Lord hath spoken: Behold the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
The same day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “This is the sign to prove that the Lord has spoken. Look! The altar will be split apart, and the ashes on it will spill out.”
4 And when the king had heard the word of the man of God, which he had cried out against the altar in Bethel, he stretched forth his hand from the altar, saying: Lay hold on him. And his hand which he stretched forth against him withered: and he was not able to draw it back again to him.
When King Jeroboam heard the condemnation the man of God had shouted out against the altar in Bethel, he pointed his hand at him and said, “Arrest him!” But the hand the king had pointed at him had become paralyzed and he couldn't draw it back.
5 The altar also was rent, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given before in the word of the Lord.
The altar split apart, and the ashes spilled out from it, fulfilling the sign that the man of God had given from the Lord.
6 And the king said to the man of God: Entreat the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God besought the face of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.
Then the king said to the man of God, “Please plead with the Lord your God—pray for me that I may have my hand back!” The man of God pleaded with the Lord, and the king was given back the use of his hand as it was before.
7 And the king said to the man of God: Come home with me to dine, and I will make thee presents.
Then the king said to the man of God, “Come to my home and have a meal so I can give you a present.”
8 And the man of God answered the king: If thou wouldst give me half thy house I will not go with thee, nor eat bread, nor drink water in this place:
But the man of God told the king, “Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I still wouldn't go with you. In fact I refuse to eat or drink anything in this place.
9 For so it was enjoined me by the word of the Lord commanding me: Thou shalt not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the same way that thou camest.
The Lord ordered me not to eat or drink anything, and not to return by the way I came.”
10 So he departed by another way, and returned not by the way that he came into Bethel.
So he went a different way—he did not return the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now a certain old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came to him and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: and they told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.
It so happened that an old prophet lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father what the man had said to the king.
12 And their father said to them: What way went he? His sons shewed him the way by which the man of God went, who came out of Juda.
“Which way did he go?” their father asked them. So his sons showed him the way taken by the man of God from Judah.
13 And he said to his sons: Saddle me the ass. And when they had saddled him, he got up,
“Saddle up a donkey for me,” he told his sons. They saddled up a donkey and he got on.
14 And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under a turpentine tree: and he said to him: Art thou the man of God that camest from Juda? He answered: I am.
He rode after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” he asked him. “Yes I am,” the man replied.
15 And he said to him: Come home with me, to eat bread.
“Come home with me and have something to eat,” he told him.
16 But he said: I must not return, nor go with thee, neither will I eat bread, nor drink water in this place:
“I can't turn around and go with you, and I won't eat or drink with you in this place,” the man of God replied.
17 Because the Lord spoke to me in the word of the Lord, saying: Thou shalt not eat bread, and thou shalt not drink water there, nor return by the way thou wentest.
“The Lord ordered me, saying ‘You must not eat or drink anything there, or return by the way you came.’”
18 He said to him: I also am a prophet like unto thee: and an angel spoke to me in the word of the Lord, saying: Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat bread, and drink water. He deceived him,
But the old prophet told him, “I am also a prophet, just like you. An angel told me God said, ‘Take him home with you so that he can have something to eat and drink’” But he was lying to him.
19 And brought him back with him: so he ate bread and drank water in his house.
So the man of God went back with him, and ate and drank in his house.
20 And as they sat at table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet that brought him back:
As they were sitting at the table, a message from the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back.
21 And he cried out to the man of God who came out of Juda, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast not been obedient to the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee,
He called out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not followed the orders that the Lord your God gave you,
22 And hast returned and eaten bread, and drunk water in the place wherein he commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat bread, nor drink water, thy dead body shall not be brought into the sepulchre of thy fathers.
instead you went back and ate and drank in the place where he told you not to, your body will not be buried in the tomb of your fathers.”
23 And when he had eaten and drunk, he saddled his ass for the prophet, whom he had brought back.
After the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his own donkey for him.
24 And when he was gone, a lion found him in the way, and killed him, and his body was cast in the way: and the ass stood by him, and the lion stood by the dead body.
But as he went on his way a lion came across him on the road and killed him. His body was left lying in the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.
25 And behold, men passing by saw the dead body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city, wherein that old prophet dwelt.
Some passers-by saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, so they went and let people know about it in the town where the old prophet lived.
26 And when that prophet, who had brought him back out of the way, heard of it, he said: It is the man of God, that was disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, and the Lord hath delivered him to the lion, and he hath torn him, and killed him according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to him.
When the old prophet who had led the other astray heard what had happened, he said, “It's the man of God who disobeyed the Lord's orders. That's why the Lord put him in the path of the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, just as the Lord told him would happen.”
27 And he said to his sons: Saddle me an ass. And when they had saddled it,
The prophet told his sons, “Saddle up a donkey for me.” So they saddled a donkey,
28 And he was gone, he found the dead body cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass: the lion had not eaten of the dead body, nor hurt the ass.
and he went and found the body. It was still lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey.
29 And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and going back brought it into the city of the old prophet, to mourn for him.
The prophet picked up the body of the man of God, placed it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own town to mourn over him and bury him.
30 And he laid his dead body in his own sepulchre: and they mourned over him, saying: Alas! alas! my brother.
He laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, crying, “My poor brother!”
31 And when they had mourned over him, he said to his sons: When I am dead, bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried: lay my bones beside his bones.
After he'd buried him, he told his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.
32 For assuredly the word shall come to pass which he hath foretold in the word of the Lord against the altar that is in Bethel: and against all the temples of the high places, that are in the cities of Samaria.
For the message from the Lord that he gave in condemnation against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria, will definitely happen.”
33 After these words Jeroboam came not back from his wicked way: but on the contrary he made of the meanest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he filled his hand, and he was made a priest of the high places.
But even after all this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways. He went on choosing priests from all kinds of people. He appointed anyone who wanted to be a priest of the high places.
34 And for this cause did the house of Jeroboam sin, and was cut off and destroyed from the face of the earth.
This was because of this sin that the house of Jeroboam was wiped out, completely destroyed from the face of the earth.
