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the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel. While Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense, 2 the man of God cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: “O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you’.” 3 That same day he gave a sign: “This is the sign that the Lord has declared: ‘The altar will be split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out’.”
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out against the man of God withered, and he could not pull it back to himself. 5 The altar was also split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Please plead forhe favour of the Lord your God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before.
7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a gift.”
8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your wealth, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the same way you came’.” 10 So he went by another road, and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done in Bethel that day. They also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king. 12 Their father asked them, “Which road did he leave by?” His sons had seen the road the man of God from Judah had left by. 13 So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree, and asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
“I am,” he replied.
15 Then the old prophet said to him, “Come home with me and have something to eat.”
16 But the man of God answered, “I cannot go back with you; nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place, 17 for I have been instructed by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or go back by the way you came’.”
18 The old prophet said to him, “I am also a prophet as you are, and an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so he may eat bread and drink water’.” But the old man was lying to him. 19 So the man of God went back with him, and ate bread and drank water in his house.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back, 21 and he cried 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 kept the command that the Lord your God gave you, 22 but you came back here and ate bread and drank water in the place of which the Lord told you, “Do not eat bread or drink water there”, your dead body will not go back to the tomb of your fathers’ .”
23 So when the man of God had eaten bread and after he had drunk, the old prophet who had brought is back saddled his donkey for him. 24 But as the man of God was on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road. Then the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood by the dead body. 25 There were men passing by who saw the body thrown down on the road, with the lion standing by the body, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 Now when the old prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.”
27 Then the old prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” so they saddled it. 28 Then he went and found the dead body thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the old prophet lifted up the dead body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”
31 After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message that he proclaimed by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”
33 Even after this event Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil ways, but he again appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. Anyone who wanted to be a priest, he consecrated as a priest for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that caused it to be cut off and destroyed from off the face of the earth.