1 Kings 13

A Man of God Proclaims Judgment against the False Altar

1 Suddenly a man of God from Judah came to Bethel, by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam [was] standing at the altar to offer incense.

2 Then he proclaimed against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, "O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: 'Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.'"

3 He gave a sign on that day, saying, "This [is] the sign that Yahweh has predetermined: Look, [this] altar will be torn [apart], and the ashes that [are] on it will be poured out."

4 It happened at the moment the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" But his hand which he stretched out to him was paralyzed, and he was not able to draw it back to himself.

5 Then the altar was torn [apart] and the ashes from the altar poured out according to the sign which the man of God had announced by the word of Yahweh.

6 Then the king responded and said to the man of God, "Please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me that my hand may return to me." So the man of God entreated the face of Yahweh, and the hand of the king returned to him, as it was in the beginning.

7 Then the king spoke to the man of God, "Come with me to the house and refresh yourself, that I may give you a gift."

8 Then the man of God said to the king, "Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place,

9 for the word of Yahweh has commanded me, saying, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water, and you shall not return on the way that you came.'"

10 So he went another way, and he did not return by the way on which he had come to Bethel.

The Man of God Disobeys

11 Now a certain older prophet was living in Bethel, and his son came and recounted to him all of the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel [and] the words he had spoken to the king, and they told them to their father.

12 Then their father asked them, "{Which way did he go}?" His sons had seen the way which the man of God who had come from Judah had taken.

13 Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it

14 and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under the oak and said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I [am]."

15 Then he said to him, "Come with me to the house and eat [some] food."

16 Then he said, "I am not able to return with you or to go with you. I will not eat food nor will I drink water with you in this place.

17 For a word [came] to me by the word of Yahweh, 'You shall not eat food, nor shall you drink water there. You shall not return to go by the way that you came.'"

18 Then he said, "I [am] also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'Let him return with you to your house that he may eat food and drink water.'" He lied to him.

19 So he returned with him and ate food in his house and drank water.

20 Now it happened that they [were] sitting at the table, and the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back.

21 He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you,

22 but you have returned and have eaten food and drank water in the place which he ordered you not to eat food nor to drink water, then your dead body shall not return to the tomb of your ancestors.'"

The Disobedient Man of God Dies

23 It happened after he ate food and drank water that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.

24 When he left, a lion found him on the road and killed him, and his dead body [was] thrown on the road with the donkey standing beside it, and the lion [was] standing by the dead body.

25 As men [were] passing by and they saw the dead body thrown in the road and the lion standing beside the dead body, they came and told it in the city where the old prophet [was] living.

26 When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard, he said, "It [is] the man of God who disobeyed the mouth of Yahweh, and Yahweh has given him to the lion. He tore him in pieces and killed him according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken to him."

27 Then he spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled it.

28 He went and found his dead body thrown in the road and a donkey with the lion standing beside it, but the lion had not eaten the corpse nor attacked the donkey.

29 So the prophet lifted up the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn him and to bury him.

30 He put his corpse in his tomb, and they mourned over him, "Alas, my brother!"

31 It happened after he buried him that he said to his sons, "When I die, you shall bury me in the tomb where the man of God [is] buried; you shall lay my bones beside his bones.

32 For surely, the thing which he proclaimed by the word of Yahweh against the altar which [is] in Bethel will happen, [as it will] against all the houses of the high places which [are] in the cities of Samaria."

Jeroboam Continues in His Sin

33 After this event, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but he returned and [again] made priests for the high places of people from {all walks of life}. He filled his hand with all [his] desire and became [one of] the priests of the high places [himself].

34 This matter became sin in the house of Jeroboam, to make it disappear and to destroy [it] from the surface of the earth.

1 Kings 13 Commentary

Chapter 13

Jeroboam's sin reproved. (1-10) The prophet deceived. (11-22) The disobedient prophet is slain, Jeroboam's obstinacy. (23-34)

Verses 1-10 In threatening the altar, the prophet threatens the founder and worshippers. Idolatrous worship will not continue, but the word of the Lord will endure for ever. The prediction plainly declared that the family of David would continue, and support true religion, when the ten tribes would not be able to resist them. If God, in justice, harden the hearts of sinners, so that the hand they have stretched out in sin they cannot pull in again by repentance, that is a spiritual judgment, represented by this, and much more dreadful. Jeroboam looked for help, not from his calves, but from God only, from his power, and his favour. The time may come when those that hate the preaching, would be glad of the prayers of faithful ministers. Jeroboam does not desire the prophet to pray that his sin might be pardoned, and his heart changed, but only that his hand might be restored. He seemed affected for the present with both the judgment and the mercy, but the impression wore off. God forbade his messenger to eat or drink in Bethel, to show his detestation of their idolatry and apostacy from God, and to teach us not to have fellowship with the works of darkness. Those have not learned self-denial, who cannot forbear one forbidden meal.

Verses 11-22 The old prophet's conduct proves that he was not really a godly man. When the change took place under Jeroboam, he preferred his ease and interest to his religion. He took a very bad method to bring the good prophet back. It was all a lie. Believers are most in danger of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretences of holiness. We may wonder that the wicked prophet went unpunished, while the holy man of God was suddenly and severely punished. What shall we make of this? The judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom; and there is a judgment to come. Nothing can excuse any act of wilful disobedience. This shows what they must expect who hearken to the great deceiver. They that yield to him as a tempter, will be terrified by him as a tormentor. Those whom he now fawns upon, he will afterwards fly upon; and whom he draws into sin, he will try to drive to despair.

Verses 23-34 God is displeased at the sins of his own people; and no man shall be protected in disobedience, by his office, his nearness to God, or any services he has done for him. God warns all whom he employs, strictly to observe their orders. We cannot judge of men by their sufferings, nor of sins by present punishments; with some, the flesh is destroyed, that the spirit may be saved; with others, the flesh is pampered, that the soul may ripen for hell. Jeroboam returned not from his evil way. He promised himself that the calves would secure the crown to his family, but they lost it, and sunk his family. Those betray themselves who think to support themselves by any sin whatever. Let us dread prospering in sinful ways; pray to be kept from every delusion and temptation, and to be enabled to walk with self-denying perseverance in the way of God's commands.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "Where [is] this way he went?"
• [b]. Or "fathers"
• [c]. Literally "from the fringes of the people"

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 13

In this chapter is an account of a man of God being sent to exclaim against Jeroboam's altar, and threaten its destruction, of which he gave a sign, which was accomplished, and with it the withering of the king's hand, which was healed upon the prophet's prayer for him, 1Ki 13:1-7, who would have entertained him at his house, but he refused the offer, and departed, 1Ki 13:8-10, but an old prophet in Bethel hearing of him, rode after him, and fetched him back to eat bread with him, through a lie he told him, 1Ki 13:11-19 upon which the word came to the old prophet, threatening the man of God with death for disobeying his command, and which was accordingly executed by a lion that met him in the way, and slew him, 1Ki 13:20-24, of which the old prophet being informed, went and took up his carcass, and buried it in his own sepulchre, where he charged his sons to bury him also when dead, believing that all the man of God had said would be fulfilled, 1Ki 13:25-30 and the chapter is closed with observing the continuance of Jeroboam in his idolatry, 1Ki 13:33,34.