1 Kings 13:10-25

10 So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

11 Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons ^[a] came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that the man had spoken to the king.

12 “Which way did he go?” their father asked. And his sons showed him ^[b] the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah.

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

14 and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree ^[c] and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied.

15 So the prophet said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some bread.”

16 But the man replied, “I cannot go home with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

17 For I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”

18 Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet was lying to him,

19 but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back,

21 and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God gave you,

22 but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’”

23 And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.

24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

25 And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.

1 Kings 13:10-25 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate; Hebrew son
• [b]. LXX; Hebrew had seen
• [c]. Or a terebinth or a great tree