1 Kings 13:17-27

17 for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.

18 He said to him, I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied to him.

19 So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20 It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who brought him back;

21 and he cried to the man of God who came from Yehudah, saying, Thus says the LORD, Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the mitzvah which the LORD your God commanded you,

22 but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, Eat no bread, and drink no water; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.

23 It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the donkey, [to wit], for the prophet whom he had brought back.

24 When he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him: and his body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it; the lion also stood by the body.

25 Behold, men passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.

26 When the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient to the mouth of the LORD: therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to him.

27 He spoke to his sons, saying, Saddle me the donkey. They saddled it.

1 Kings 13:17-27 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.