1 Kings 13

Judgment on Jeroboam

1 A man of God came from Judah to Bethel by a revelation from the Lord while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense.

2 The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: "Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, 'A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.' "^[a]

3 He gave a sign that day. He said, "This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: 'The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be spilled out.' "

4 When the king heard the word that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Arrest him!" But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself.

5 The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes spilled off the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

6 Then the king responded to the man of God, "Please plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me." So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.

7 Then the king declared to the man of God, "Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I'll give you a reward."

8 But the man of God replied, "If you were to give me half your house, I still wouldn't go with you, and I wouldn't eat bread or drink water in this place,

9 for this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord: 'You must not eat bread or drink water or go back the way you came.' "

10 So he went another way; he did not go back 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. His son^[b] came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king.

12 Then their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" His sons had seen^[c] the way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah.

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

14 He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" "I am," he said.

15 Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."

16 But he answered, "I cannot go back with you, eat bread, or drink water with you in this place,

17 for a message came to me by the word of the Lord: 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or go back by the way you came.' "

18 He said to him, "I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.' " The old prophet deceived him,

19 and 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 rebelled against the command of the Lord and did not keep the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you,

22 but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place that He said to you: Do not eat bread and do not drink water, your corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.' "

23 So after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back.

24 When he left,^[d] a lion met him along the way and killed him. His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

25 There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke [about it] in the city where the old prophet lived.

26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard [about it], he said, "He is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the Lord. The Lord has given him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke to him."

27 Then the old prophet instructed his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." They saddled it,

28 and he went and found the corpse of the man of God thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey.

29 So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and to bury him.

30 Then he laid the corpse in his own grave, and they mourned over him: "Oh, my brother!"

31 After he had buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, you must bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones,

32 for the word that he cried out by a revelation from the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines^[e] of the high places in the cities of Samaria is certain to happen."

33 After all this Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again set up priests from every class of people for the high places.^[f] Whoever so desired it, he ordained, and they became priests of the high places.^[g]

34 For the house of Jeroboam, this was the sin that caused it to be wiped out and annihilated from the face of the earth.^[h]

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]. 2 Kg 23:20
• [b]. Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Vg read sons
• [c]. LXX, Syr, Tg, Vg read sons showed him
• [d]. LXX reads donkey, and he turned 24 and left, and
• [e]. 1 Kg 12:31; 2 Kg 17:29
• [f]. 1 Kg 12:31
• [g]. 2 Ch 13:9
• [h]. 1 Kg 12:30; 2 Kg 17:21

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.