1 Kings 13:7-30

New American Standard Bible

⁷ Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and ^(A)I will give you a gift.” ⁸ But the man of God said to the king, “^(B)If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. ⁹ For so ^[a]it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.’” ¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he had come to Bethel.

The Disobedient Prophet

¹¹ Now ^(C)an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his ^[b]sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they reported to their father. ¹² And their father said to them, “^[c]Which way did he go?” Now his sons ^[d]had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it. ¹⁴ So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under ^[e]an oak; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶ But he said, “^(D)I cannot return with you, nor come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷ For a ^[f]command came to me ^(E)by the word of the Lord: ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way that you came.’” ¹⁸ Then he said to him, “^(F)I too am a prophet like you, and ^(G)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.’” But ^(H)he lied to him. ¹⁹ So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰ Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; ²¹ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you have ^[g]disobeyed the ^[h]command of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ²² but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “You are not to eat bread nor drink water”; your dead body will not come to the grave of your fathers.’” ²³ It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ Now when he had gone, ^(I)a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body. ²⁵ And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and told about it in the city where ^(J)the old prophet had lived.

²⁶ Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard about it, he said, “It is the man of God, who ^[i]disobeyed the ^[j]command of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.” ²⁷ Then he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸ Then he went and found his body thrown on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor ^[k]harmed the donkey. ²⁹ So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰ He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “^(K)Oh, my brother!”