1 Kings 13:11-32

Common English Bible

¹¹ Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything that the man of God had done that day at Bethel. They also told their father the words that he spoke to the king. ¹² “Which way did he go?” their father asked them. His sons had seen the way the man of God went when he came from Judah. ¹³ The old prophet said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” So they saddled his donkey, and he got on it. ¹⁴ He went after the man of God and found him sitting underneath a terebinth tree. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he replied.

¹⁵ The old prophet then said to him, “Come home with me and eat some food.”

¹⁶ But the man of God answered, “I can’t return or go with you, and I can’t eat food or drink water with you in this place ¹⁷ because of the message that came to me from the Lord’s word: Don’t eat food! Don’t drink water! Don’t return by the way you came!”

¹⁸ The old prophet said to the man of God, “I’m also a prophet like you. A messenger spoke to me with the Lord’s word, ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat food and drink water.’”

But the old prophet was lying to him. ¹⁹ So the man of God went back with the old prophet. He ate food in his home and drank water. ²⁰ Then as they were sitting at the table, the Lord’s word came to the prophet who had brought him back. ²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah:

“But he had commanded you: ‘Don’t eat food! Don’t drink water!’ Now your body won’t go to the grave of your ancestors.”

²³ After he ate food and drank, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. ²⁴ The man of God departed, and a lion found him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown down on the road. The donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside the body. ²⁵ Some people were traveling nearby, and they discovered the body thrown down on the road and the lion standing beside it. They entered the town where the old prophet lived and were talking about it. ²⁶ The prophet who brought the man of God back from the road overheard. He thought: That’s the man of God who rebelled against the Lord’s command. The Lord has given him to that lion that tore him apart, killing him in agreement with the Lord’s word that was spoken to him.

²⁷ The old prophet told his sons, “Saddle the donkey.” They did so, ²⁸ and he went and found the body thrown down on the road. The donkey and the lion were still standing beside the body. The lion hadn’t eaten the body, nor had it torn the donkey apart. ²⁹ The prophet lifted the body of the man of God and put it on the donkey. He brought it back, arriving in the old prophet’s town to mourn and bury the man of God. ³⁰ He placed the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, “Oh, my brother!” ³¹ After the old prophet buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is. Put my bones beside his bones. ³² The message he gave by the Lord’s word concerning the altar of Bethel and all the shrines in the towns of Samaria will most certainly come true.”