³³ Then, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, he went up to burn incense on the altar that he had set up in Bethel, thus beginning the festival that he had made up out of his own heart for the Israelis.

Josiah’s Desecration Predicted by a Man of God

13 Right when Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn some incense, a man of God arrived in Bethel from Judah in obedience to a command from the Lord. ² He cursed^[a] the altar in this^[b] message from the Lord: “Hey altar! Hey altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘Pay attention to this! A son is going to be born in David’s dynasty. His name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice the priests who burn incense on you in these high places. Human bones will be burned on you!’”^[c]

³ Later that same day, he gave them a special display of power^[d] of what was to come when he said, “Here’s proof^[e] that the Lord has decreed this:^[f] Look! This altar will be split apart and the ashes that are on it will spill out.”

⁴ When he heard the man of God curse^[g] the altar in Bethel, the king pointed at the man of God from where the king was standing at the altar. “Seize him!” he ordered. But all of a sudden his hand that he had stretched out dried up, and he could not bring it back to his side! ⁵ Also, the altar broke apart and the ashes that were on it spilled out from the altar, providing just the proof that the man of God had predicted in his message from the Lord!

⁶ “Please!” the king begged the man of God, “Ask the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored for me!” So the man of God asked the Lord, and the king’s hand was immediately and fully restored, just like it had been before. ⁷ So the king told the man of God, “Come back to my palace and rest a while. I’d like to give you a reward.”

⁸ But the man of God replied to the king, “Even if you were to offer me half of your house, I wouldn’t go with you, and I’m sure not going to eat even a piece of bread or drink water in this place, ⁹ because the Lord commanded me specifically, ‘You are not to eat bread, drink water, or return by the way that you came to arrive here!’” ¹⁰ Then he left, returning a different way than the one by which he had traveled to Bethel.