1 Kings 13:11-32

Evangelical Heritage Version

The Prophets’ Sins

¹¹ Another prophet, an old man, was living in Bethel. His sons^[a] came and told him everything that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also reported to their father the words he had spoken to the king.

¹² Then their father said to them, “Which road did he take?” So his sons showed him the road^[b] which the man of God from Judah had taken.

¹³ He told 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 under a terebinth tree.

He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

He answered, “I am.”

¹⁵ The old prophet said to him, “Come with me to my house and have something to eat.”

¹⁶ But he said, “No, I cannot return with you, or go with you, or eat bread and drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷ For I was told by the word of the Lord, ‘Do not eat bread and do not drink water there, and do not return by the same road you came on.’”

¹⁸ But the old prophet said to him, “I also am a prophet, just like you, and an angel told me by the word of the Lord, ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he was lying to him. ¹⁹ Then the man of God returned with him and 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 the man of God back. ²¹ He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, saying, “This is what the Lord says. Because you have rebelled against the mouth of the Lord and have not obeyed the command which the Lord your God gave you, ²² but instead you came back and ate bread and drank water in the place about which he had told you, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water there,’ your corpse will not enter the tomb of your fathers.”

²³ Then after he ate and drank, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ As the man of God went on his way, a lion attacked him and killed him. His corpse was left lying on the road, and his donkey remained standing next to it. The lion was also standing next to the corpse. ²⁵ Then some men who were passing by saw the corpse lying on the road, and the lion was standing next to the corpse. They came and told the story in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶ When the prophet who had brought the man of God back from his journey heard this, he said, “This is the man of God who rebelled against the mouth of the Lord. Now the Lord has given him to the lion. It mauled him and killed him according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to him.”

²⁷ He said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” So they saddled it. ²⁸ Then he went and found the corpse of the man of God lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor had it mauled the donkey.

²⁹ The old prophet picked up the corpse of the man of God, placed it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn and to bury it. ³⁰ He laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, “Oh, my brother!”

³¹ After he had buried him, the old prophet said to his sons, “When I die and you bury me, lay my bones to rest beside the bones of the man of God, in the same tomb where he is buried. ³² For the message which he proclaimed by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria will certainly come true.”