1 Kings 13:11-32

11 Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel. One of his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words also that he had spoken to the king, they told to their father.
12 Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
13 Then he said to his sons, "Saddle a donkey for me." So they saddled a donkey for him, and he mounted it.
14 He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak tree. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He answered, "I am."
15 Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat some food."
16 But he said, "I cannot return with you, or go in with you; nor will I eat food or drink water with you in this place;
17 for it was said to me by the word of the Lord: You shall not eat food or drink water there, or return by the way that you came."
18 Then the other said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: Bring him back with you into your house so that he may eat food and drink water." But he was deceiving him.
19 Then the man of God went back with him, and ate food and drank water in his house.
20 As they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back;
21 and he proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, "Thus says the Lord: Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you,
22 but have come back and have eaten food and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no food, and drink no water,' your body shall not come to your ancestral tomb."
23 After the man of God had eaten food and had drunk, they saddled for him a donkey belonging to the prophet who had brought him back.
24 Then as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.
25 People passed by and saw the body thrown in the road, with the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the town where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him according to the word that the Lord spoke to him."
27 Then he said to his sons, "Saddle a donkey for me." So they saddled one,
28 and he went and found the body thrown in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey.
29 The prophet took up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to the city, to mourn and to bury him.
30 He laid the body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother!"
31 After he had buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.
32 For the saying that he proclaimed by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass."

1 Kings 13:11-32 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Footnotes 4

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.