I Kings 13/מלכים א י״ג

2he—the agent of God—at the command of GOD, cried out against the altar: “O altar, altar! Thus said GOD: A son shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name; and he shall slaughter upon you the priests of the shrines who bring offerings upon you. And human bones shall be burned upon you.”

3He gave a portent on that day, saying, “Here is the portent that GOD has decreed: This altar shall break apart, and the ashes on it shall be spilled.”

4When the king heard what the agent of God had proclaimed against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his arm above the altar and cried, “Seize him!” But the arm that he stretched out against him became rigid, and he could not draw it back.

5The altar broke apart and its ashes were spilled—the very portent that the agent of God had announced at GOD’s command.

6Then the king spoke up and said to the agent of God, “Please entreat the ETERNAL your God and pray for me that I may be able to draw back my arm.” The agent of God entreated GOD and the king was able to draw his arm back; it became as it was before.

7The king said to the agent of God, “Come with me to my house and have some refreshment; and I shall give you a gift.”

8But the agent of God replied to the king, “Even if you give me half your wealth, I will not go in with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place;

9for so I was commanded by the word of GOD: You shall eat no bread and drink no water, nor shall you go back by the road by which you came.”

10So he left by another road and did not go back by the road on which he had come to Bethel.

13“Saddle the donkey for me,” he said to his sons. They saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it

14and rode after the agent of God. He came upon him sitting under a terebinth and said to him, “Are you the agent of God who came from Judah?” “Yes, I am,” he answered.

15“Come home with me,” he said, “and have something to eat.”

16He replied, “I may not go back with you and enter your home; and I may not eat bread or drink water in this place;

17the order I received by the word of GOD was: You shall not eat bread or drink water there; nor shall you return by the road on which you came.”

18“I am a prophet, too,” said the other, “and an angel said to me by command of GOD: Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.” He was lying to him.

19So he went back with him, and he ate bread and drank water in his house.

20While they were sitting at the table, the word of GOD came to the prophet who had brought him back.

21He cried out to the agent of God who had come from Judah: “Thus said GOD: Because you have flouted the word of GOD and have not observed what the ETERNAL your God commanded you,

22but have gone back and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which [God] said to you, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water [there],’ your corpse shall not come to the grave of your ancestors.”

23After he had eaten bread and had drunk, he saddled the donkey for him—for the prophet whom he had brought back.

24He set out, and a lion came upon him on the road and killed him. His corpse lay on the road, with the donkey standing beside it, and the lion also standing beside the corpse.

25Some people who passed by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing beside the corpse; they went and told it in the town where the old prophet lived.

26And when the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard it, he said, “That is the agent of God who flouted GOD’s command; GOD gave him over to the lion, which mauled him and killed him in accordance with the word that GOD had spoken to him.”

27He said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.

28He set out and found the corpse 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.

30He laid the corpse in his own burial place; and they lamented over it, “Alas, my brother!”

31After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the agent of God lies buried; lay my bones beside his.

32For what he announced by the word of GOD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the cult places in the towns of Samaria, shall surely come true.”

33Even after this incident, Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil way, but kept on appointing priests for the shrines from the ranks of the people. He ordained as priests of the shrines any who so desired.

34Thereby the House of Jeroboam incurred guilt—to their utter annihilation from the face of the earth.