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¹ AND, behold, there came a prophet out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Beth-el; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense on the fifteenth day of the month, according to the feast which was in Judah. And he burned incense on the altar.² And the prophet cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, hear the word of the LORD, thus says the LORD: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon you he shall offer the priests of the temples of idols who burn incense upon you, and mens bones shall be burnt upon you.³ And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the LORD has sent me: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.⁴ And when the king heard the saying of the prophet of God which he had cried against the altar in Beth-el, the king, standing at the altar, put forth his hand, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to him.⁵ The altar also was broken, and the ashes which were upon it poured out, according to the sign which the prophet of God had given by the word of the LORD.⁶ And the king answered and said to the prophet of God, Pray for me before the LORD your God, and entreat for me that my hand may be restored to me. And the prophet of God prayed before the LORD, and the kings hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.⁷ And the king said to the prophet of God, Come home with me to eat and I will give you presents.⁸ And the prophet of God said to him, If you give me half your house, I will not go home with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place.⁹ For so it was charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, and drink no water, nor return again by the way that you came.¹⁰ So he went by another way, and did not return by the way that he came to Beth-el.

¹¹ Now there dwelt an old prophet in Beth-el; and his sons came and told him all the works that the prophet of God had done that day in Beth-el; and the words which he had spoken to the king, them they told also to their father.¹² And their father said to them, Which way did he go? And his sons showed him the way by which the prophet of God went, who came from Judah.¹³ And he said to his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass; and he rode on it,¹⁴ And went after the prophet of God, and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, Are you the prophet of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.¹⁵ Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread.¹⁶ And he answered. I cannot return with you nor go to your house; neither will I eat bread with you, nor drink water in this place;¹⁷ For so it was said to me by the word of the LORD, You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return again by the same way that you came.¹⁸ He said to him, I am a prophet also as are you; and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him.¹⁹ So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house and drank water.²⁰ And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who brought him back;²¹ And he cried to the prophet of God who came from Judah and said to him, Thus says the LORD. Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you.²² But have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which the LORD said to you, You shall not eat bread, nor drink water; therefore your corpse shall not come into the sepulchre of your fathers.

²³ And after the two prophets had eaten bread and had drunk, they saddled the ass for the prophet of God.²⁴ And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way and slew him; and his corpse was cast in the way, and the ass stood beside, and the lion also stood by the corpse.²⁵ And, behold, men passed by and saw the corpse cast in the way and the ass standing beside it, and the lion also standing beside the corpse; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.²⁶ And when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said. It is the prophet of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke to him.²⁷ And he said to his sons, Saddle me the ass, and they saddled it.²⁸ And he went and found the corpse cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the ass.²⁹ And the prophet took up the corpse of the prophet of God, and laid it upon the ass and brought it back to the city where the old prophet dwelt, to mourn over him and to bury him.³⁰ And he laid his corpse in the grave; and he mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! Alas, my brother!³¹ And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, When I die, bury me in the sepulchre wherein the prophet of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones;³² For the saying which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Beth-el and against all the temples of idols which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.³³ After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made again from among the people priests for the temples of idols; whosoever would become a priest, he offered an offering and thus became the priest of the temple of idols.³⁴ And this thing became a sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.