Jeroboam’s Hand Withers
(2 Kings 23:4–20; 2 Chronicles 34:3–7)

1And behold, ther came a man of God out of Iuda by the worde of the lord, vnto Bethel: and Ieroboam stoode by the aulter to put incense. 2And he cried against the aulter in the worde of the Lorde, and sayd: O aulter aulter, thus sayeth the Lorde: Behold, a childe shall be borne vnto the house of Dauid, Iosia by name, and vpon thee shall he offer the priestes of the hill aulters that burnt incense vpon thee, and mens bones shalbe burnt vpon thee. 3And he gaue a token the same time, saying: This is the token that the Lorde hath spoken it: Beholde, the aulter shall rent, and the ashes that are vpon it shall fall out. 4And when the king hearde the saying of the man of God whiche had cryed against the aulter in Bethel, he stretched out his hande from the aulter, saying, Holde him: And his hand which he put foorth against him dried vp, & he coulde not pull it in againe to him. 5The aulter also claue asunder, and the ashes fell out from the aulter, according to the token which the man of God had geuen by the worde of the Lorde. 6And the king aunswered, and sayd vnto the man of God: Oh pray vnto the Lorde thy God, and make intercession for me, that my hande may be restored me againe. And the ma of God besought the Lord, and the kinges hand was restored againe, and became as it was afore. 7And the king sayde vnto the man of God: Come home with me, that thou mayest dine, and I will geue thee a reward. 8And the man of God sayde vnto the king: If thou wouldest geue me halfe thyne house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eate bread, nor drinke water in this place: 9For so was it charged me through the word of the Lord, saying: Eate no bread nor drinke water, nor turne agayne by the same way that thou camest. 10And so he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

11And there dwelt an olde prophet in Bethel, and his sonnes came and tolde him al the workes that the man of God had done that day in Bethel, and the wordes which he had spoken vnto the king tolde they their father also. 12And their father sayde vnto them: What way went he? And his sonnes shewed him what way the man of God went which came from Iuda. 13And he saide vnto his sonnes: Saddle me the asse. Which when they had saddled, he gat him vp thereon, 14And went after the man of God, and founde him sytting vnder a tree, and he said vnto him: Art thou the man of God that camest from Iuda? And he sayde, I am. 15He sayde vnto him: Come home with me, and eate bread. 16He aunswered: I may not returne with thee, to go in with thee: neither wyl I eate bread, or drinke water with thee in this place. 17For it was saide to me in the word of the Lord: Thou shalt eate no bread, nor drinke water there, nor turne againe to go by the way that thou camest. 18He saide vnto him: I am a prophet also as well as thou, and an angell spake vnto me in the word of the Lorde, saying: Bryng him againe with thee into thyne house, that he may eate bread, & drinke water. And he lyed vnto him. 19And so he went againe with him, and did eate bread in his house, and drancke water.

20And it fortuned, that as they sat at the table, the word of the Lorde came vnto the prophet that brought him againe: 21And he cryed vnto the man of God that came from Iuda, saying, Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lorde, and hast not kept the commaundement which the Lorde thy God commaunded thee: 22But camest backe againe, and hast eaten bread, & druncke water in the place concerning the which the Lorde did say vnto thee, Thou shalt eate no bread, nor dryncke no water: thy carkasse shall not come vnto the sepulchre of thy fathers. 23And so it came to passe that when he had eaten bread, and druncke, he sadled him the asse, to wit, to the prophet who he had brought againe. 24And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slue him: and his carkasse was cast in the way, & the asse stoode thereby, and the lion stoode by the corse also. 25And men that passed by sawe the carcasse cast in the way, & the lion standing by the carcasse: and they came and tolde it in the towne where the olde prophet dwelt.

26And when the prophet that brought him backe againe from the way heard thereof, he sayd: It is the man of God, he was disobedient vnto the word of the Lorde, and therefore the Lord hath deliuered him vnto the lion, which hath rent him, & slaine him according to the word of the Lorde which he spake vnto him. 27And he spake to his sonnes, saying: Sadle me an asse: And they sadled him. 28And he went, and founde his body cast in the way, and the asse and the lion stoode by the corse, and the lion had not eaten the carcasse, nor hurt the asse. 29And the prophet toke vp the body of the man of God, and layde it vpon the asse, and brought it againe: and the olde prophet came to the citie to lament, and to burie him. 30And he layde his body in his owne graue, and then lamented ouer him saying Alas my brother. 31And when he had buryed him, he spake to his sonnes, saying: When I am dead, see that ye burie me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried: laye my bones beside his bones. 32For the saying which he cryed at the word of the Lorde against the aulter in Bethel, and against all the houses of hie places which are in the cities of Samarie, shall come to passe.

33Howbeit, for all that Ieroboam conuerted not from his wicked way: but turned backe, and made of the lowest of the people priestes of the hie places: And who so pleased him, he filled his hand, and he became priest of the hie places. 34And this thing turned to sinne vnto the house of Ieroboam, euen to destroy him, and to bring him to naught from of the face of the earth.