| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1Right when Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn some incense, a man of God arrived in Bethel from Judah in obedience to a command from the LORD. | 1Just then a prophet from Judah, sent by the LORD, arrived in Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice. |
| 2He cursed the altar in this message from the LORD: "Hey altar! Hey altar! This is what the LORD says: 'Pay attention to this! A son is going to be born in David's dynasty. His name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice the priests who burn incense on you in these high places. Human bones will be burned on you!'" | 2With the authority of the LORD he cried out against the altar, "O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says, 'Look, a son named Josiah will be born to the Davidic dynasty. He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer sacrifices on you. Human bones will be burned on you.'" |
| 3Later that same day, he gave them a special display of power of what was to come when he said, "Here's proof that the LORD has decreed this: Look! This altar will be split apart and the ashes that are on it will spill out." | 3That day he also announced a sign, "This is the sign the LORD has predetermined: The altar will be split open and the ashes on it will fall to the ground." |
| 4When he heard the man of God curse the altar in Bethel, the king pointed at the man of God from where the king was standing at the altar. "Seize him!" he ordered. But all of a sudden his hand that he had stretched out dried up, and he could not bring it back to his side! | 4When the king heard what the prophet cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam, standing at the altar, extended his hand and ordered, "Seize him!" The hand he had extended shriveled up and he could not pull it back. |
| 5Also, the altar broke apart and the ashes that were on it spilled out from the altar, providing just the proof that the man of God had predicted in his message from the LORD! | 5The altar split open and the ashes fell from the altar to the ground, in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the LORD's authority. |
| 6"Please!" the king begged the man of God, "Ask the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored for me!" So the man of God asked the LORD, and the king's hand was immediately and fully restored, just like it had been before. | 6The king pled with the prophet, "Seek the favor of the LORD your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored." So the prophet sought the LORD's favor and the king's hand was restored to its former condition. |
| 7So the king told the man of God, "Come back to my palace and rest a while. I'd like to give you a reward." | 7The king then said to the prophet, "Come home with me and have something to eat. I'd like to give a present." |
| 8But the man of God replied to the king, "Even if you were to offer me half of your house, I wouldn't go with you, and I'm sure not going to eat even a piece of bread or drink water in this place, | 8But the prophet said to the king, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I could not go with you and eat and drink in this place. |
| 9because the LORD commanded me specifically, 'You are not to eat bread, drink water, or return by the way that you came to arrive here!'" | 9For the LORD gave me strict orders, 'Do not eat or drink there and do not go home the way you came.'" |
| 10Then he left, returning a different way than the one by which he had traveled to Bethel. | 10So he started back on another road; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel. |
| 11Now there was an old prophet who lived in Bethel, and his sons went to him and told him everything that the man of God had accomplished that day in Bethel, including the message that he had delivered to the king. | 11Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. When his sons came home, they told their father everything the prophet had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king. |
| 12"Which way did he go?" their father asked him, since his sons had observed the way that the man of God had taken to return to Judah from Bethel. | 12Their father asked them, "Which road did he take?" His sons showed him the road the prophet from Judah had taken. |
| 13"Saddle my donkey for me!" he ordered. So they saddled the donkey for him | 13He then told his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." When they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it |
| 14and he rode off after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. "You're the man of God who came from Judah, aren't you?" the old prophet asked him. "I am," he replied. | 14and took off after the prophet, whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, "Are you the prophet from Judah?" He answered, "Yes, I am." |
| 15"Come home with me and have a meal," he told him. | 15He then said to him, "Come home with me and eat something." |
| 16But he replied, "I can't go back with you to your home, be in your company, or even eat food or drink water with you in this place, | 16But he replied, "I can't go back with you or eat and drink with you in this place. |
| 17because I've been given a command in the form of this message from the LORD: 'You are to eat no food, drink no water, and do not return to Judah by traveling the way by which you go there.'" | 17For the LORD gave me strict orders, 'Do not eat or drink there; do not go back the way you came.'" |
| 18"I'm a prophet like you," the old man replied, "and an angel spoke to me and delivered this message from the LORD: 'Bring him back with you to your house and give him food and water.'" But he was lying, | 18The old prophet then said, "I too am a prophet like you. An angel told me with the LORD's authority, 'Bring him back with you to your house so he can eat and drink.'" But he was lying to him. |
| 19and the man of God accompanied the old prophet back to his house, ate some food, and drank some water. | 19So the prophet went back with him and ate and drank in his house. |
| 20Later, while they were sitting down at the table, a message from the LORD was delivered to the prophet who had brought him back, | 20While they were sitting at the table, the LORD spoke through the old prophet |
| 21so he cried out to the man of God from Judah: "This is what the LORD says: 'Because you disobeyed a command from the LORD and haven't done what the LORD your God commanded you to do, | 21and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, "This is what the LORD says, 'You have rebelled against the LORD and have not obeyed the command the LORD your God gave you. |
| 22but instead you returned to eat and drink in the very place that he told you "Eat no food and drink no water," your body will not be buried in the same grave as your ancestors.'" | 22You went back and ate and drank in this place, even though he said to you, "Do not eat or drink there." Therefore your corpse will not be buried in your ancestral tomb.'" |
| 23After the meal was over, and the man had eaten food and had drunk water, the old prophet saddled the donkey for him—that is, for the man of God whom he had brought back. | 23When the prophet from Judah finished his meal, the old prophet saddled his visitor's donkey for him. |
| 24Not long after the man of God had left, a lion met him along the road and killed him. His body was left lying in the middle of the road with the donkey standing beside it and with the lion also standing next to the body. | 24As the prophet from Judah was traveling, a lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His corpse was lying on the road, and the donkey and the lion just stood there beside it. |
| 25When some men passed by and noticed the body lying in the middle of the road and the lion standing beside the body, they went straight to the city and told what had happened in the city where the old prophet lived. | 25Some men came by and saw the corpse lying in the road with the lion standing beside it. They went and reported what they had seen in the city where the old prophet lived. |
| 26The prophet who had brought the man of God back from the road learned about it. "It's the man of God who disobeyed the message from the LORD," he said. "That's why the LORD gave him to that lion, which mauled him and killed him, just as the message from the LORD told rebuke him." | 26When the old prophet who had invited him to his house heard the news, he said, "It is the prophet who rebelled against the LORD. The LORD delivered him over to the lion and it ripped him up and killed him, just as the LORD warned him." |
| 27Then he ordered his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they did. | 27He told his sons, "Saddle my donkey," and they did so. |
| 28The old prophet went out, located the body on the road where the donkey and the lion were standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. | 28He went and found the corpse lying in the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside it; the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor attacked the donkey. |
| 29The prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to the city where the old man lived so he could mourn and bury him. | 29The old prophet picked up the corpse of the prophet, put it on the donkey, and brought it back. The old prophet then entered the city to mourn him and to bury him. |
| 30He buried the corpse in his own grave and his family mourned for him, crying out, "Oh, no! My brother!" | 30He put the corpse into his own tomb, and they mourned over him, saying, "Ah, my brother!" |
| 31After he had buried the man of God, he gave these instructions to his children: "When I die, bury me in the same grave in which the man of God is buried. Place my bones beside his, | 31After he buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the tomb where the prophet is buried; put my bones right beside his bones, |
| 32because what he predicted by a message from the LORD against the altar in Bethel and the temples built in the high places of the cities of Samaria will certainly come about." | 32for the prophecy he announced with the LORD's authority against the altar in Bethel and against all the temples on the high places in the cities of the north will certainly be fulfilled." |
| 33Despite everything that happened, Jeroboam never did repent of his evil practices. Instead, he appointed even more people to act as priests for the high places. Anyone who wanted to be a priest was ordained to be a priest in the high places. | 33After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; he continued to appoint common people as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest. |
| 34This practice became so sinful that the LORD decided to erase Jeroboam's dynasty, thus eliminating it from the face of the earth. | 34This sin caused Jeroboam's dynasty to come to an end and to be destroyed from the face of the earth. |
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