Jeroboam’s Hand Withers
And look — a man of God came from Judah, by the word of the LORD, to Bethel, while Jeroboam was standing on the altar to burn incense.
And he called out against the altar, by the word of the LORD, and said: “Altar! Altar! Thus says the LORD: Look — a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah his name; and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned on you.”
And he gave a sign on that day, saying: “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: look — the altar will be torn apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.”
And it was, when the king heard the word of the man of God that he called out against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” And his hand, which he had stretched out against him, withered, and he was not able to draw it back to himself.
And the altar was torn apart, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
And the king answered and said to the man of God, “Soften, please, the face of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.” And the man of God softened the face of the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it was as at the first.
And the king spoke to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and let me give you a gift.”
And the man of God said to the king: “If you gave me half your house, I would not go in with you; and I will not eat bread and I will not drink water in this place.
For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying: ‘You shall not eat bread, and you shall not drink water, and you shall not return by the way you went.’”
And he went by another way, and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
The Old Prophet and the Man of God
Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel; and his son came and recounted to him all the deed that the man of God had done that day in Bethel — the words that he had spoken to the king; and they recounted them to their father.
And their father spoke to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
And he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.
And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under the terebinth; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.”
And he said to him, “Come home with me, and eat bread.”
And he said: “I am not able to turn back with you or to come in with you; and I will not eat bread, and I will not drink water with you in this place.
For a word came to me by the word of the LORD: ‘You shall not eat bread, and you shall not drink water there; you shall not turn back to walk by the way you went.’”
And he said to him, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, and let him eat bread and drink water.’” He was lying to him.
And he turned back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
And it was, as they were sitting at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back;
and he called out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying: “Thus says the LORD: Because you have rebelled against the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God commanded you,
but turned back and ate bread and drank water in the place of which he spoke to you, ‘Do not eat bread and do not drink water’ — your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.”
And it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him — for the prophet whom he had brought back.
And he went, and a lion found him on the way and put him to death; and his corpse was left thrown down on the way, with the donkey standing beside it, and the lion standing beside the corpse.
And look — men passing by saw the corpse thrown down on the way, and the lion standing beside the corpse; and they came and spoke of it in the city where the old prophet lived.
And the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard, and he said: “It is the man of God who rebelled against the mouth of the LORD; and the LORD has given him to the lion, and it has broken him and put him to death, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke to him.”
And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it.
And he went and found his corpse thrown down on the way, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse and had not broken the donkey.
And the prophet lifted up the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet, to lament and to bury him.
And he laid his corpse in his own tomb; and they lamented over him: “Alas, my brother!”
And it was, after he had buried him, that he said to his sons, saying: “When I die, bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.
For the word that he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar that is in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”
After this thing, Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil way; but he again made priests of the high places from the whole range of the people — whoever desired it, he would fill his hand, and he would become one of the priests of the high places.
And this thing became the sin of the house of Jeroboam — to efface it and to destroy it from the face of the ground.