Berean Study Bible | International Standard Version |
1Suddenly, as Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD. | 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. |
2And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’ ” | 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!'" |
3That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “The LORD has spoken this sign: ‘Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.’ ” | 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." |
4Now when King Jeroboam, who was at the altar in Bethel, heard the word that the man of God had cried out against it, he stretched out his hand and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward him withered, so that he could not pull it back. | 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! |
5And the altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. | 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! |
6Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before. | 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. |
7Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.” | 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." |
8But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. | 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, |
9For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’ ” | 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!'" |
10So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. | 10Then he left, returning a different way than the one by which he had traveled to Bethel. |
11Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that the man had spoken to the king. | 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. |
12“Which way did he go?” their father asked. And his sons showed him the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah. | 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. |
13So the prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” Then they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it | 13"Saddle my donkey for me!" he ordered. So they saddled the donkey for him |
14and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied. | 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. |
15So the prophet said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some bread.” | 15"Come home with me and have a meal," he told him. |
16But the man replied, “I cannot return with you or eat bread or drink water with you in this place. | 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, |
17For I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’ ” | 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.'" |
18Then the prophet replied, “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, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” The old prophet was lying to him, | 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, |
19but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water. | 19and the man of God accompanied the old prophet back to his house, ate some food, and drank some water. |
20While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back, | 20Later, while they were sitting down at the table, a message from the LORD was delivered to the prophet who had brought him back, |
21and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God gave you, | 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, |
22but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’ ” | 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.'" |
23And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him. | 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. |
24As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. | 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. |
25And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived. | 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. |
26When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard this, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to him.” | 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." |
27Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it, | 27Then he ordered his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they did. |
28and he went and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey. | 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. |
29So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. | 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. |
30Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they lamented over him, “Oh, my brother!” | 30He buried the corpse in his own grave and his family mourned for him, crying out, "Oh, no! My brother!" |
31After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones, | 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, |
32for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.” | 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." |
33Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places. | 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. |
34And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth. | 34This practice became so sinful that the LORD decided to erase Jeroboam's dynasty, thus eliminating it from the face of the earth. |
The Berean Bible (Berean Study Bible (BSB) © 2016, 2018 by Bible Hub and Berean.Bible. Used by Permission. All rights Reserved. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. |
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