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Texts -- 1 Kings 13:1-29 (NET)

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13:1 Just then a prophet from Judah , sent by the Lord , arrived in Bethel , as Jeroboam was standing near the altar ready to offer a sacrifice . 13:2 With 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.’” 13:3 That 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.” 13:4 When 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 . 13:5 The 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 . 13:6 The 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. 13:7 The king then said to the prophet , “Come home with me and have something to eat . I’d like to give a present .” 13:8 But 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 . 13:9 For the Lord gave me strict orders , ‘Do not eat or drink there and do not go home the way you came .’” 13:10 So he started back on another road ; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel . 13:11 Now 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 . 13:12 Their father asked them, “Which road did he take ?” His sons showed him the road the prophet from Judah had taken . 13:13 He then told his sons , “Saddle the donkey for me.” When they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 13:14 and 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.” 13:15 He then said to him, “Come home with me and eat something .” 13:16 But he replied , “I can’t go back with you or eat and drink with you in this place . 13:17 For the Lord gave me strict orders , ‘Do not eat or drink there ; do not go back the way you came .’” 13:18 The 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. 13:19 So the prophet went back with him and ate and drank in his house . 13:20 While they were sitting at the table , the Lord spoke through the old prophet 13:21 and 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. 13:22 You 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 .’” 13:23 When the prophet from Judah finished his meal , the old prophet saddled his visitor’s donkey for him. 13:24 As 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 . 13:25 Some 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 . 13:26 When 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.” 13:27 He told his sons , “Saddle my donkey ,” and they did so. 13:28 He 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 . 13:29 The 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.

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • 1:22-26 The writer described Ephraim and Manasseh together as "the house of Joseph"(vv. 22-29). First, he narrated Ephraim's activity (vv. 22-26). The Ephraimites' treatment of the man of Bethel who gave them information viol...
  • The fact that this book opens and closes with death should be a clue as to its message.It opens with David's death, and it closes with Ahab's death. The intervening period of about a century and a half is a story of national ...
  • I. The reign of Solomon chs. 1-11A. Solomon's succession to David's throne 1:1-2:121. David's declining health 1:1-42. Adonijah's attempt to seize the throne 1:5-533. David's charge to Solomon 2:1-94. David's death 2:10-12B. ...
  • The second major part of the Book of Kings records the histories of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.123During this era of 209 years (931-722 B.C.) the two kingdoms experienced differing relati...
  • God sent a young Judahite prophet to Bethel to announce a prophecy that God would judge Jeroboam for his apostasy. When he arrived, the king was exercising his priestly function at the Bethel altar (v. 1). The prophet predict...
  • The prophecy of God's judgment on Jeroboam and its signs (vv. 4-5) did not lead the king to repentance. The most serious aspect of his apostate system was his disregard for what God had required concerning Israel's priesthood...
  • This section is similar to the one that recorded Saul's failure to follow Yahweh's command that also resulted in God cutting him off as His vice-regent (1 Sam. 13:13-14). The parallels between Saul and Ahab are remarkable thr...
  • Aharoni, Yohanan. "The Building Activities of David and Solomon."Israel Exploration Journal24:1(1974):13-16.Aharoni, Yohanan, and Michael Avi-Yonahl. The Macmillan Bible Atlas. Revised ed., New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.,...
  • Had Elijah still been alive on the earth Elisha could not have exercised authority as his successor. In this chapter note the parallels between the succession of the prophets and the succession of the kings that the writer re...
  • Josiah began to seek Yahweh when he was 16 years old and began initiating religious reforms when he was 20 (2 Chron. 34:3-7). His reforms were more extensive than those of any of his predecessors. One of them was the repair o...
  • 30:18 Yahweh promised to restore Israel's tribal fortunes (cf. Num. 24:5-6), to have compassion on His peoples' towns and homes, and to rebuild Jerusalem and the royal palace there.30:19 Thanksgiving and merrymaking would mar...
  • 9:1 In his vision Ezekiel heard the Lord (cf. v. 4) cry out loudly for the executioners (guards), who would punish the people of Jerusalem, to draw near to Him with their weapons in hand. The Lord had predicted that the peopl...
  • This verse summarizes the message that Amos received from the Lord. Amos reported that Yahweh roared from Zion, as a lion roars before it devours its prey or as thunder precedes a severe storm (cf. 3:4, 8; Jer. 25:30; Hos. 5:...
  • 7:15 Jesus here sounded a warning that the Old Testament prophets also gave about false prophets (cf. Deut. 13; 18; Jer. 6:13-15; 8:8-12; Ezek. 13; 22:27; Zeph 3:4). He did not explain exactly what they would teach, only that...
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