1 Kings 13:25-34

13:25 Some men came by ¹  and saw the corpse lying in the road with the lion standing beside it. ²  They went and reported what they had seen ³  in the city where the old prophet lived. 13:26 When the old prophet who had invited him to his house heard the news, ⁴  he said, “It is the prophet ⁵  who rebelled against the Lord. ⁶  The Lord delivered him over to the lion and it ripped him up ⁷  and killed him, just as the Lord warned him.” ⁸  13:27 He told his sons, “Saddle my donkey,” and they did so. ⁹  13:28 He went and found the corpse lying in the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside it; ¹⁰  the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor attacked the donkey. 13:29 The old prophet ¹¹  picked up the corpse of the prophet, ¹²  put it on the donkey, and brought it back. The old prophet then entered the city to mourn him and to bury him. 13:30 He put the corpse into his own tomb, and they ¹³  mourned over him, saying, “Ah, my brother!” 13:31 After he buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the tomb where the prophet ¹⁴  is buried; put my bones right beside his bones, 13:32 for the prophecy he announced with the Lord’s authority ¹⁵  against the altar in Bethel ¹⁶  and against all the temples on the high places in the cities of the north ¹⁷  will certainly be fulfilled.”

A Prophet Announces the End of Jeroboam’s Dynasty

13:33 After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; ¹⁸  he continued to appoint common people ¹⁹  as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest. ²⁰  13:34 This sin caused Jeroboam’s dynasty ²¹  to come to an end and to be destroyed from the face of the earth.

¹ tn Heb “Look, men were passing by.”

² tn Heb “the corpse.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn The words “what they had seen” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

⁴ tn Heb “and the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard.”

⁵ tn Heb “the man of God.”

⁶ tn Heb “the mouth of the Lord.”

⁷ tn Heb “broke him,” or “crushed him.”

⁸ tn Heb “according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to him.”

⁷ tn Heb “and they saddled [it].”

¹⁰ tn Heb “the corpse.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“it”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹³ tn Heb “the prophet.” The word “old” has been supplied in the translation to distinguish this individual from the other prophet.

¹⁴ tn Heb “the man of God.”

¹⁶ tn “They” is the reading of the Hebrew text here; perhaps this is meant to include not only the old prophet but his sons (cf. v. 31).

¹⁹ tn Heb “the man of God.”

²² tn Heb “for the word which he cried out by the word of the Lord”

²³ map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

²⁴ tn Heb “Samaria.” The name of Israel’s capital city here stands for the northern kingdom as a whole. Actually Samaria was not built and named until several years after this (see 1 Kgs 16:24), so it is likely that the author of Kings, writing at a later time, is here adapting the old prophet’s original statement.

²⁵ tn Heb “did not turn from his evil way.”

²⁶ sn The expression common people refers to people who were not Levites. See 1 Kgs 12:31.

²⁷ tn Heb “and one who had the desire he was filling his hand so that he became [one of] the priests of the high places.”

²⁸ tn Heb “house.”