| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1A man of God came from Judah to Bethel by a revelation from the LORD while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense. | 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. |
| 2The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the LORD: "Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says, 'A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on 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!'" |
| 3He gave a sign that day. He said, "This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: 'The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on 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." |
| 4When the king heard the word that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Arrest him!" But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself. | 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! |
| 5The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, 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, "Plead for the favor of the LORD your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me." So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first. | 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 declared to the man of God, "Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I'll 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 house, I still wouldn't go with you, and I wouldn't 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 go back 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 he went another way; he did not go back 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. His son came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he 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. |
| 12Then their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" His sons had seen 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. |
| 13Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it. | 13"Saddle my donkey for me!" he ordered. So they saddled the donkey for him |
| 14He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?"" I am," he said. | 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. |
| 15Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread." | 15"Come home with me and have a meal," he told him. |
| 16But he answered, "I cannot go back with you, 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 a message came to me by the word of the LORD: 'You must not eat bread or drink water there or go back 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.'" |
| 18He said to him, "I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD: 'Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.'" The old prophet deceived 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, |
| 19and 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 rebelled against the command of the LORD and did not keep the command that the LORD your God commanded 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 that He said to you, "Do not eat bread and do not drink water"-- your corpse will never reach the grave 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.'" |
| 23So after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. | 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. |
| 24When he left, a lion attacked him along the way and killed him. His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too. | 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. |
| 25There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it 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 way heard about it, he said, "He is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. The LORD has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the LORD that He spoke 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." They saddled it, | 27Then he ordered his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they did. |
| 28and he went and found the corpse of the man of God thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse 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 prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn 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 corpse in his own grave, and they mourned 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, he said to his sons, "When I die, you must bury me in the grave 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 word that he cried out by a revelation from the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria is certain to happen." | 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." |
| 33After all this Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again set up priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests 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. |
| 34This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be wiped out and annihilated 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. |
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