Study Desk

Now ^(C1)an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his ^(F1)sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they reported to their father.

And their father said to them, "^(F1)Which way did he go?" Now his sons ^(F2)had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it.

So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under ^(F1)an oak; and he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am."

Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."

But he said, "^(C1)I cannot return with you, nor come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

"For a ^(F1)command came to me ^(C1)by the word of the LORD: 'You shall not eat bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way that you came.'"

Then he said to him, "^(C1)I too am a prophet like you, and ^(C2)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.'" But ^(C3)he lied to him.

So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back;

and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'Because you have ^(F1)disobeyed the ^(F2)command of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,

but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, "You are not to eat bread nor drink water"; your dead body will not come to the grave of your fathers.'"

It came about 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.

Now when he had gone, ^(C1)a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body.

And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and told about it in the city where ^(C1)the old prophet had lived.

Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard about it, he said, "It is the man of God, who ^(F1)disobeyed the ^(F2)command of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, in accordance with the word of the LORD which He spoke to him."

Then he spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." And they saddled it.

Then he went and found his body thrown on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor ^(F1)harmed the donkey.

So the prophet picked up the body 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 mourn and to bury him.

He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, "^(C1)Oh, my brother!"

And after he had buried him, he talked to his sons, saying, "When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; ^(C1)lay my bones beside his bones.

"^(C1)For the thing will certainly come to pass which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar that is in Bethel, and ^(C2)against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of ^(C3)Samaria."