1 Kings 13:11

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

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.¹²"Which way did he go?" their father asked. And his sons had seen the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah. ¹³So the prophet said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." Then they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it 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. ¹⁵Then the prophet said to the man of God, "Come home with me and eat some bread." ¹⁶But the man replied, "I cannot return with you or eat bread 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.'" 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, ¹⁹but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water. ²⁰While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

an old prophet: 1 Kings 13:20, 1 Kings 13:21, Numbers 23:4, Numbers 23:5, Numbers 24:2, 1 Samuel 10:11, 2 Kings 23:18, Ezekiel 13:2, Ezekiel 13:16, Matthew 7:22, 2 Peter 2:16

sons: Heb. son

came: 1 Timothy 3:5

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 12:22 - the man

Cross-References

Genesis 13:9
Is not the whole land before you? Now separate yourself from me. If you go to the left, I will go to the right; if you go to the right, I will go to the left."

Genesis 13:14
After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, "Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west.

Genesis 19:17
As soon as the men had brought them out, one of them said, "Run for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere on the plain! Flee to the mountains, or you will be swept away!"

Psalms 16:3
As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.

Psalms 119:63
I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.

Proverbs 27:10
Do not forsake your friend or your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity; better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.

Hebrews 10:25
Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

1 Peter 2:17
Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel,.... The Targum is, a false prophet, so Josephus b; it is hard to say what he was, a good man or a bad man; if a good man, he was guilty of many things which are not in his favour, as dwelling in such an idolatrous place suffering his sons to attend idolatrous worship, and telling the man of God a premeditated lie; and yet there are several things which seem contrary to his being a bad man, and of an ill character, since he is called an old prophet, did not attend idolatrous worship, showed great respect to the man of God, had the word of God sent unto him concerning him, believed that what he had prophesied should come to pass, buried the man of God in his own grave, and desired his sons to bury him with him. In some copies his name is said to be Micah, as Kimchi observes, and other Jewish writers c say the same; though some take him to be Amaziah the priest of Bethel, and others Gersom the son of Moses d, but without any foundation; though he now dwelt at Bethel, he was originally of Samaria, 2 Kings 23:18,

and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; that the altar was rent, and the ashes poured out, as he had said, and that Jeroboam's hand withered, and was restored upon his prayer to God:

the words which he had spoken unto the king; that one should be born of the family of David, Josiah by name, that should offer the idolatrous priests, and burn the bones of men upon that altar, and that that should be rent, and its ashes poured forth, which was done:

them they told also their father; gave him a particular account of his actions and words.

b Antiqu. l. 8. c. 9. sect. 1. c T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 104. 1. d Shalshalet Hakabala, ut supra. (fol. 11. 1.) Shirhalbirim Rabba, fol. 10. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The truly pious Israelites quitted their homes when Jeroboam made his religious changes, and, proceeding to Jerusalem, strengthened the kingdom of Rehoboam 2 Chronicles 10:16-17. This “old prophet” therefore, who, without being infirm in any way, had remained under Jeroboam, and was even content to dwell at Bethel - the chief seat of the new worship - was devoid of any deep and earnest religious feeling.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 13:11. An old prophet — Probably once a prophet of the Lord, who had fallen from his steadfastness, and yet not so deeply as to lose the knowledge of the true God, and join with Jeroboam in his idolatries. We find he was not at the king's sacrifice, though his sons were there; and perhaps even they were there, not as idolaters, but as spectators of what was done.