1 Kings 13:20

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

the word of the Lord: "A great clamour," says Dr. Kennicott, "has been raised against this part of history, on account of God's denouncing sentence on the true prophet by the mouth of the false prophet; but if we examine with attention the original words here, they will be found to signify either he who brought him back, or, whom he had brought back; for the very same words, asher heshivo, occur again, 1 Kings 13:23, where they are now translated, whom he had brought back; and where they cannot be translated otherwise. This being the case, we are at liberty to consider the words of the Lord as delivered to the true prophet, thus brought back; and then the sentence is pronounced by God himself, calling to him out of heaven, as in Genesis 22:11. And that this doom was thus pronounced by God, not by the false prophet, we are assured in 1 Kings 13:26. The Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, according to the word of the Lord, which He spake unto him.' Josephus - and also the Arabic asserts, that the sentence was declared by God to the true prophet." Numbers 23:5, Numbers 23:16, Numbers 24:4, Numbers 24:16-24, Matthew 7:22, John 11:51, 1 Corinthians 13:2

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 13:11 - an old prophet 1 Kings 14:6 - for I am Jeremiah 1:2 - the word

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And it came to pass, as they sat at the table,.... The old prophet, with his sons, and the man of God; the Arabic version adds, "and did eat", there being a pause in the Hebrew text, as if something was wanting, and to be understood and supplied:

that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back; that is, to the old prophet, who was the means of bringing back the man of God; the word did not come to him who had transgressed the command of the Lord, but to him who was the occasion of it; though Abarbinel is of opinion that the word came to the latter, and so some versions, both ancient and modern, render the clause, "to the prophet whom he had brought back" f and which is countenanced by what is said, 1 Kings 13:26,

according to the word of the Lord which he spoke unto him: but the former sense best agrees with what follows.

f Syr. Ar. Junius & Tremellius.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 13:20. The word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back — "A great clamour," says Dr. Kennicott, "has been raised against this part of the history, on account of God's denouncing sentence on the true prophet by the mouth of the false prophet: but if we examine with attention the original words here, they will be found to signify either he who brought him back; or, whom he had brought back; for the very same words, אשר השיבו asher heshibo, occur again in 1 Kings 13:23, where they are now translated, whom he had brought back; and where they cannot be translated otherwise. This being the case, we are at liberty to consider the word of the Lord as delivered to the true prophet thus brought back; and then the sentence is pronounced by GOD himself, calling to him out of heaven, as in Genesis 22:11. And that this doom was thus pronounced by God, not by the false prophet, we are assured in 1 Kings 13:26: 'The Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, according to the word of the Lord which HE spake unto him.' Josephus expressly asserts that the sentence was declared by God to the true prophet." The Arabic asserts the same.