Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Come home with me - and I will give thee a reward - Come and be one of my priests, and I will give thee a proper salary.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

I will give thee a reward - It was customary to honor a prophet with a gift, if he performed any service that was requested at his hands (see the marginal references).

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And the king said unto the man of God, come home with me, and refresh thyself,.... By eating a meal with him, after such a journey he had taken, and delivered his prophecies, and put up his prayers for the king:

and I will give thee a reward; for his prayers, by means of which his hand was restored to him; but takes no notice of the Lord, the author of this miraculous cure, nor expresses the least degree of thankfulness and gratitude to him.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

1 Kings 13:7 And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

Ver. 7. And I will give thee a reward.] He could do anything sooner than repent; [Romans 2:5] his face he had made harder than any rock, he refused to return. [Jeremiah 5:3]

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Horrid stupidity! He desires to requite the instrument, but takes no notice of the chief cause and author of this great and wonderful mercy, which was God.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

7.Come home with me — He tempts him with three things: royal hospitality, refreshment, and reward. How much these offers influenced the future action of the prophet can only be imperfectly conjectured.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

The king said ... Come home with me, and refresh thyself. Jeroboam was artful, invited the prophet to the royal table, not to do him honour, or show his gratitude for the restoration of his hand, but to win, by his courtesy and liberal hospitality, a person whom he could not crush by his power. But the prophet informed him of a divine injunction, expressly prohibiting him from all social contact with any in the place, as well as from returning the same way. The prohibition not to eat or drink in Beth-el was because all the people had become apostates from the true religion; and had he done so, he could not have prophesied against the place, after having eaten with the people, without violating all the existing laws of hospitality (see the notes at Joshua 9:14). The reason of his not being allowed to return the same way was lest he should be recognized by any whom he had seen in going, and be detained by them to discuss the nature and results of his mission, or be ill-treated by any of the inhabitants for his denunciations against their altar.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Come home with me . . .—The invitation may have been in part the mark of some impression made on the king, and an impulse of gratitude for the restoration of his withered hand. Such was the request of Naaman to Elisha (2 Kings 5:15), though even this was emphatically refused. But it still savours of astute policy in Jeroboam: for the acceptance of hospitality and reward would in the eyes of the people imply a condonation of the idolatrous worship, which might well destroy or extenuate the impression made by the prophet’s prediction. It indicates also—what experience of such men as “the old prophet” would have produced—a low idea of prophetic character and mission, not unlike that which is shown in Balak’s treatment of Balaam. That such conceptions are perfectly compatible with a certain belief in the reality of a supernatural power in the prophet—although they, of course, derogate from its true sacredness—the monstrous request of Simon Magus (in Acts 8:19) shows with the most startling clearness. It was evidently to provide against these things—as fatal to the effectiveness of the prophet’s mission—that the prohibition of 1 Kings 13:9 was given; nor could its general purpose have been easily misunderstood, either by the king or by the prophet himself. It is a curious coincidence that in his refusal he uses words strangely like the reluctant refusal of Balak’s offer by Balaam (Numbers 22:18). The very strength of the language is suspicious.

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

refresh

Genesis 18:5; Judges 13:15; 19:21

I will give

As great men in the East make no presents to equals or inferiors when visited, Sir John Chardin thinks that the king intended by this to treat the prophet as his superior.

1 Samuel 9:7,8; 2 Kings 5:15; Jeremiah 40:5; Malachi 1:10; Acts 8:18-20; 1 Peter 5:2