Study Desk

But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God:

A man of God came, however, from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense.

The man of God cried out against the altar by the word of 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.’”

When the king heard the message 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.

The 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.

Then 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.

Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.”

But 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 food or drink water in this place,

Now 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.

Then their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen the way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah.

He 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?”

and the man of God went back with him, ate food in his house, and drank water.

and 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 Lord’s command and did not keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you—

When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the Lord’s command. 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.”

So 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 to bury him.

After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones,

Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over my people Israel,

All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be given a proper burial because out of the house of Jeroboam something favorable to the Lord God of Israel was found in him.

Abijam walked in all the sins his father before him had committed, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God as his ancestor David had been.

But for the sake of David, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up his son after him and by preserving Jerusalem.