Study Desk

And he said to Jeroboam: Take to thee ten pieces: for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give thee ten tribes.

Because he hath forsaken me, and hath adored Astarthe, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Chamos, the god of Moab, and Moloch, the god of the children of Ammon: and hath not walked in my ways, to do justice before me, and to keep my precepts, and judgments, as did David, his father.

But the word of the Lord came to Semeias, the man of God, saying:

And behold there came a man of God out of Juda, by the word of the Lord, to Bethel, when Jeroboam was standing upon the altar, and burning incense.

And when the king had heard the word of the man of God, which he had cried out against the altar in Bethel, he stretched forth his hand from the altar, saying: Lay hold on him. And his hand which he stretched forth against him, withered: and he was not able to draw it back again to him.

The altar also was rent, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given before in the word of the Lord.

And the king said to the man of God: Entreat the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God besought the face of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.

And the king said to the man of God: Come home with me to dine, and I will make thee presents.

And the man of God answered the king: If thou wouldst give me half thy house, I will not go with thee, nor eat bread, nor drink water in this place:

Now a certain old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came to him, and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel: and they told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.

And their father said to them: What way went he? His sons shewed him the way by which the man of God went, who came out of Juda.

And went after the man of God, and found him sitting under a turpentine tree: and he said to him: Art thou the man of God who camest from Juda? He answered: I am.

And he cried out to the man of God who came out of Juda, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast not been obedient to the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commanded thee,

And when that prophet, who had brought him back out of the way, heard of it, he said: It is the man of God, that was disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, and the Lord hath delivered him to the lion, and he hath torn him, and killed him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to him.

And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and going back brought it into the city of the old prophet, to mourn for him.

And when they had mourned over him, he said to his sons: When I am dead, bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried: lay my bones beside his bones.

Go, and tell Jeroboam: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: For as much as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel;

And all Israel shall mourn for him, and shall bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall be laid in a sepulchre, because in his regard there is found a good word from the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

And the Lord God shall strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water: and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river: because they have made to themselves groves, to provoke the Lord.

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David, his father.