Study Desk

and said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.

For they have forsaken Me to worship Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in My ways, nor done what is right in My eyes, nor kept My statutes and judgments, as Solomon's father David did.

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

Suddenly, as Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD.

That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, "This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: 'Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.'"

Now when King Jeroboam, who was at the altar in Bethel, heard the word that the man of God had cried out against it, he stretched out his hand and said, "Seize him!" But the hand he stretched out toward him withered, so that he could not pull it back.

And the altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out, 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, "Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored." So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him as it was before.

Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward."

But the man of God replied, "If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.

So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

Now 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.

"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.

and 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.

Then the prophet said to the man of God, "Come home with me and eat some bread."

but the man of God went back with him, ate bread 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 have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God gave you,

And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.

When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard this, he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to him."

So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.