Study Desk

And he said to Jeroboam, "Take for yourself ten pieces; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: 'Behold, I am going to tear the kingdom away from the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes

because they have abandoned Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and keeping My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David did.

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

Now behold, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn incense.

Now when the king heard the statement of the man of God which he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" But his hand which he had stretched out toward him dried up, and he could not draw it back to himself.

The altar also was torn to pieces and the ashes were poured out from the altar, in accordance with the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.

And the king responded and said to the man of God, "Please appease the LORD your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me." So the man of God appeased the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him, and it became 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 gift."

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

Now an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they reported to their father.

And their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am."

and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "This is what the LORD says: 'Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you,

Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard about it, he said, "It is the man of God, who disobeyed the command of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, in accordance with the word of the LORD which He spoke to him."

So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him.

And after he had buried him, he talked to his sons, saying, "When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

"Go, say to Jeroboam, 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: "Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel,

"Then all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam's family will come to the grave, because in him something good was found toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

He walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, like the heart of his father David.

But for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem,