Chapter Thirteen

The story of a prophet from Judah who predicted the destruction of the Bethel altar and all the cult of calves.

1 Kings 13:1. And behold, a man of God came from Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel at the time when Jeroboam stood by the altar to offer incense. If the common people in the ten-tribe kingdom could not foresee the ruinous consequences of Jeroboam’s reform “and was even pleased that his God, Jehovah, was becoming (through calf worship) closer and more accessible to him” (see Prof. Pokrovsky, p. 326), the representatives of the Levitical priesthood responded quite differently, many of them leaving the territory of the Israelite kingdom and moving to Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chr 11:13-14). But even more direct and sharper condemnation of Jeroboam’s cult came from prophecy, both Judahite and Israelite. In (1 Kgs 14:1-16) is contained a threatening denunciation of this cult from the very prophet of the Israelite kingdom, Ahijah, who once (1 Kgs 11:29-39) predicted the kingdom to Jeroboam. Chapter XIII contains a remarkable account of a protest against Jeroboam’s cult from a certain “man of God”—a prophet from Judah 11. Josephus (Jewish Antiquities VIII, 8, 5) calls him Iadon, apparently identifying him with Iddo (2 Chr 9:29), which, however, is incorrect, for the latter prophet lived much longer afterward during the reign of Abijah (2 Chr 13:22).

1 Kings 13:2. And he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said: O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and upon you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who offer incense upon you, and human bones shall he burn upon you. “O altar, altar”—a metonymy for the entire cult, whose destruction the prophet predicts. This prophecy, in which the one who will fulfill it is named by name—King Josiah (2 Kgs 22:1)—was fulfilled with exactness more than 300 years later (2 Kgs 23:14-18). However, some understand the name Josiah in a common sense: “helped by Jehovah” (Keil), and the entire account of chapter XIII as a later reworking of folk tradition after the time of Josiah (Ewald. Geschichte III, s. 476–480).

1 Kings 13:3. And he gave a sign on that day, saying: This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be torn apart, and the ashes upon it shall be scattered. 1 Kings 13:4. When the king heard the word 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. And his hand, which he stretched out against him, became paralyzed, and he could not bring it back to himself. 1 Kings 13:5. And the altar was torn apart, and the ashes from the altar were scattered, according to the sign which the man of God gave by the word of the Lord. 1 Kings 13:6. And the king said to the man of God: Please entreat the favor of the Lord your God for me, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the favor of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it was before. The beginning of the verse in the accepted texts of the LXX and Slavonic refer to Josiah: καὶ δώσει ἐν τῆ ἡμέρα ἐκέινη τὸ τέρας, “and he shall give a wonder on that day,”—undoubtedly incorrectly (cf. v. 5); correctly in the Russian Synodal: “and [the prophet from Judah] gave a sign on that day” (in the LXX: 11, 19, 44, 52, 55, 71, 74, 92, 106, 108, 120, 121, 128, 158, 236, 242, etc., according to Holmes). “Sign” (Heb. mopheth)—not merely a miracle in general (Heb. oth), but something astonishing to those who see it. “Ashes” (Heb. deshen)—not the ash of burned wood, but the remains of meat and fat from the burning of the altar (Lev 1:16). The terrible word of the prophet about the altar was not slow to be fulfilled with literal exactness (v. 5). “But the wicked king, when he should have been filled with terror at the miracle accomplished by the prophet and feared the One who sent him, stretched out his hand and ordered the prophet seized. But his hand, from the weakening of muscles and sinews, remained as if extended” (blessed Theodoret, question 48). The sudden paralysis of Jeroboam’s hand probably occurred as a result of atrophy of the main artery of the arm (Smith. A dictionary of the Bible, vol. II, p. 304). Only through the prayer of the prophet did a new miracle occur—the healing of the king’s paralyzed hand.

1 Kings 13:7. And the king said to the man of God: Come with me to my house and refresh yourself with food, and I will give you a reward. 1 Kings 13:8. But the man of God said to the king: Even if you gave me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. 1 Kings 13:9. For thus was it commanded me by the word of the Lord: “Do not eat bread there, nor drink water there, and do not return by the way you came. 1 Kings 13:10. And he went by another way, and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. Jeroboam, wishing to reward the prophet and also to smooth over the grave impression the event made on the witnesses, invites the Judahite prophet to his house for refreshment and to receive a gift. But the prophet firmly refuses, referring to a perfectly clear and unconditional command from God—not to eat bread nor drink water (v. 9, 17) in the land of Israel, that is—since eating food with someone is a sign of friendly communion with that person (Gen 43:32; Luke 15:2; Gal 2:12; 1 Cor 1:27)—not to have any fellowship with the country and inhabitants of the ten-tribe kingdom, thereby showing that the Israelite country, having accepted the cult introduced by Jeroboam, had become abominable to God, and He forbids even the prophet to enter into any fellowship with its inhabitants: “ad detestationem idolatriae, ut ipso facto ostenderet, Bethelitas idolatras adeo esse detestabiles et a Deo quasi excommunicates, ut nullum fidelium cum iis cibi vel potus communionem habere velit” (Cornelius a lapide). The prophet was also forbidden to return by the former way, probably to avoid being recognized and detained on the return journey. This time the prophet faithfully fulfilled God’s command (v. 10), though this was later hindered by a certain prophet at Bethel (v. 11–24).

1 Kings 13:11. And there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And his son came and told him all the deeds which the man of God did that day in Bethel; and the words which he spoke to the king they also told their father. 1 Kings 13:12. And their father asked them: Which way did he go? And his sons showed him the way the man of God from Judah had gone. 1 Kings 13:13. And he said to his sons: Saddle me the donkey. And they saddled him a donkey, and he mounted it. Regarding the character and worth of the prophet at Bethel (called throughout the text by the name nabi, “prophet,” while the Judahite is always called “man of God,” ish ha-elohim, which according to blessed Theodoret (ibid.), is given only to those who have achieved perfect virtue, such as Moses and Elijah, or who were like them), the Jewish tradition gave unfavorable opinions. The Targum calls him a false prophet or lying prophet. The Talmudists even consider the Bethel prophet to be a prophet of Baal, who received revelation only at the moment of eating food from the Judahite prophet (v. 20) precisely for his hospitality toward the latter. Josephus (Jewish Antiquities VIII, 9, 1) also considers the old prophet at Bethel to be a false prophet who usually flattered Jeroboam and in the Judahite prophet saw a rival whom he decided to destroy. But the biblical text nowhere represents the prophet at Bethel as a false prophet. “I believe,” says blessed Theodoret (ibid.), “that the other (i.e., the Bethel prophet) was also God’s prophet; he used false words not to harm the man of God, but to receive a blessing from him himself... And that he was a prophet and not a false prophet is evident from the fact that through him God predicted future calamity to the man of God; besides, he believed what was predicted about this, and commanded his sons that when he died, they bury him in the tomb of the man of God” (question 43).

1 Kings 13:14. And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak tree, and said to him: Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said: I am. Having learned from his sons about the Judahite prophet, his prediction and deeds at Bethel, the Bethel prophet set out after him and found him sitting under an oak tree (LXX: ὑπὸ δρῦν),—Heb. ela—properly a terebinth (Vulg: terebinthus)—“resembling an oak, a tree with evergreen leaves and cluster-like fruit, reaching considerable height, and thus serving for topographical determinations: (Gen 35:4; Judg 6:11; 1 Sam 17:2)” (Gesenius). Here is mentioned a well-known terebinth at Bethel (ha-ela—with the article), perhaps identical with the one under which was buried Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah (Gen 5:8).

1 Kings 13:15. And he said to him: Come with me to my house and eat bread. 1 Kings 13:16. That man said: I cannot return with you, nor will I go to your house; I will not eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 1 Kings 13:17. For by the word of the Lord it was said to me: “Do not eat bread there, nor drink water there, nor return by the way you came. 1 Kings 13:18. And he said to him: I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying: “Bring him back with you to your house; let him eat bread and drink water.”—He lied to him. When to the request of the prophet at Bethel to come to his house to take food (v. 15) the Judahite prophet responds with a refusal, repeating what he had said to Jeroboam (16–17, cf. 9), the prophet at Bethel motivates his invitation thus: “and I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord and said: Bring him back with you to your house” (v. 18); if the claim that he is a prophet corresponds to the truth and is confirmed later by the revelation he received (v. 20–22), then the reference to a command to bring the prophet back is a lie, though used without evil intent. But here, as throughout the account, characteristically for the biblical view of revelation is the expression “the word of Jehovah” (v. 1, 9, 17–18), as a designation and personification of the divinely acting power, as a foreshadowing of the New Testament Logos; on the other hand, notable is the mediating role of the angel in revelation (v. 18): this idea appears more than once in the Old Testament—in the prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah (see in the dissertation of A. Glagolev, The Old Testament biblical teaching on angels, Kiev, 1900, pp. 305–404).

1 Kings 13:20. While they were still sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back. 1 Kings 13:21. And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying: Thus says the Lord: Because you have not obeyed the mouth of the Lord and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, 1 Kings 13:22. But you returned, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which he said to you: “Do not eat bread, nor drink water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers. The disobedience of the Judahite prophet, by God’s judgment, must certainly have momentous consequences for the contemporary and future fortunes of God’s kingdom; it was to be punished heavily, especially according to ancient Hebrew views on the afterlife as communion with the patriarchs (Gen 47:29-30; 2 Sam 19:37; 1 Kgs 2:34; Jer 26:23), deprived of burial in the tomb of his fathers.

1 Kings 13:23. After he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. 1 Kings 13:24. And as he went on his way, a lion met him and slew him. And his body lay in the way, cast there; and the donkey stood beside him, and the lion stood beside the body. 1 Kings 13:25. And behold, men who passed by saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing beside the body, and they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. 1 Kings 13:26. The prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it and said: It is the man of God who disobeyed the mouth of the Lord; therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has broken him and slain him, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to him. The tragic end of the Judahite prophet—a manifest judgment of God (cf. the punishment of the new inhabitants of the Israelite land by lions) (2 Kgs 17:25; Lev 26:22). By the extraordinary death of his messenger, the Lord showed that he demands special zeal and exactness from his chosen ones in the fulfillment of his commands. Blessed Theodoret says: “From this we learn that the strong shall be more severely judged (Wis 6:6). Whoever hears the voice of God should not trust the voice of man asserting something contrary, but should wait until the One who commanded releases him from what he commanded. I think that this punishment was established to confirm the prediction concerning the altar. For it is impossible that the account of such a man be hidden; and it was sufficient to inspire fear in those who heard it.” On the other hand, “God honored the prophet even after his death, for he stationed his killer as a guard over him” (question 43).

1 Kings 13:27. And he said to his sons: Saddle me the donkey. And they saddled it for him. 1 Kings 13:28. And he went and found his body cast in the way; and the donkey and the lion stood beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body nor broken the donkey. 1 Kings 13:29. And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it upon the donkey, and brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. 1 Kings 13:30. And he laid his body in his own tomb and mourned for him, saying: Alas, my brother! 1 Kings 13:31. After burying him, he said to his sons: When I am dead, bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 1 Kings 13:32. For the word shall surely be fulfilled which he pronounced by the command of the Lord concerning the altar in Bethel, and concerning all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The rendering of the last rites to the fallen Judahite prophet by the prophet at Bethel was his tribute of respect and, perhaps, bitter repentance; moreover, the testament of the Bethel prophet about his own burial in one tomb with the Judahite prophet, besides bearing witness to his deep faith in the truth of the prophetic word, was intended to prevent the desecration of his own remains during the coming reform of Josiah: the addition found in the LXX and Slavonic texts (v. 31—end): ἵνα σωθῶσι τὰ ὀστᾶ μου μετὰ τῶν ὀστῶν αὐτοῦ, Slavonic: “that my bones may be saved with his bones”—an explanatory remark which could have been in the original text (cf. 2 Kgs 23:16-18).—“Alas, my brother!” (v. 30)—the usual ancient Hebrew formula for mourning dead relatives and friends (cf. Jer 22:18). The mention of Samaria as a whole region (v. 32) by the Bethel prophet was used by the author proleptically: Samaria was built fifty years after Jeroboam I—by Omri (1 Kgs 16:24).

1 Kings 13:33. And after these things Jeroboam did not depart from his evil way, but continued to make priests of the high places from all the people; whoever wished, he consecrated, and he became a priest of the high places. 1 Kings 13:34. And this thing became the sin of the house of Jeroboam, to cut it off and destroy it from the face of the earth. Both the mission of the Judahite prophet (v. 1–10) and his tragic death and burial (v. 11–32) were intended to turn Jeroboam from the path he had chosen, in willfully altering the mode of worship, but this aim was not achieved 12: Jeroboam continued his activity that was displeasing to God, for example in the matter of extending universal priesthood (v. 33), cf. (1 Kgs 12:31; 2 Chr 11:15): “whoever wished, he consecrated” (from Heb.: “filled his hand,” Slavonic: “he filled his hand”, cf. (Exod 28:41); blessed Theodoret, question 44). * * * These two denunciations of the cult of calves from the Israelite prophet Ahijah and the Judahite “man of God” complement each other in the same way that later denunciations did: of the prophet Hosea—an Israelite (Hos 8:4-5 and others) and the prophet Amos—a Judahite (Amos 4:4) According to Josephus (Jewish Antiquities VIII, 9), the prophet at Bethel himself undermined the beneficent effect of the terrible denunciation of the Judahite prophet on Jeroboam, namely by explaining to him the terrible signs: the paralysis of the king’s hand and the splitting of the altar as natural occurrences, and generally undermined Jeroboam’s confidence in the Judahite prophet. But this equally contradicts both (1 Kgs 13:26-32) and (2 Kgs 23:18)