1And lo! a man of God came from Judah, by the word of the Lord, into Bethel, while Jeroboam stood upon the altar, casting incense.

2And he cried out against the altar, by the word of the Lord, and said, Altar! altar! the Lord saith these things, Lo! a son, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and he shall offer upon thee the priests of high things, the which burn now incense in thee, and he shall burn the bones of men upon thee.

3And he gave a sign in that day, and said, This shall be the sign that the Lord spake, Lo! the altar shall be cut, and the ash which is therein, shall be shed out.

4And when the king had heard the word of the man of God, which he had cried against the altar in Bethel, the king held forth his hand from the altar, and said, Take ye him. And his hand dried up, which he had held forth, and he might not draw it again to himself.

5Also the altar was cut, and the ash was shed out of the altar, by the sign which the man of God before-said, in the word of the Lord.

6And the king said to the man of God, Beseech thou before the face of the Lord thy God, and pray thou for me, that mine hand be restored to me. And the man of God prayed before the face of the Lord; and the hand of the king turned again to him, and it was made as it was before.

7And the king spake to the man of God, Come thou home with me, that thou eat, and I shall give gifts to thee.

8And the man of God said to the king, Though thou shalt give to me the half part of thine house, I shall not come with thee, neither I shall eat bread, neither I shall drink water in this place.

9for so it was commanded to me by the word of the Lord, commanding, Thou shalt not eat bread, neither thou shalt drink water, neither thou shalt turn again by the way by which thou camest.

10Therefore he went by another way, and turned not again by the way, by which he came into Bethel.

11Forsooth an eld [or old] prophet dwelled then in Bethel, to whom his sons came, and told to him all the works which the man of God had done in that day in Bethel; and they [also] told to their father the words which he spake to the king.

12And the father of them said to them, By what way went he? His sons showed to him the way, by which the man of God went, that came from Judah.

13And he said to his sons, Saddle ye an ass to me. And when they had saddled the ass, he ascended or went up,

14and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under a terebinth. And he said to the man of God, Whether thou art the man of God, that camest from Judah? He answered, I am.

15And he said to him, Come thou with me home, that thou eat bread.

16And he said, I may not turn again, neither come with thee, neither I shall eat bread, neither I shall drink water in this place;

17for the Lord spake to me in the word of the Lord, and said, Thou shalt not eat bread, and thou shalt not drink water there, neither thou shalt turn again by the way by which thou wentest thither.

18And he said to him, And I am a prophet like thee; and an angel spake to me by the word of the Lord, and said, Lead again him into thine house, that he eat bread, and drink water. He deceived the man of God,

19and brought him again with him. Therefore he ate bread in his house, and drank water.

20And when he sat at the table, the word of the Lord was made to the prophet ³that brought him again;

21and he cried [out] to the man of God that came from Judah, and said, The Lord saith these things, For thou obeyedest not to the mouth of the Lord, and keptest not the command-ment which thy Lord God commanded to thee,

22and thou turnedest again, and atest bread, and drankest water in the place in which I commanded to thee, that thou shouldest not eat bread, neither shouldest drink water, thy dead body shall not be borne into the sepulchre of thy fathers.

23And when he had eaten and drunk, the prophet, whom he had brought again, saddled his ass.

24And when he had gone forth, a lion found him in the way, and killed him. And his dead body was cast forth in the way; soothly the ass stood beside him, and the lion also stood beside the dead body.

25And lo! men passing saw the dead body cast forth in the way, and the lion standing beside the dead body; and they came, and published it in the city, in which the eld [or old] prophet dwelled.

26And when that prophet, that brought him again from the way, had heard this, he said, It is the man of God, that was unobedient to the mouth of God; and the Lord betook him to the lion, that hath broken him, and killed him, by the word of the Lord which he spake to him.

27And he said to his sons, Saddle ye an ass to me. And when they had saddled,

28and he had gone, he found his dead body cast forth in the way, and the ass and the lion standing beside the dead body; and the lion ate not the dead body, neither hurted the ass.

29Therefore the prophet took the dead body of the man of God, and put it on the ass; and he turned again, and brought it into the city of the eld [or old] prophet, that he should bewail him.

30And he put his dead body in his sepulchre, and they bewailed him, and said, Alas! alas! my brother!

31And when they had bewailed him, he said to his sons, When I shall be dead, bury me in the sepulchre, in which the man of God is buried; put ye my bones beside his bones.

32For soothly the word shall come, which he before-said in the word of the Lord, against the altar that is in Bethel, and against all the temples of [the] high places, which be in the cities of Samaria.

33After these words Jeroboam turned not again from his worst way, but on the contrary, of the last of the people he made priests of high places; who-ever would, [he] fulfilled his hand, and he was made [a] priest of high places.

34And for this cause the house of Jeroboam sinned, and it was destroyed, and done away from the face of the earth.