A man of God judges the altar at Bethel
1When Jeroboam went to stand at the altar to sacrifice, a man of God from Bethel came to them. The Lord sent the man of God from the land_of_Judah. Jeroboam stood at the altar to sacrifice, 2and the man of God started to talk to the altar. He told the altar what the Lord told him. He said: ‘O altar, altar, the Lord says: “Listen to what I say: A son will be born in the family of David. His name will be Josiah. He will burn and sacrifice the priests of this place_of_sacrifice who burn incense-offerings on you. They will burn the bones of people on you.” ’
3On that day the man of God also said: ‘The Lord will give this sign: This altar will burst open and the ashes will fall onto the ground.’
4King Jeroboam was standing at the altar and when he heard what the man of God said about the altar in Bethel, he put out his hand and pointed at the man of God and he said: ‘Grab him.’
But the hand that he put out could not come down again, and his arm became stiff. 5Then the altar burst open and the ashes fell onto the ground. It was the sign from the Lord as the man of God had said. 6The king asked the man of God: ‘Please talk to the Lord your God and pray for me and ask Him to heal my arm.’ The man of God did it and the king's arm was right again. It was the same as it had been before. 7The king said to the man of God: ‘Come home with me and eat some food. I want to give you a gift.’
8But the man of God said to the king: ‘I will not come with you, not even if you give me half of your kingdom. I will not eat or drink in this place 9because the Lord told me: “Do not eat or drink there and do not take the same road when you go back home.” ’ 10Then the man of God went home by another road. He did not go back the same way as he had come to Bethel.
The man of God dies
11There was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came home and told him what the man of God had done in Bethel and what he had said to the king. 12The old prophet asked his sons: ‘Which way did he go?’ And his sons showed him because they had seen what way the man of God went. 13The old prophet told his sons to get his donkey and to put a saddle on it, and then he got onto the donkey 14and he rode and started to look for the man of God. He found the man of God sitting under a big tree. The old prophet asked him: ‘Are you the man of God who came from Judah?’ The man of God said: ‘Yes, I am.’ 15The old prophet said to him: ‘Come home with me and eat some food.’ 16The man of God told the old prophet: ‘No, I may not go back with you to your home. I may not eat or drink in this place 17because the Lord said to me: “Do not eat or drink in this place and do not go back on the road that you came by.” ’
18The old prophet said to the man of God: ‘I am also a prophet like you. An angel gave me a message from the Lord and he said: “You must bring the man of God to your house and you must give him food to eat and water to drink.” ’ But the old prophet lied to the man of God. 19Then the man of God went with the old prophet to his home and he had something to eat and to drink with him.
20While they sat at the table, the Lord talked to the old prophet who had told the man of God to come to his home. 21The old prophet talked to the man of God who came from Judah. He shouted and said: ‘The Lord said you did not listen to Him. You did not do what He told you. 22He said you must not come back and eat and drink in this place, but you came back. You did what He said you must not do. That is why they will not bury you in the tomb of your forefathers.’
23After the man of God had finished eating, the old prophet who had told him to come back put a saddle on his donkey. 24The man of God went away and on his way a lion came and killed him. The man's body lay on the road, and the donkey and the lion stood next to his body. 25Some people walked by and they saw that the body of the man of God was lying on the road and that the lion was standing next to the body. They went and told it to the people in the town where the old prophet lived. 26The old prophet who had told the man of God to come back heard people talking about it and he said: ‘It is the man of God who did not listen to the Lord. The Lord sent the lion to attack and kill him. It happened as the Lord told him.’
27The old prophet told his sons to put a saddle on his donkey and they did it. 28He went and he found the body of the man of God where it lay on the road. The donkey and the lion were still standing next to the body of the man of God. The lion had not eaten the body and it had not killed the donkey. 29The old prophet took the body of the man of God and he put it on his donkey. He took the body back to his town to mourn for the man of God and to bury him. 30He put the body in his own grave and he mourned for him and said: ‘Oh, my brother, I am sad.’
31After he had buried the man of God, the prophet said to his sons: ‘When I die, you must bury me in this grave where I have buried the man of God. You must put my body next to his body 32because the Lord sent him and everything will happen that he said against the altar in Bethel and against all the places_of_sacrifice in the towns of Samaria, this is sure.’
33After this, Jeroboam did not stop doing the bad things that he was doing. He continued to choose priests from other tribes, and not from the Levi tribe. Anyone who wanted to become a priest could be a priest at the altars that he had built. 34This was the sin that Jeroboam and his family did, and that is why there is not one of his family that is still a king.
