Jeroboam’s Hand Withers (2 Kings 23:4–20; 2 Chronicles 34:3–7)
1 UST Yahweh commanded a prophet to go from where he lived in the kingdom of Judah to the city of Bethel{, and the prophet obeyed him}. He arrived there right at the time when Jeroboam was standing at the altar, ready to burn incense. BSB BSB: 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.
2 UST Saying what Yahweh told him to say, the prophet shouted,“This is what Yahweh says about this altar!‘I want you to know that someday King David will have a descendant whose name will be Josiah. He will come to this altar and slaughter the priests who burn incense{ while offering sacrifices} at this shrine. He will burn the bones of dead people on this altar.’” BSB BSB: And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”
3 UST Then the prophet told them how they would know that what he had said was true. He said,“Yahweh has announced that he is going to make something happen so that you will know that what he has said is true. This altar will split apart, and the ashes that are on it will fall onto the ground.” BSB BSB: That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “The LORD has spoken this sign: ‘Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.’”
4 UST When King Jeroboam heard what the prophet said about the altar at Bethel, at which he was standing, he pointed his finger at him and told his servants,“Seize that man!” But immediately his arm stuck in that position, and he could not lower it. BSB BSB: 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.
5 UST Then the altar split apart, and the ashes that were on it spilled out on the ground. That is exactly what the prophet had said that Yahweh had announced would happen. BSB BSB: 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.
6 UST Then the king said to the prophet,“Please pray that Yahweh will be merciful to me and heal my arm!” So the prophet prayed, and Yahweh healed the king’ s arm so that he could move it again. BSB BSB: Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me 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.
7 UST Then the king said to the prophet,“Come with me to my house and I will serve you a meal. I will also give you a reward for what you have done!” BSB BSB: Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
8 UST But the prophet replied,“Even if you gave me half of what you owned, I would not go with you, and I would not eat or drink anything here. BSB BSB: 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.
9 UST When Yahweh spoke to me, he commanded me not to eat or drink anything here, so I will not do that. He also commanded me to go home by traveling on a different road than the one I traveled on to come here.” BSB BSB: For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’”
10 UST Then the prophet started to return home. He walked on a different road than the one on which he had walked to come to Bethel. BSB BSB: So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
The Old Prophet and the Man of God 11 UST At that time there was an old man living in Bethel who was a prophet himself. His sons came and told him what the prophet from Judah had done there on that day. They also told him what the prophet had said to the king. BSB BSB: 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.
12 UST Their father asked,“On what road did he leave to return home?” His sons had seen what road the prophet from Judah had started walking on{, so they told him which road it was}. BSB BSB: “Which way did he go?” their father asked. And his sons showed him the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah.
13 UST Then he said to his sons,“Get a donkey ready for me to ride.” So they did that, and he got onto that donkey. BSB BSB: So the prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” Then they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it
14 UST He went along the road to find the prophet from Judah. He found him sitting{ to rest} under the large oak tree that was in that area. The old man asked him,“Are you the prophet who came from Judah?” He replied,“Yes, I am.” BSB BSB: 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.
15 UST The old man said to him,“Please come home with me so that I can serve you a meal.” BSB BSB: So the prophet said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some bread.”
16 UST He replied,“No, I cannot accept your invitation to go with you to your house. I can not eat or drink anything with you here. BSB BSB: But the man replied, “I cannot go home with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
17 UST I must refuse because Yahweh told me,‘Do not eat or drink anything there, and do not return home on the road on which you traveled to Bethel.’” BSB BSB: For I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”
18 UST Then the old man said to him,“I also am a prophet, just as you are. Yahweh sent an angel to tell me that I should bring you home with me and serve you a meal.”(But the old prophet was lying when he said that.) BSB BSB: Then the prophet replied, “I too 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, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet was lying to him,
19 UST So the prophet from Judah returned with the old man to his home, and he ate a meal with him there. BSB BSB: but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.
20 UST While they were sitting at the table, Yahweh gave the old prophet a message to speak the prophet from Judah. BSB BSB: While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back,
21 UST Then the man shouted to the prophet,“This is what Yahweh says to you.‘You have not done what I commanded you to do, and so you have disobeyed the instructions I gave you! BSB BSB: 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,
22 UST Instead, you have come back to this house and eaten a meal, even though I commanded you not to eat anything there. As a result, you will die, and people will not bury your body in the same place where people buried your ancestors.’” BSB BSB: but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’”
23 UST When they had finished eating, the old man had his sons get his donkey ready so that the prophet from Judah could ride on it{, and the prophet left}. BSB BSB: And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.
24 UST But as he was going, a lion met him and killed him. It left the prophet’ s body lying on the road. The donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside it. BSB BSB: As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.
25 UST When some men who were walking along that road came to that place, they were surprised to see the prophet’ s body on the road and the lion standing next to it. So they went into the city of Bethel, where the old man lived, and they reported what they had seen. BSB BSB: And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 UST When the old man who had brought the prophet from Judah to his home heard what had happened, he said,“The man whom the lion killed is the prophet who disobeyed the instructions that Yahweh gave him. Yahweh allowed the lion to attack him and kill him. That is exactly what Yahweh said would happen in the message he gave me for him!” BSB BSB: 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.”
27 UST Then he told his sons,“Get another donkey ready for me to ride.” So they did that. BSB BSB: Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it,
28 UST Then the old man rode on that donkey along the road on which the prophet had started to return to Judah. He came to the place where the prophet’ s body had fallen on the road. He saw his other donkey and the lion standing there next to the man’ s body. But the lion had not eaten any of the prophet’ s flesh, and it had not attacked the donkey. BSB BSB: and he went and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey.
29 UST The old man picked up the body of the prophet and put it on his donkey. He brought it back to Bethel so that he could mourn for him and bury his body. BSB BSB: 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.
30 UST He buried the prophet’ s body in the grave where people had buried other members of his family. Then he and other people who lived in the city mourned for him. They said,“We are so sorry that our fellow Israelite has died!” BSB BSB: Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they lamented over him, “Oh, my brother!”
31 UST After they had buried him, the old man told his sons,“When I die, I want you to bury me in this grave where we have just buried the prophet from Judah. Put my body next to his. BSB BSB: After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones,
32 UST I want you to bury me in this grave because I am confident that the things Yahweh told this man to say about the altar here in Bethel will happen. What he said about the shrines on the tops of hills here in this kingdom will also surely happen.” BSB BSB: for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”
33 UST But even after these things happened, King Jeroboam did not stop doing the evil things that he had been doing. Instead, he appointed as priests even more men who were not descendants of Levi. He appointed anyone who wanted to be a priest, and as a result, he had many priests who served at the shrines that he had his workers build on the tops of hills. BSB BSB: Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places.
34 UST When Jeroboam did these evil things, he sinned against Yahweh. As a result, Yahweh did not allow his descendants to become kings of Israel. Instead, he allowed someone to kill all of Jeroboam’ s living descendants. BSB BSB: And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.
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