Two Kingdoms · c. 930–913 BC
Chapter 2
The Man of God from Judah
He cried against the altar by Yahweh’s word, and said, “Altar! Altar! Yahweh says: ‘Behold, a son will be born to David’s house, Josiah by name. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and they will burn men’s bones on you.’”
For parents
A man of God cries out that one day priests will be sacrificed and bones burned on the altar at Bethel (1 Kings 13:2). Later an old prophet lies to him, and a lion kills him on the road and stands beside his body (13:11–32). A prophet warns that dogs and birds will eat Jeroboam’s family, and Jeroboam’s sick son dies (14:10–18). One sentence mentions male prostitutes at the shrines in Judah (14:24); nothing is told in detail.
The Lord sent a from to . King was standing at the to burn .
At the Lord’s command, the man cried out against the altar. “Altar! Altar!” he said. “The Lord says: ‘A son will be born into David’s family. His name will be . He will sacrifice the of the on you, the ones who burn incense on you, and they will burn people’s bones on you.’”
That same day he gave a sign. “Here is the sign the Lord has spoken of: the altar will split open, and the ashes on it will spill out.”
Jeroboam heard the man of God crying out against the altar. He reached out his hand from beside the altar. “Seize him!” he cried. But the hand he reached out against the man dried up, and he couldn’t pull it back to his side.
The altar split open too, and its ashes spilled out. It was the very sign the Lord had given through the man of God.
“Please ask the Lord your God to be kind to me,” the king said to the man of God. “Pray for me, so that I can have my hand back.” The man of God prayed for him, and the king got his hand back, just as it had been before.
“Come home with me and rest,” the king told him, “and I will give you a reward.”
But the man of God answered, “Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn’t go in with you. I won’t eat bread or drink water here. The Lord gave me this command: ‘Eat no bread, drink no water, and don’t go back by the road you came on.’”
So he left by a different road, not the one he had taken to Bethel.
An old lived in Bethel, and one of his sons came and told him everything the man of God had done in the town that day. The sons also told their father what the man of God had said to the king.
“Which way did he go?” their father asked. His sons had seen which way the man from Judah had gone.
“Saddle the donkey for me,” he told his sons. They saddled it, and he rode off.
He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak. “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” he asked.
“I am,” he answered.
“Come home with me and eat,” the old prophet said.
“I can’t go back with you or go into your house,” the man of God said. “I won’t eat bread or drink water with you here. The Lord told me, ‘Don’t eat bread or drink water there, and don’t go back by the road you came on.’”
The old man answered, “I’m a prophet too, just like you. An brought me a word from the Lord. He said, ‘Bring him back home with you, so he can eat bread and drink water.’” He lied to him.
So the man from Judah went back with him and ate bread and drank water in his house.
As they sat at the table, the Lord spoke to the old prophet who had talked him into coming back. Then he cried out to the man from Judah, “The Lord says: ‘You have disobeyed the Lord’s word. You have not done what the Lord your God commanded you. Instead you turned back and had bread and water here, in the place where he told you, “Eat no bread and drink no water.” So your body will not be laid in your ancestors’ tomb.’”
When the man from Judah had eaten and drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for him. The man of God set off, and a lion met him along the way and killed him. His body lay thrown on the path, and the donkey stood by it. The lion stood by the body too.
Some men passing by saw the body thrown on the path, with the lion standing by it. They came and spread the word in the city where the old prophet lived.
The old prophet who had talked him into turning back heard about it. “That is the man of God who disobeyed the Lord’s word,” he said. “That is why the Lord handed him over to the lion. It attacked him and killed him, just as the Lord had told him.”
“Saddle the donkey for me,” he told his sons, and they did. He went and found the body thrown on the path, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body. The lion had not eaten the body, and it had not hurt the donkey.
The old prophet lifted the body of the man of God onto the donkey and brought it back. He came to his own city to mourn him and bury him. He laid the man’s body in his own grave, and they mourned over him and cried, “Oh, my brother!”
After the old prophet had buried him, he told his sons, “When I am dead, bury me in the same tomb as the man of God. Lay my bones beside his bones. He cried out the Lord’s message against the altar in Bethel, and against all the high-place shrines in the cities of . What he said will surely happen.”
After this, Jeroboam still did not turn from his evil way. Again he made priests for the high places from any of the people. He made a priest of anyone who wanted to be one. This became the sin of Jeroboam’s family. Because of it, his family would be cut off and wiped from the face of the earth.
Around that time, Jeroboam’s son fell sick.
Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself, so no one will know you are my wife. Then go to . the prophet is there. He is the one who said I would be king over this people. Take along ten loaves of bread, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child.”
Jeroboam’s wife did as he said. She set off for Shiloh and came to Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see. Old age had taken his sight.
But the Lord had spoken to Ahijah: “Jeroboam’s wife is on her way to ask you about her son, who is sick. Tell her such and such. When she comes in, she will pretend to be another woman.”
So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in at the door, he said, “Come in, Jeroboam’s wife! Why do you pretend to be another woman? I am sent to you with heavy news.”
“Go and tell Jeroboam,” Ahijah said, “‘The Lord, the God of , says: I lifted you up out of the people and made you the leader of my people Israel. I tore the kingdom from David’s family and gave it to you. Yet you have not been like David, my servant. He kept my commandments and followed me with his whole heart, and did only what was right in my eyes. Instead, you have done more evil than anyone before you. You have gone and made yourself other gods, idols cast from metal, to make me angry, and you have turned your back on me.
“‘So I am going to bring harm on Jeroboam’s family. I will cut off every male in Israel who belongs to Jeroboam, whether he is shut away or free. I will sweep Jeroboam’s family away, the way a man sweeps out dung, until none of it is left. Dogs will eat those of Jeroboam’s family who die in the city, and birds will eat those who die out in the fields. The Lord has said it.’
“As for you, get up and go home. The moment you step into the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. Of all Jeroboam’s family, he is the only one who will be laid in a grave. That is because, in Jeroboam’s family, something good toward the Lord, the God of Israel, has been found in him.
“The Lord will raise up a king of his own over Israel, and that king will cut off Jeroboam’s family. This is the day! What? Even now. The Lord will strike Israel, and it will sway like a reed shaken in the water. He will pull Israel up by the roots out of this good land he gave their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the River, the , because they have made their and made the Lord angry. He will give Israel up because of Jeroboam’s sins, the sins he committed and made Israel commit.”
Jeroboam’s wife got up and left, and came to . As she came to the doorway of the house, the boy died.
All Israel buried him and mourned for him, just as the Lord had said through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
The rest of what Jeroboam did, how he fought and how he reigned, is written in the records of the kings of Israel. Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years. Then he died and joined his ancestors, and his son reigned in his place.
In Judah, ’s son was king. He became king at forty-one, and he reigned seventeen years in . The Lord had chosen that city out of all the of Israel to put his name there. His mother was the .
2 Chronicles says that once Rehoboam’s kingdom stood firm and he had grown strong, he abandoned the Lord’s law, and all Israel with him.
Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s eyes. The sins they committed made him jealous, more than anything their ancestors had done. They too built themselves high places, stone pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
There were also in the land. The people did all the same horrible things as the nations the Lord had driven out ahead of Israel.
In Rehoboam’s fifth year as king, king of marched against Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles says he came because the people had sinned against the Lord. He brought twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and more people came with him out of Egypt than anyone could count: the Lubim, the Sukkiim and the . He took the walled cities of Judah and came on to Jerusalem.
Now the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the officials of Judah. They had gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak. Shemaiah told them, “The Lord says, ‘You have left me, so I have left you in Shishak’s hands.’”
Then the officials of Israel and the king humbled themselves. “The Lord does what is right,” they said.
When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, he spoke to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them. I will rescue them, at least in part, and my anger will not pour out on Jerusalem through Shishak. But they will be his servants. Then they will know what serving me is like, and what serving the kingdoms of other countries is like.”
So Shishak king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem and carried away the treasures of the Lord’s house and of the king’s palace. He took it all, even all the gold shields Solomon had made.
King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and handed them over to the captains of the guard, who kept watch at the door of the king’s palace. Every time the king went into the Lord’s house, the guards carried the shields, then brought them back to the guardroom.
2 Chronicles says that when Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord turned his anger away from him and did not wipe him out altogether. There were good things in Judah, too. So Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and reigned there. But he did evil, because he did not set his heart on seeking the Lord.
The rest of what Rehoboam did is written in the records of the kings of Judah. 2 Chronicles says that all of it, from first to last, is written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of the , among the family records. Rehoboam and Jeroboam were at war the whole time.
Rehoboam died and joined his ancestors, and he was buried with them in . His mother was Naamah the Ammonite. his son reigned in his place; 2 Chronicles calls him Abijah.