The Man of God from Judah and the False Prophet (I Kings 13)

(1) Now a man of God arrived at Bethel from Judah at the command of the LORD. While Jeroboam was standing on the altar to present the offering, the man of God, at the command of the LORD, cried out against the altar: (2) “O altar, altar! Thus said the LORD: A son shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name; and he shall slaughter upon you the priests of the shrines who bring offerings upon you. And human bones shall be burned upon you.” (3) He gave a portent on that day, saying, “Here is the portent that the LORD has decreed: This altar shall break apart, and the ashes on it shall be spilled.” (4) When the king heard what the man of God had proclaimed against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his arm above the altar and cried, “Seize him!” But the arm that he stretched out against him became rigid, and he could not draw it back. (5) The altar broke apart and its ashes were spilled—the very portent that the man of God had announced at the LORD’s command. (6) Then the king spoke up and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the LORD your God and pray for me that I may be able to draw back my arm.” The man of God entreated the LORD and the king was able to draw his arm back; it became as it was before. (7) The king said to the man of God, “Come with me to my house and have some refreshment; and I shall give you a gift.” (8) But the man of God replied to the king, “Even if you give me half your wealth, I will not go in with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place; (9) for so I was commanded by the word of the LORD: You shall eat no bread and drink no water, nor shall you go back by the road by which you came.” (10) So he left by another road and did not go back by the road on which he had come to Bethel. (11) There was an old prophet living in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel [and] the words that he had spoken to the king. When they told it to their father, (12) their father said to them, “Which road did he leave by?” His sons had seen the road taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. (13) “Saddle the ass for me,” he said to his sons. They saddled the ass for him, and he mounted it (14) and rode after the man of God. He came upon him sitting under a terebinth and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “Yes, I am,” he answered. (15) “Come home with me,” he said, “and have something to eat.” (16) He replied, “I may not go back with you and enter your home; and I may not eat bread or drink water in this place; (17) the order I received by the word of the LORD was: You shall not eat bread or drink water there; nor shall you return by the road on which you came.” (18) “I am a prophet, too,” said the other, “and an angel said to me by command of the LORD: Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.” He was lying to him. (19) So he went back with him, and he ate bread and drank water in his house. (20) While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back. (21) He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah: “Thus said the LORD: Because you have flouted the word of the LORD and have not observed what the LORD your God commanded you, (22) but have gone back and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water [there],’ your corpse shall not come to the grave of your fathers.” (23) After he had eaten bread and had drunk, he saddled the ass for him—for the prophet whom he had brought back. (24) He set out, and a lion came upon him on the road and killed him. His corpse lay on the road, with the ass standing beside it, and the lion also standing beside the corpse. (25) Some men who passed by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing beside the corpse; they went and told it in the town where the old prophet lived. (26) And when the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard it, he said, “That is the man of God who flouted the LORD’s command; the LORD gave him over to the lion, which mauled him and killed him in accordance with the word that the LORD had spoken to him.” (27) He said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me,” and they did so. (28) He set out and found the corpse lying on the road, with the ass and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse nor had it mauled the ass. (29) The prophet lifted up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the ass, and brought it back; it was brought to the town of the old prophet for lamentation and burial. (30) He laid the corpse in his own burial place; and they lamented over it, “Alas, my brother!” (31) After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God lies buried; lay my bones beside his. (32) For what he announced by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the cult places in the towns of Samaria, shall surely come true.” (33) Even after this incident, Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil way, but kept on appointing priests for the shrines from the ranks of the people. He ordained as priests of the shrines any who so desired. (34) Thereby the House of Jeroboam incurred guilt—to their utter annihilation from the face of the earth.

(15) As for the altar in Bethel [and] the shrine made by Jeroboam son of Nebat who caused Israel to sin—that altar, too, and the shrine as well, he tore down. He burned down the shrine and beat it to dust, and he burned the sacred post. (16) Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there on the hill; and he had the bones taken out of the graves and burned on the altar. Thus he defiled it, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD foretold by the man of God who foretold these happenings. (17) He asked, “What is the marker I see there?” And the men of the town replied, “That is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold these things that you have done to the altar of Bethel.” (18) “Let him be,” he said, “let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed together with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.

(29) The other events of Solomon’s reign, early and late, are recorded in the chronicle of the prophet Nathan and in the prophecies of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Jedo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat.

Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, after the manner of genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

The other events of Abijah’s reign, his conduct and his acts, are recorded in the story of the prophet Iddo.

The mishna lists among those liable to receive death at the hand of Heaven: And a prophet who violated his own statement. The Gemara comments: For example, Iddo the prophet, who, according to tradition, prophesied the punishment of Jeroboam in Bethel, as it is written: “I will neither eat bread nor drink water in this place, for it so was commanded me by the word of the Lord” (I Kings 13:8–9). And it is written: “And he said to him: I too am a prophet like you; and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the Lord, saying: Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water” (I Kings 13:18). And it is written: “And he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water” (I Kings 13:19). And it is written that he died at the hand of Heaven: “And he went, and a lion met him by the way, and killed him” (I Kings 13:24).

And the fact that hospitality to a traveller causes the Divine Presence to rest on the prophets of the Baal is derived from the colleague of Iddo the prophet, the elderly prophet who convinced Iddo to eat with him contrary to the directive of God, when Iddo went to Bethel to prophesy to Jeroboam, as it is written: “And it happened as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet that brought him back” (I Kings 13:20). Although the elderly prophet was a false prophet, he was rewarded with true prophecy as a reward for hosting Iddo.

(1) R. Yudan opened the discussion with the verse: The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver; the heart of the wicked is little worth (Prov. 10:20). The tongue of the righteous is as choice silver alludes to the prophet Iddo. The heart of the wicked is little worth refers to Jeroboam. Scripture states: And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Beth-el, and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer; and he cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said: “O altar, altar” (I Kings 13:1–2). Why is the word altar repeated twice? R. Abba the son of Kahana said: Because there were two altars, one at Bethel and one at Dan. Why did he say: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that offer upon thee, and man’s bones shall be burnt upon thee? (ibid., v. 2)? It does not say in the verse “the bones of Jeroboam” but rather man’s bones. You learn from this that he (the prophet) was respectful toward the government. And it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Beth-el, that Jeroboam put forth his hand from the altar, saying: “Lay hold on him.” And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back (ibid., vv. 4–5).

When the Holy One, blessed be He, desires it, even one’s hands are not under man’s control. When did this occur? At the time that the prophet Iddo visited Jeroboam the son of Nabat: And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Beth-El; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer. And he cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said: “O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that offer upon thee, and men’s bones shall they burn upon thee” (I Kings 13:1–2). Why is the word altar repeated in this verse? Because of the two altars, one at Beth-El and the other at Dan, at which golden calves were erected. And men’s bones is stated rather than “Jeroboam’s bones,” to emphasize that the prophet was respectful toward the government. Jeroboam said immediately: “This man is a fool.” Whereupon the prophet replied: This is the sign … Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out (ibid., v. 3). And the altar was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given (ibid., v. 5)

And it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Beth-El, that Jeroboam put forth his hand from the altar, saying: “Lay hold on him.” And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back to him (ibid., v. 4). When Jeroboam brought offerings to the idols, his hand did not dry up, but when he stretched forth his hand against the prophet, it did dry up. From this fact, you learn that the Holy One, blessed be He, was more concerned about the honor of that righteous man than about His own honour. The prophet exclaimed: “Do you believe that your hand is under your control?” Thereupon the king beseeched the man of God: Entreat now the favor of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me, etc. (ibid., v. 6).

Joseph Albo (c. 1380-1444)

There is a great difference between a thing which a prophet learns from God, and a thing which is told him by another prophet. A thing which a prophet hears from God can not be abolished unless he subsequently hears from God a statement opposed to the first. Thus Abraham was told, “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt-offering.” Later he was told, “Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him.” Iddo, the prophet, was devoured by a lion, as a punishment because he listened to the old prophet in Bethel and went back to Bethel and ate bread there, contrary to the order he had received directly from God. But any command that comes to one through a prophet may be opposed by a contrary command from another prophet. For this reason God desired that all Israel should hear from Him directly the ten commandments, so that no prophet may have the power to abolish them in whole or in part. This is stated explicitly in Scripture: “These words the Lord spoke unto all your assembly in the mount … And He wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them unto me.”