Jeroboam’s Hand Withers
(2 Kings 23:4–20; 2 Chronicles 34:3–7)

1And behold, a man of God went from Judah by the word of YHWH to Bethel. And Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2And he cried out against the altar by the word of YHWH, and he said, “O altar, O altar, thus says YHWH: ‘Behold, a child shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and bones of man shall be burned on you.†’”

3And he gave that day a sign, saying, “This is the sign that YHWH has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be split apart, and the ashes shall be poured out that are on it.’”

4And it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of God who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” And his hand withered that he stretched out toward him, so that he could not pull it back to himself. 5And the altar was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of YHWH.

6And the king answered and said to the man of God, “Entreat, please, the favor of YHWH your God and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.”

And entreated the man of God before the face of YHWH, and the hand of the king was restored to him, and it was as at first.

7And the king said to the man of God, “Come in with me to the house and refresh yourself, and I will give to you a reward.”

8And the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give to me half of your house, I would not go in with you, nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. 9For so it was commanded me by the word of YHWH, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way that you came.’”

10And he went another way and did not return by the way that he had come in to Bethel.

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

11And an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons† came in and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel—the words that he had spoken to the king. And they told their father.

12And their father said to them, “Where is this—the way he has gone?”

For his sons showed him† the way that the man of God had gone, who came from Judah. 13And he said to his sons, “Saddle for me the donkey.”

And they saddled for him the donkey, and he rode on it, 14and he went after the man of God and found him sitting under the oak.† And he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

And he said, “I am.”

15And he said to him, “Come with me to the house and eat bread.”

16And he said, “I cannot return with you or go in with you, nor can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. 17For I have been told by the word of YHWH, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink there water, nor return by going the way that you came in.’”

18And He said to him, “I am also a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of YHWH, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’”

He was lying to him. 19And he went back with him and ate bread in his house, and he drank water.

20And it came to pass as they sat at the table, that the word of YHWH came to the prophet who had brought him back, 21and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says YHWH: ‘Because that you have disobeyed the word of YHWH and have not kept the commandment that YHWH your God commanded you— 22and you returned and ate bread and drank water in the place of which He said to you: You shall not eat bread, and you shall not drink water—your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”

23And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the donkey, for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24And he went, and a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his corpse was thrown on the road. And the donkey stood by it, and the lion stood by the corpse.

25And behold, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing by the corpse. And they went and told it in the city in which the old prophet dwelt.

26And the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, and he said, “It is the man of God, who was disobedient to the word of YHWH. And YHWH has delivered him to the lion, and it has torn him and killed him according to the word of YHWH that He spoke to him.”

And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle for me the donkey.” And they saddled it. 28And he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse, nor torn into pieces the donkey. 29And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey, and he brought it back. And the old prophet came to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30And he laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they mourned over him: “Alas, my brother!”

31And it was after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried. Beside his bones lay my bones. 32For the word will surely come to pass that he cried out by the word of YHWH against the altar that is in Bethel, and against all the shrines on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria.”

33After this matter, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, and he turned back and made from the ends of the people priests for the high places. The desiring one would fill his hand and he would become one of the priests of the high places. 34And this thing became sin of the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off and destroy it from the face of the earth.