Comments on 1 Kings 13 v1-10 After Jeroboam constructs the idolatrous altar, he goes up on it to offer sacrifice. As he does so a prophet of the Lord, sent from Judah (v. 1), rebukes him by informing him a king of the line of David will kill the idolatrous priests upon the altar (v. 2) and gives a sign (v. 3). Jeroboam does not take kindly to being publicly rebuked, and commands the prophet to be seized, but in doing so stretches out his arm and instead it is his arm that is seized up (v. 4). Then the sign from v. 3 is fulfilled as well as the altar splits (v. 5). Jeroboam is obviously shaken up by the events and asks the prophet to entreat the Lord and restore his arm, which he does and his arm is healed (v. 6). Jeroboam, apparently out of genuine thanks, asks the prophet to come to his house that he may rest and be rewarded for his actions (v. 7). The prophet declines, insisting that he would never dine with him (v. 8), and that the Lord forbid him from such a thing (v. 9). And the prophet then leaves (v. 10). v4 "dried up", the KJV suggest that his arm was withered or something like that. A better translation would be "seized" (NAS) or "became rigid" (JPS), in other words it was paralyzed. v5 The splitting of the altar would have been doubly dramatic as Jeroboam was standing on it when confronted by the prophet from Judah. The KJV doesn't represent this little detail well, so here is the JPS on 12:33-13:2 below: 33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month the month in which he had contrived of his own mind to establish a festival for the Israelites Jeroboam ascended the altar that he had made in Bethel. As he ascended the altar to present an offering, 1 a man of God arrived at Bethel from Judah at the command of the Lord. While Jeroboam was standing on the altar [I.e., at the top of the steps or ramp] 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." So, not only would Jeroboam's arm be paralyzed, he would have also been thrown off the altar when it was split. v6-7 It seems here that Jeroboam is genuinely shaken up by things and becomes penitent, otherwise why would the Lord heal his arm? Thus, the offer in v. 7 is probably one of genuine thankfulness as opposed to an attempt to bribe or subvert the prophet. v8-9 The prophet's reaction here in v. 8 seems to be more out of disdain than out of zeal for the commands of the Lord as cited in v. 8. The emphatic nature of the prophet's words go well beyond the Lord's command as recited in v. 8, suggesting that his personal feelings are involved. And then the prophet ends up failing to be obedient a few verses later anyway, so he clearly isn't zealous for keeping the commandments. So, I suspect what we have here is some bigotry at work on the part of the prophet. He is self-righteously holding the Israelites in contempt for their idolatry, when he himself is a hypocrite. Also, note the prophet is never named. To go unnamed is a Semitic custom indicating the person is not worthy to be remembered, or in other words his genealogy has been cut off. Its an insult. v10 The man of God from Judah is told to go another way out of Israel so that he cannot be followed or intercepted along the way home. It is intended to keep him from fraternizing with Jeroboam in the manner suggested in v. 7 in a sort of "prophet for profit" Balaam and Balak scenario. In general it is intended to maintain separation between the wicked and the righteous, cf. Num 16:26, Deut. 13:13-18, Ps. 141:4, Rom 16:17, 1 Cor. 5:9-11. However, we see him in v. 14 sitting under an oak, perhaps resting or more likely loitering as we see in v. 23 that he had a mount so it wasn't like he was tired from walking all day. If he were in a real big rush to get out of there, he wouldn't have stopped by the way. And it is plain from v. 12 that the he did not do a very good job of covering his tracks, as he is subsequently found easily enough in v. 14. v11-32 An old prophet in Israel gets word of the "man of God" from Judah through his sons and goes after him to find him (v. 11-13). He runs into him the same day and invites him to his home to eat and drink (v. 14-15). The man of God declines the offer saying the Lord has forbidden him from doing so (v. 16-17). The old prophet then tells him he too is a prophet and that an angel has told him to come and invite him (v. 18). The man of God agrees to it and goes home with him (v. 19). While sitting at the table the old prophet receives the word of the Lord and rebukes the man of God for ignoring the Lord's command and informs him he will not be buried in the family tomb -a Semitic curse (v. 20-22). After the man of God is done eating and drinking, the old prophet saddles his mule for him and he goes on his way (v. 23). But, as he resumes his journey home he is attacked and killed by a lion (v. 24). People discover him dead and inform the old prophet, who then goes and collects the body and buries it nearby (v. 25-29). The old prophet then laments the death of his "brother" prophet, tells his sons to bury him together with him when he dies, and says the words which he spoke against Israel will still come to pass (v. 30-32). Overall it seems to me to be saying that being Judah isn't necessarily good and being Israel isn't necessarily bad. It is a foil against bigotry. Especially note that Judah is described in 14:21-24 as being even worse than Israel. v11 "old prophet", suggesting the prophet is one faithful to the Lord, unlike these new priests Jeroboam has set up, cf. 12:31, 13:33. v16-18 The man of God makes a number of mistakes here. First, he assumes the old prophet is telling the truth about the angel speaking to him. Second, he takes an angel's contradictory words (a secondhand account no less) over the word of the Lord which he apparently received firsthand. And finally, he violates the command given him and does just the opposite. These things indicate he wasn't zealous for the word of the Lord at all, and was willing to violate it under terms convenient to him. v18 See the JST on this verse, it completely changes the meaning. The old prophet was told to test the man of God to determine how godly he really was. v23 Note the old prophet is saddling the mount up for the man of God. In v. 13, 27 the sons are the ones saddling up the old prophet's mount. Doing so is an act of deference and respect. v28 Note the lion, presumably a mountain lion, doesn't kill the mule or the old prophet and doesn't eat the body. The lion's sole purpose in being there was to kill the man. Being killed in such a manner is a classic covenant curse, cf. Lev. 26:22, Deut. 32:24, 2 Ki. 2:24, Hela. 7:19. v31-32 While the "man of God" wasn't all that godly, the word of the Lord that came through him is not affected by that. The word of the Lord remains independent of the messenger and is not impeached. The old prophet's endorsement of what the man of God said emphasizes this fact. v33-34 Despite his apparent contrition in v. 6-7 from the events in v. 1-10, Jeroboam does not end up mending his ways (v. 33). The result is he brought utter ruin onto his family (v. 34). Copyright © 2002 by S. Kurt Neumiller . All rights reserved. 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