1 Kings 13 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Right then, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel with a message from Yahweh, just as Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn offerings.

He called out against the altar with a message from Yahweh: "Altar, altar! This is what Yahweh says: 'A son will be born to the house of David — his name will be Josiah. He will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn offerings on you, and human bones will be burned on you.'"

He gave a sign that same day, saying, "This is the sign that Yahweh has spoken: the altar will split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out."

When King Jeroboam heard the man of God's words shouted against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Grab him!" But his hand that he had stretched out shriveled up, and he couldn't pull it back.

The altar also split apart and the ashes poured out from the altar, exactly matching the sign the man of God had given by the word of Yahweh.

Then the king said to the man of God, "Please — plead with Yahweh your God and pray for me, so my hand can be restored to me." So the man of God pleaded with Yahweh, and the king's hand was restored — it became like it was before.

The king then said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have a meal, and I'll give you a gift."

But the man of God told the king, "Even if you gave me half your palace, I wouldn't go with you. I won't eat food or drink water in this place,

because Yahweh commanded me: 'Don't eat food, don't drink water, and don't go back the way you came.'"

So he left by a different road and didn't go back the way he had come to Bethel.

Now an old prophet was living in Bethel, and his sons came and told him everything the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words he had spoken to the king.

Their father asked them, "Which road did he take?" His sons had seen which road the man of God from Judah had taken.

He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it.

He went after the man of God and found him sitting under a large tree. He asked him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He answered, "I am."

Then the old prophet said, "Come home with me and eat something."

The man of God said, "I can't go back with you or join you. I won't eat food or drink water with you in this place,

because I was told by the word of Yahweh: 'Don't eat food or drink water there. Don't go back the way you came.'"

The old prophet said to him, "I'm also a prophet, just like you. And a messenger spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'Bring him back with you to your house so he can eat food and drink water.'" But he was lying to him.

So the man of God went back with him and ate food and drank water in his house.

While they were sitting at the table, the word of Yahweh came to the old prophet who had brought him back.

He called out to the man of God who had come from Judah: "This is what Yahweh says: 'Because you defied what Yahweh told you and didn't keep the command that Yahweh your God gave you,

but came back and ate food and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink — your body will not reach the tomb of your ancestors.'"

After the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet saddled the donkey for him — for the prophet he had brought back.

As he was traveling, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown down on the road, with the donkey standing beside it. The lion was also standing beside the body.

Then some people passing by saw the body thrown down on the road with the lion standing beside the body. They went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard about it, he said, "It's the man of God who defied Yahweh's command. Yahweh handed him over to the lion, which mauled him and killed him, exactly as Yahweh had warned him."

He told his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." And they saddled it.

He went and found the body thrown down on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey.

The prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn over him and bury him.

He laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him, saying, "Oh, my brother!"

After burying him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones next to his bones,

because the message he proclaimed by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will absolutely come true."

Even after all this, Jeroboam didn't change direction from his destructive ways. Instead, he went right back to appointing priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to, he would ordain as a priest of the high places.

This became the failure of Jeroboam's house — the thing that would cause it to be cut off and wiped out from the face of the earth.