1. A man of God came out of Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord while Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
2. He cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘A child named Josiah will be born in the house of David, and he will sacrifice upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and these men’s bones shall be burned upon you.’ ”
3. He gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘The altar will be torn apart, and the ashes that are upon it will be poured out.’ ”
4. When King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God who had cried against the altar in Bethel, he reached out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” And the hand that he put forth against him dried up so that he could not pull it back in again.
5. The altar also was torn, and the ashes poured out from the altar, just as the man of God had said it would as a sign of the Lord.
6. The king answered and said to the man of God, “Seek the face of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand will be healed.” And the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was healed and became as it was before.
7. The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
8. The man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor will I eat bread nor drink water in this place,
9. for so I was commanded by the word of the Lord, saying: You shall eat no bread, nor drink water nor return by the same way that you came.”
10. So he went another way and did not return by the same way he came to Bethel.
11. Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king.
12. Their father said to them, “What way did he go?” For his sons had seen the way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
13. He said to his sons, “Saddle my donkey.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.
14. He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak, and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”And he said, “I am.”
15. Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”
16. He said, “I may not return with you or go in with you, nor will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place,