God

Now if you will listen to all that I order you, live according to my ways and do what is right in my view, so that you observe my regulations and mitzvot, as David my servant did; then I will be with you, and I will build you a lasting dynasty, as I built for David; and I will give Isra'el to you.

So the king didn't listen to the people; and that was something ADONAI brought about, so that he could fulfill his word, which ADONAI had spoken through Achiyah from Shiloh to Yarov'am the son of N'vat.

But this word from God came to Sh'ma'yah the man of God:

that this is what ADONAI says: 'You are not to go up and fight your brothers the people of Isra'el! Every man is to go back home, because this is my doing.'" They paid attention to the word of ADONAI and turned back, as ADONAI had told them to do.

For if these people continue going up to offer sacrifices in the house of ADONAI in Yerushalayim, their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rechav'am king of Y'hudah. Then they will kill me and return to Rechav'am king of Y'hudah."

Just then, as Yarov'am was standing by the altar to burn incense, a man of God came out of Y'hudah, directed to Beit-El by a word from ADONAI.

And by the word from ADONAI he cried out against the altar: "Altar, altar, here is what ADONAI says: 'A son will be born to the house of David; his name will be Yoshiyahu; and on you he will sacrifice the cohanim of the high places who burn incense on you! They will burn human bones on you!'"

That same day he also gave a sign: "Here is the sign which ADONAI has decreed: "'The altar will be split apart; the ashes on it will be scattered about.'"

When the king heard what the man of God said, how he denounced the altar in Beit-El, Yarov'am took his hand away from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But his hand, the one he had stretched out against him, shriveled up; so that he could not draw it back to himself.

Also the altar was split apart, and the ashes scattered from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of ADONAI.

The king then responded to the man of God. "Ask now the favor of ADONAI your God," he said, "and pray for me, that my hand will be restored to me." The man of God prayed to ADONAI, and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it had been before.

The king then said to the man of God, "Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.

But the man of God replied to the king, "Even if you give me half your household, I will not accept your hospitality; nor will I eat food or drink water in this place.

For this is the order I received through the word of ADONAI: 'Don't eat food or drink water, and don't return by the road you took when you came.'"

Now there lived an old prophet in Beit-El; and one of his sons came and told him all the things the man of God had done that day in Beit-El; also they told their father what he had said to the king.

Their father asked them, "Which way did he go?" For his sons had seen what road the man of God from Y'hudah had taken.

he went after the man of God. He found him sitting under a pistachio tree and said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Y'hudah?" He answered, "I am."

because it was said to me by the word of ADONAI, 'You are not to eat food or drink water there, and you are not to go back by the way you came.'"

The other said to him, "I too am a prophet, just like you; and an angel spoke to me by the word of ADONAI and said, 'Bring him back with you to your house, so that he can eat food and drink water.'" But he was lying to him.

As they were sitting at the table, the word of ADONAI came to the prophet who had brought him back;

and he cried to the man of God who had come from Y'hudah, "Here is what ADONAI says: 'Since you rebelled against the word of ADONAI and didn't obey the mitzvah ADONAI your God gave you,

but came back and ate food and drank water in the place where he warned you not to eat food or drink water, your corpse will not arrive at the tomb of your ancestors."

When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard about it, he said, "It is the man of God who rebelled against the word of ADONAI; this is why ADONAI handed him over to the lion to tear him to pieces and kill him, in keeping with the word ADONAI spoke to him."

The prophet picked up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the city where he lived, to mourn and bury him.

After burying him he said to his sons, "When I die, put me in the burial cave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones next to his bones.