1 Kings 13:7-26

7The king then said to the prophet, “Come home with me and have something to eat. I’d like to give a present.”

8But the prophet said to the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I could not go with you and eat and drink in this place.

9For the Lord gave me strict orders, ‘Do not eat or drink there and do not go home the way you came.’”

10So he started back on another road; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel.

11Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. When his sons came home, they told their father everything the prophet had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king.

12Their father asked them, “Which road did he take?” His sons showed him the road the prophet from Judah had taken.

13He then told his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” When they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it

14and took off after the prophet, whom he found sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the prophet from Judah?” He answered, “Yes, I am.”

15He then said to him, “Come home with me and eat something.”

16But he replied, “I can’t go back with you or eat and drink with you in this place.

17For the Lord gave me strict orders, ‘Do not eat or drink there; do not go back the way you came.’”

18The old prophet then said, “I too am a prophet like you. An angel told me with the Lord’s authority, ‘Bring him back with you to your house so he can eat and drink.’” But he was lying to him.

19So the prophet went back with him and ate and drank in his house.

20While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke through the old prophet

21and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, “This is what the Lord says, ‘You have rebelled against the Lord and have not obeyed the command the Lord your God gave you.

22You went back and ate and drank in this place, even though he said to you, “Do not eat or drink there.” Therefore your corpse will not be buried in your ancestral tomb.’”

23When the prophet from Judah finished his meal, the old prophet saddled his visitor’s donkey for him.

24As the prophet from Judah was traveling, a lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His corpse was lying on the road, and the donkey and the lion just stood there beside it.

25Some men came by and saw the corpse lying in the road with the lion standing beside it. They went and reported what they had seen in the city where the old prophet lived.

26When the old prophet who had invited him to his house heard the news, he said, “It is the prophet who rebelled against the Lord. The Lord delivered him over to the lion and it ripped him up and killed him, just as the Lord warned him.”