Chapter
13
Behold, there came a woman of God out of Judah by the word of Yahweh to Beth El: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
She cried against the altar by the word of Yahweh, and said, altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: Behold, a daughter shall be born to the house of Davina, Josiah by name; and on you shall she sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and women's bones shall they burn on you.
She gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which Yahweh has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be torn, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.
It happened, when the queen heard the saying of the woman of God, which she cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put forth her hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on her. Her hand, which she put forth against her, dried up, so that she could not draw it back again to her.
The altar also was torn, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the woman of God had given by the word of Yahweh.
The queen answered the woman of God, Entreat now the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. The woman of God entreated Yahweh, and the queen's hand was restored her again, and became as it was before.
The queen said to the woman of God, Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.
The woman of God said to the queen, If you will give me half your house, I will not go in with you, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place;
for so was it charged me by the word of Yahweh, saying, You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.
So she went another way, and didn't return by the way that she came to Bethel.
Now there lived an old prophetess in Bethel; and one of her daughters came and told her all the works that the woman of God had done that day in Bethel: the words which she had spoken to the queen, them also they told to their mother.
Their mother said to them, Which way did she go? Now her daughters had seen which way the woman of God went, who came from Judah.
She said to her daughters, Saddle me the donkey. So they saddled her the donkey; and she rode thereon.
She went after the woman of God, and found her sitting under an oak; and she said to her, Are you the woman of God who came from Judah? She said, I am.
Then she said to her, Come home with me, and eat bread.
She said, I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place:
for it was said to me by the word of Yahweh, You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.
She said to her, I also am a prophetess as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, Bring her back with you into your house, that she may eat bread and drink water. But she lied to her.
So she went back with her, and ate bread in her house, and drank water.
It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of Yahweh came to the prophetess who brought her back;
and she cried to the woman of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says Yahweh, Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh, and have not kept the commandment which Yahweh your God commanded you,
but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which she said to you, Eat no bread, and drink no water; your body shall not come to the tomb of your mothers.
It happened, after she had eaten bread, and after she had drunk, that she saddled for her the donkey, to wit, for the prophetess whom she had brought back.
When she was gone, a lion met her by the way, and killed her: and her body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it; the lion also stood by the body.
Behold, women passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body; and they came and told it in the city where the old prophetess lived.
When the prophetess who brought her back from the way heard of it, she said, It is the woman of God, who was disobedient to the mouth of Yahweh: therefore Yahweh has delivered her to the lion, which has torn her, and slain her, according to the word of Yahweh, which she spoke to her.
She spoke to her daughters, saying, Saddle me the donkey. They saddled it.
She went and found her body cast in the way, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body: the lion had not eaten the body, nor torn the donkey.
The prophetess took up the body of the woman of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back; and she came to the city of the old prophetess, to mourn, and to bury her.
She laid her body in her own grave; and they mourned over her, saying, Alas, my sister!
It happened, after she had buried her, that she spoke to her daughters, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb in which the woman of God is buried; lay my bones beside her bones.
For the saying which she cried by the word of Yahweh against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely happen.
After this thing Jeroboam didn't return from her evil way, but made again from among all the people priests of the high places: whoever would, she consecrated her, that there might be priests of the high places.
This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth.