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1 Kings 13:11–34 — The Old Prophet and the Man of God. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

Like Balaam, he united true prophetic gifts with a low worldliness of temper, capable on occasion of base subterfuge and deceit. Such union of elements, which should be utterly discordant, is only too characteristic of man’s self-contradictory nature.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

This "old prophet" therefore, who, without being infirm in any way, had remained under Jeroboam, and was even content to dwell at Bethel - the chief seat of the new worship - was devoid of any deep and earnest religious feeling.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The fact that he remained, not only in the kingdom, but at its ecclesiastical capital; that he stood by without protest when the schism was being effected, and that, though not present himself at the sacrifice, he permitted his sons to be there, is a sufficient index to his character.

Pulpit, Barnes, Ellicott, Benson and Poole converge here; K&D (at v. 31) takes the opposite view and defends the old prophet as a true prophet with good intentions. The unit holds both readings open.

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

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’e·ḥāḏ zā·qên wə·nā·ḇî yō·šêḇ bə·ḇêṯ- ’êl ḇə·nōw way·yā·ḇō·w way·sap·per- lōw ’eṯ- kāl- ham·ma·‘ă·śeh ’ă·šer- ’îš- hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ‘ā·śāh hay·yō·wm bə·ḇêṯ- ’êl ’eṯ- way·sap·pə·rūm la·’ă·ḇî·hem had·də·ḇā·rîm ’ă·šer dib·ber ’el- ham·me·leḵ

Word by word28 · parsed

אֶחָד֙’e·ḥāḏNow a certainH259

√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iNumbermasculine singular

ʼechâd — one, united The numeral, used adjectivally, as Pulpit notes (compare 1 Kings 20:13). The chapter that began with a nameless man of God from Judah now sets against him a nameless single prophet of Beth-El. Neither is given a name; the whole weight falls on the word each carries.

זָקֵ֔ןzā·qênoldH2205

√ zâqên — oldAdjectivemasculine singular

וְנָבִ֤יאwə·nā·ḇîprophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular

יֹשֵׁ֖בyō·šêḇwas livingH3427

√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

yâshab — to sit, dwell, remain The participle of settled residence. Barnes and Pulpit both read it as the indictment: the devout had left the north (2 Chronicles 11:13-16), and this man stayed, at the ecclesiastical capital of the schism, without protest. The same root will have him sitting at the table when the word of judgment falls (v. 20).

בְּבֵֽית־bə·ḇêṯ-vvvH1008

√ Bêyth-ʼÊl — Beth-El, a place in PalestinePreposition

אֵ֑ל’êlin BethelH1008

√ Bêyth-ʼÊl — Beth-El, a place in PalestinePrepositionNounproperfeminine singular

בְנ֡וֹḇə·nōwand his sonsH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

bên — son Singular in the Masoretic text against the plural verb at the end of the verse. The versions levelled it; Pulpit, Cambridge and K&D all defend the harder reading and explain the number-shift as a real feature of reported speech.

וַיָּב֣וֹאway·yā·ḇō·wcameH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

וַיְסַפֶּר־way·sap·per-and toldH5608

√ çâphar — properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, iConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

çâphar — to tally, recount Piel: a full recital. What the sons recount is not the calf-worship they had attended but the works and the words of the stranger who condemned it.

ל֣וֹlōwhim

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

כָּל־kāl-allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct

הַמַּעֲשֶׂ֣הham·ma·‘ă·śehthe deedsH4639

√ maʻăseh — an action (good or bad)ArticleNounmasculine singular

maʻăseh — an action, a deed Singular in Hebrew (kol ham-maʻăseh, “all the work”), noted as such by Pulpit. One deed, told entire: the altar rent and the withered hand restored.

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-thatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

אִישׁ־’îš-the manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֨ים׀hā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

ʼĕlôhîym — God The stranger is never named in this chapter; he is only ever ʼîysh hā-ʼĕlōhîm, the man of the God. His identity is his commission, which is precisely what he will surrender when he turns back.

עָשָׂה֩‘ā·śāhhad doneH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

הַיּ֜וֹםhay·yō·wmthat dayH3117

√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine singular

בְּבֵֽית־bə·ḇêṯ-vvvH1008

√ Bêyth-ʼÊl — Beth-El, a place in PalestinePreposition

אֵ֗ל’êlin BethelH1008

√ Bêyth-ʼÊl — Beth-El, a place in PalestinePrepositionNounproperfeminine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַֽיְסַפְּר֖וּםway·sap·pə·rūmThey also toldH5608

√ çâphar — properly, to score with a mark as a tally or record, iConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine pluralthird person masculine plural

לַאֲבִיהֶֽם׃la·’ă·ḇî·hemtheir fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationPreposition-lNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine plural

הַדְּבָרִים֙had·də·ḇā·rîmthe wordsH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordArticleNounmasculine plural

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerthatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

דִּבֶּ֣רdib·ber[the man] had spokenH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

הַמֶּ֔לֶךְham·me·leḵthe kingH4428

√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-a-prophet one old was-dwelling in-Beth-El; and-came his-son and-recounted to-him every the-deed that did the-man-of-the-God the-day in-Beth-El, and-the-words that he-spoke unto the-king, and-they-recounted-them to-their-father.

Where the English smooths the original

אֶחָד֙ אֶחָד֙ (’e·ḥāḏ, H259) is the numeral one, not an indefinite article. BSB softens it to “a certain.” Pulpit records the idiom: this use of אֶחָד answers to the Greek τις, as at 1 Kings 20:13. The Hebrew opens the scene by counting: one old prophet, in a town that had just been cursed.
יֹשֵׁ֖ב יֹשֵׁ֖ב (yō·šêḇ, Qal participle of yâshab, H3427) is not a past tense but a standing posture: he is sitting, settled, resident. The same participle recurs of the man of God sitting under the oak (v. 14), of the two men sitting at table (v. 20), and of this prophet again in v. 25. The English “was living” loses a word that ties the whole unit together.
בְנ֡וֹ בְנ֡וֹ (ḇə·nōw) is singular, his son, with singular verbs “came” and “told,” before the verse ends with a plural “they told them.” BSB harmonises to “his sons.” Pulpit argues the singular is the lectio ardua and must be kept; K&D and Cambridge both explain the shift as one son reporting first and the rest filling out the account.
וַיְסַפֶּר־ וַיְסַפֶּר־ (way·sap·per, Piel of çâphar, H5608) is stronger than “told.” The root means to score a mark, to tally, to recount in full. The sons do not gossip; they render a complete account, so that the old prophet has the whole file before he saddles the donkey.

“Which way did he go?” their father asked. And his sons showed him the way taken by the man of God, who had come from Judah.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’ê- zeh had·de·reḵ hā·lāḵ ’ă·ḇî·hem way·ḏab·bêr ’ă·lê·hem ḇā·nāw ’eṯ- way·yir·’ū had·de·reḵ ’ă·šer hā·laḵ ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ă·šer- bā mî·hū·ḏāh

Word by word18 · parsed

אֵֽי־’ê-WhichH335

√ ʼay — where? hence how?Interrogative

ʼay — where? how? A short, hard question. The narrative gives the old prophet no stated motive; Gill supplies only a strong inclination to see him, Cambridge supplies Josephus's jealousy, Pulpit supplies the wounded dignity of an excommunicated man. Scripture supplies nothing, and the gap is part of the telling.

זֶ֥הzeh. . .H2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatPronounmasculine singular

הַדֶּ֖רֶךְhad·de·reḵwayH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)ArticleNouncommon singular

derek — a road as trodden The keyword of the unit, occurring here twice. Everything the man of God is commanded concerns a road: do not eat, do not drink, do not go back the way you came. Obedience in this chapter is geography.

הָלָ֑ךְhā·lāḵdid he goH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

אֲבִיהֶ֔ם’ă·ḇî·hemtheir fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine plural

וַיְדַבֵּ֤רway·ḏab·bêraskedH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֲלֵהֶם֙’ă·lê·hemH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionthird person masculine plural

בָנָ֗יוḇā·nāwAnd his sonsH1121

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַיִּרְא֣וּway·yir·’ūshowed himH7200

√ râʼâh — to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

râʼâh — to see (causatively, to show) A vowel-point away from the Hiphil that all the versions read. Cambridge states the case plainly and the Pulpit Commentary agrees that a very slight change would give “showed.” Either way the sons hand over the route.

הַדֶּ֙רֶךְ֙had·de·reḵthe wayH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)ArticleNouncommon singular

אֲשֶׁ֤ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הָלַךְ֙hā·laḵtakenH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

אִ֣ישׁ’îšby the manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֔יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-whoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

בָּ֖אbāhad comeH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

מִיהוּדָֽה׃mî·hū·ḏāhfrom JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesPreposition-mNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-spoke unto-them their-father: “Where-this the-way he-went?” And-saw his-sons the-way that went the-man-of-the-God who came from-Judah.

Where the English smooths the original

אֵֽי־זֶ֥ה אֵֽי־זֶ֥ה (’ê-zeh, H335 + H2088) is literally “where-this,” an interrogative fused to a demonstrative: which way is it that he went? The urgency in the idiom is what Pulpit hears when he says the old prophet's first thought was that the interdict must be lifted at any cost.
וַיִּרְא֣וּ וַיִּרְא֣וּ (way·yir·’ū, Qal of râʼâh, H7200) as pointed means “and they saw,” not “showed him.” Cambridge and Pulpit both record that every ancient version read the Hiphil (וַיַּרְאוּ, “and his sons shewed him”), a change of vowel points only. BSB follows the versions; the consonantal text does not require it.
הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ (had·de·reḵ, derek, H1870) is “a road as trodden.” It is the governing noun of the unit: the way he must not return by (v. 17), the way he was brought back from (v. 26), the road where the lion finds him (v. 24), and at last Jeroboam's evil way (v. 33). The question of this verse is the question of the chapter.

So the prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” Then they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yō·mer ’el- bā·nāw ḥiḇ·šū- ha·ḥă·mō·wr lî way·yaḥ·bə·šū- ha·ḥă·mō·wr lōw way·yir·kaḇ ‘ā·lāw

Word by word11 · parsed

וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙way·yō·merSo [the prophet] saidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

בָּנָ֔יוbā·nāwhis sonsH1121

חִבְשׁוּ־ḥiḇ·šū-SaddleH2280

√ châbash — to wrap firmly (especially a turban, compress, or saddle)VerbQalImperativemasculine plural

châbash — to wrap firmly (a turban, a compress, a saddle) A relatively uncommon verb (30 verses). Three times in this unit (vv. 13, 23, 27) it opens a movement: to fetch the man of God, to send him to his death, to carry his corpse home. The same imperative frames the whole tragedy.

הַחֲמ֑וֹרha·ḥă·mō·wrthe donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)ArticleNounmasculine singular

chămôwr — a male ass The donkey is the unit's silent witness. It will stand where its nature says to bolt (v. 24), and it will carry the body that the lion refused to eat (v. 29).

לִ֖יlîfor me

Prepositionfirst person common singular

וַיַּחְבְּשׁוּ־way·yaḥ·bə·šū-Then they saddledH2280

√ châbash — to wrap firmly (especially a turban, compress, or saddle)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

הַחֲמ֔וֹרha·ḥă·mō·wrthe donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)ArticleNounmasculine singular

ל֣וֹlōwfor him

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

וַיִּרְכַּ֖בway·yir·kaḇand he mountedH7392

√ râkab — to ride (on an animal or in a vehicle)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

râkab — to ride (on an animal or in a vehicle) The verb of mounted travel, and the only occurrence of the root in the unit. It sets the two men's speeds against each other: the old prophet rides, while the man of God, on Pulpit's reading of v. 23, walks, which is how an aged man overtakes him before he has cleared the district. Pulpit hears in the abrupt command the mind of a man who had already decided, at any cost, to bring the man of God back.

עָלָֽיו׃‘ā·lāwitH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPrepositionthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-said unto his-sons: “Bind-ye for-me the-donkey.” And-they-bound for-him the-donkey, and-he-rode upon-it.

Where the English smooths the original

חִבְשׁוּ־ חִבְשׁוּ־ (ḥiḇ·šū, Qal imperative plural of châbash, H2280) is not “put a saddle on” but “wrap firmly”: the root binds a turban, binds up a wound, girds a beast. It is the same verb Abraham uses at Genesis 22:3 and Ahithophel at 2 Samuel 17:23, in both cases the first act of a journey that ends at a decisive place.
הַחֲמ֑וֹר הַחֲמ֑וֹר (ha·ḥă·mō·wr, H2543) carries the article: the donkey, the household animal already known to the reader. Gill notes it is the one he was accustomed to ride, and that he had more than one (v. 27). The beast will outlive both the man of God and the story's suspense, standing in the road beside a corpse and a lion.
וַיִּרְכַּ֖ב וַיִּרְכַּ֖ב (way·yir·kaḇ, râkab, H7392) “and he rode.” The old prophet rides; the man of God walks (Pulpit and Cambridge both infer this from v. 23, though Cambridge argues the Judean had ridden from Jerusalem). The one who compromised travels comfortably and fast enough to overtake the one who obeyed.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

It has been suggested that the narrative implies a needless loitering of the prophet of Judah on the way. Taken by itself, it would not necessarily convey this; but in relation to the temper indicated in the whole story, the thing may be not improbable.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The terebinth is a very longlived tree, and an aged one would be sure to become noted.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

Being faint and weary with his journey, and possibly with the heat also, (which made him choose to rest in this shady place,) and especially with hunger and thirst,

Benson (with Poole and Gill) supplies hunger and heat as the reason for the halt. The Hebrew says only that he was sitting; the motive is inference, though a fair one given vv. 8-9.

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and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yê·leḵ ’a·ḥă·rê ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yim·ṣā·’ê·hū yō·šêḇ ta·ḥaṯ hā·’ê·lāh way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw ha·’at·tāh ’îš- hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ă·šer- bā·ṯā mî·hū·ḏāh ’ā·nî way·yō·mer

Word by word18 · parsed

וַיֵּ֗לֶךְway·yê·leḵand wentH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אַֽחֲרֵי֙’a·ḥă·rêafterH310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition

ʼachar — the hind part, after He goes after the man of God, a preposition of pursuit. What follows is not a chance meeting but an overtaking.

אִ֣ישׁ’îšthe manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֔יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

וַיִּ֨מְצָאֵ֔הוּway·yim·ṣā·’ê·hūHe found himH4672

√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

mâtsâʼ — to come forth to, to find The hinge word of the unit. Here the old prophet finds him under the tree; in v. 24 the lion finds him in the road with the same verb and the same suffix; in v. 28 the old prophet finds the body. Three findings, one root, and the man of God is the object of all three.

יֹשֵׁ֖בyō·šêḇsittingH3427

√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

yâshab — to sit He is sitting when he should be walking. The commandment concerned motion (v. 17: do not return by the way you came), and a man at rest under a landmark tree is a man who can be found.

תַּ֣חַתta·ḥaṯunderH8478

√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Preposition

הָאֵלָ֑הhā·’ê·lāhan oak treeH424

√ ʼêlâh — an oak or other strong treeArticleNounfeminine singular

ʼêlâh — an oak or other strong tree With the article. Cambridge notes the terebinth is very long-lived, and an aged one would be sure to become noted; Pulpit weighs whether this is the same tree as the oak of Beth-El (Genesis 35:8) and Deborah's palm (Judges 4:5).

וַיֹּ֣אמֶרway·yō·merand askedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֵלָ֗יו’ê·lāw. . .H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionthird person masculine singular

הַאַתָּ֧הha·’at·tāhAre youH859

√ ʼattâh — thou and thee, or (plural) ye and youArticlePronounsecond person masculine singular

אִישׁ־’îš-the manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֛יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-whoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

בָּ֥אתָbā·ṯācameH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectsecond person masculine singular

מִֽיהוּדָ֖הmî·hū·ḏāhfrom JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesPreposition-mNounpropermasculine singular

אָֽנִי׃’ā·nîI [am]H589

√ ʼănîy — IPronounfirst person common singular

ʼănîy — I A one-word confession of office. It is the last unqualified thing he says.

וַיֹּ֥אמֶרway·yō·merhe repliedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-went after the-man-of-the-God, and-he-found-him sitting under the-oak; and-he-said unto-him: “Art-thou the-man-of-the-God who camest from-Judah?” And-he-said: “I.”

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּ֨מְצָאֵ֔הוּ וַיִּ֨מְצָאֵ֔הוּ (way·yim·ṣā·’ê·hū, mâtsâʼ, H4672) “and he found him.” The identical form, letter for letter, is what the lion does in v. 24: a lion found him in the way. Pulpit flags the repetition and notes that מָצָא can mean a deliberate finding after search, not only chance. The old prophet's finding and the lion's finding are one verb; the second completes the first.
יֹשֵׁ֖ב יֹשֵׁ֖ב (yō·šêḇ) is the same participle used of the old prophet's settled residence in v. 11. The man of God, who was told to keep moving, is caught sitting. Ellicott records the suggestion that this implies a needless loitering, and grants that in relation to the temper of the whole story it may not be improbable.
הָאֵלָ֑ה הָאֵלָ֑ה (hā·’ê·lāh, ʼêlâh, H424, “an oak or other strong tree”) carries the article: the oak, a known landmark. Barnes and Cambridge both say a single well-known terebinth stood near Beth-El; Ellicott calls the phrase an evident mark of the antiquity of the document. BSB's “an oak tree” drops the definiteness that makes it a place.
אָֽנִי׃ אָֽנִי׃ (’ā·nî, H589) is the bare pronoun, I, with no verb: the whole answer is one word. BSB must add “am.” The man who will shortly be argued out of his commission here states it in a syllable.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The sting was in the tail of this invitation. If he would partake of food, he would thereby remove the ban and so neutralize one part of his mission.

source ↗

Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

This he did of a simple mind, thinking it his duty to declare friendship to a prophet.

Geneva reads the first invitation as innocent, the lie of v. 18 as the fall. Henry and Pulpit read the invitation itself as already calculated. The text distinguishes the two speeches, so Geneva's reading is at least defensible.

source ↗

John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

In which invitation no doubt he was hearty, and might have no ill design in it, only to have some conversation with him, as being a good man, and a prophet of the Lord, especially upon the subject of his prophecies at Bethel.

source ↗

So the prophet said to the man of God, “Come home with me and eat some bread.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yō·mer ’ê·lāw lêḵ hab·bā·yə·ṯāh ’it·tî we·’ĕ·ḵōl lā·ḥem

Word by word7 · parsed

וַיֹּ֣אמֶרway·yō·merSo [the prophet] saidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֵלָ֔יו’ê·lāwto [the man of God]H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionthird person masculine singular

לֵ֥ךְlêḵComeH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalImperativemasculine singular

hâlak — to walk, go The imperative that reverses the itinerary. Every later use of the root in this unit tracks the man of God's feet: he went (v. 14), he goes on his way (v. 24), the way he had gone (v. 12).

הַבָּ֑יְתָהhab·bā·yə·ṯāhhomeH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcArticleNounmasculine singularthird person feminine singular

bayith — a house, a household To enter the house is to take the place of a guest, and a guest cannot be under interdict. Pulpit puts the sting in the tail of the invitation: to partake of food would remove the ban and neutralise one part of the mission.

אִתִּ֖י’it·tîwith meH854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionfirst person common singular

וֶאֱכֹ֖לwe·’ĕ·ḵōland eatH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalImperativemasculine singular

לָֽחֶם׃lā·ḥemsome breadH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

lechem — bread, food Bread and water, the minimum of hospitality, and therefore the surest sign of fellowship. Refusing them had made the man of God's message a public excommunication of Beth-El.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-said unto-him: “Go with-me the-house-ward, and-eat bread.”

Where the English smooths the original

לֵ֥ךְ לֵ֥ךְ (lêḵ, imperative of hâlak, H1980) is “go,” not “come.” English inverts the deixis. The old prophet takes the verb of the man of God's journey and bends it back toward Beth-El: the road itself is turned around in a single word.
הַבָּ֑יְתָה הַבָּ֑יְתָה (hab·bā·yə·ṯāh, bayith, H1004, with the directive ending) is “house-ward, to the house.” Pulpit renders it “Come with me to the house.” The direction is the whole trap: not a meal in the open field but entry into a house in the condemned city.
לָֽחֶם׃ לָֽחֶם׃ (lā·ḥem, lechem, H3899) is food generally, not a loaf only. Cambridge is explicit that “to eat bread and to drink water” means to take food and drink of any sort, and that the prohibition intends that nothing whatever be taken. The ban is on communion, not on calories.

But the man replied, “I cannot go home with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yō·mer lō ’ū·ḵal lā·šūḇ ’it·tāḵ wə·lā·ḇō·w ’it·tāḵ wə·lō- ’ō·ḵal le·ḥem wə·lō- ’eš·teh ma·yim ’it·tə·ḵā haz·zeh bam·mā·qō·wm

Word by word16 · parsed

וַיֹּ֗אמֶרway·yō·merBut [the man] repliedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לֹ֥אlōI cannotH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

אוּכַ֛ל’ū·ḵal. . .H3201

√ yâkôl — to be able, literally (can, could) or morally (may, might)VerbQalImperfectfirst person common singular

yâkôl — to be able (physically or morally) The negation of ability, not of willingness. Gill notes he was resolute although there is every reason to think he was hungry and thirsty; the strength of the refusal here is what makes v. 19 so quiet and so terrible.

לָשׁ֥וּבlā·šūḇgo homeH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

shûwb — to turn back, to return The governing verb of the unit, and the one the whole chapter turns on. It is used of the man of God's disobedience (v. 19), of the old prophet's agency in it (vv. 20, 23, 26), and of Jeroboam's refusal to repent (v. 33), where the same root is first denied and then affirmed: he did not turn back from his evil way, but he turned back and made priests.

אִתָּ֖ךְ’it·tāḵ. . .H854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionsecond person masculine singular

וְלָב֣וֹאwə·lā·ḇō·w. . .H935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive waw, PrepositionVerbQalInfinitive construct

אִתָּ֑ךְ’it·tāḵwith youH854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionsecond person masculine singular

וְלֹֽא־wə·lō-and I will notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

אֹ֣כַל’ō·ḵaleatH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectfirst person common singular

לֶ֗חֶםle·ḥembreadH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

וְלֹֽא־wə·lō-. . .H3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

אֶשְׁתֶּ֤ה’eš·tehor drinkH8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectfirst person common singular

מַ֔יִםma·yimwaterH4325

√ mayim — waterNounmasculine plural

אִתְּךָ֙’it·tə·ḵāwith youH854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionsecond person masculine singular

הַזֶּֽה׃haz·zehin thisH2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatArticlePronounmasculine singular

בַּמָּק֖וֹםbam·mā·qō·wmplaceH4725

√ mâqôwm — properly, a standing, iPreposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular

mâqôwm — a standing, a place Cambridge observes the man of God had not gone far from Beth-El before sitting down to rest, so “this place” is still the condemned ground. Pulpit rejects the Vulgate's “in that place” as unsupported by the Hebrew.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-said: “Not am-I-able to-turn-back with-thee and-to-come with-thee; and-not will-I-eat bread and-not will-I-drink water with-thee in-the-place the-this.”

Where the English smooths the original

אוּכַ֛ל אוּכַ֛ל (’ū·ḵal, yâkôl, H3201, “to be able, literally or morally”) with the negative is “I am not able,” which Pulpit preserves against the weaker “I may not.” He does not claim reluctance; he claims incapacity. Three verses later the incapacity evaporates, which is the exact measure of the fall.
לָשׁ֥וּב לָשׁ֥וּב (lā·šūḇ, infinitive of shûwb, H7725, “to turn back, not necessarily returning to the starting point”) is the pivot-verb of the entire unit. It recurs at vv. 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 29 and finally of Jeroboam in v. 33. The man of God says he cannot shûwb; v. 19 opens with way·yā·šāḇ, and he does.
בַּמָּק֖וֹם בַּמָּק֖וֹם (bam·mā·qō·wm, mâqôwm, H4725) is “the place,” a word weighted in Hebrew with cultic sense (the place the LORD chooses; the place of sacrifice). Poole glosses it simply: in Beth-El, where thou desirest me to do it. The prohibition is territorial, and it is an indictment of a sanctuary.

For I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

kî- ’ê·lay ḏā·ḇār biḏ·ḇar Yah·weh lō- ṯō·ḵal le·ḥem wə·lō- ṯiš·teh mā·yim lō- šām ṯā·šūḇ hā·laḵ·tā bāh bad·de·reḵ ’ă·šer- lā·le·ḵeṯ

Word by word19 · parsed

כִּֽי־kî-ForH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

אֵלַי֙’ê·layIH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionfirst person common singular

דָבָ֤רḏā·ḇārhave been toldH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine singular

dâbâr — a word A verbless clause: a word came to him, and the narrative does not describe the manner. Gill assumes an angel brought it, which the text never says; that assumption is worth naming, because it is precisely the claim the liar makes next.

בִּדְבַ֣רbiḏ·ḇarby the wordH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

dâbâr — a word (construct) The technical formula of authorisation. Its repetition in v. 18 by a man with no such word is the crime of the chapter.

יְהוָ֔הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

לֹֽא־lō-You must notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

lôʼ — absolute negation The legal not, contrasted with ʼal in v. 22, where the quotation of the command shifts to the deprecative form.

תֹאכַ֣לṯō·ḵaleatH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular

לֶ֔חֶםle·ḥembreadH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

וְלֹֽא־wə·lō-. . .H3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

תִשְׁתֶּ֥הṯiš·tehor drinkH8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular

מָ֑יִםmā·yimwaterH4325

√ mayim — waterNounmasculine plural

לֹא־lō-. . .H3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

שָׁ֖םšāmthereH8033

√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb

תָשׁ֣וּבṯā·šūḇor returnH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular

shûwb — to turn back The third prohibition is not about food at all; it is about the road. Disobedience here was geographical before it was gastronomic.

הָלַ֥כְתָּhā·laḵ·tā. . .H1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)VerbQalPerfectsecond person masculine singular

בָּֽהּ׃bāh

Prepositionthird person feminine singular

בַּדֶּ֖רֶךְbad·de·reḵby the wayH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-b, ArticleNouncommon singular

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

לָלֶ֔כֶתlā·le·ḵeṯyou cameH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

Literal — word-for-word from the original

“For a-word unto-me in-the-word-of YHWH: ‘Not shalt-thou-eat bread and-not shalt-thou-drink water there; not shalt-thou-turn-back in-the-way that thou-wentest.’”

Where the English smooths the original

דָבָ֤ר דָבָ֤ר (ḏā·ḇār, H1697) stands in a verbless clause: literally “for a word unto me in the word of YHWH.” Pulpit gives the Hebrew bluntly as “a word to me.” BSB supplies “I have been told.” The Hebrew has no speaking verb at all, only the bare fact of a word, which is exactly what the old prophet will imitate in the next verse.
בִּדְבַ֣ר בִּדְבַ֣ר (biḏ·ḇar) is “in the word of YHWH,” not “by” it. Pulpit records the same preposition in v. 18 and marks it as identical. The formula is a credential, and in v. 18 it is forged word for word.
לֹֽא־ לֹֽא־ (lō, H3808) with the imperfect is the absolute, standing prohibition of law, not the softer ʼal of a momentary request. Three times in one breath: not eat, not drink, not turn back. The man of God quotes his commission with legal precision, and then breaks it.

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

It was believed, no doubt, because it chimed in with some secret reluctance to obey, and, by obedience, to give up all reward and hospitality. Hence the belief was a self-deceit, and, as such, culpable.

source ↗

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

This circuitous mode of speaking, instead of simply saying, "the Lord spake to me," was adopted to hide an equivocation, to conceal a double meaning—an inferior sense given to the word "angel"—to offer a seemingly superior authority to persuade the prophet, while really the authority was secretly known to the speaker to be inferior.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

And in this the Judæan prophet’s sin lay that he did not seek as much confirmation for the reversed order as he had for that which came to him at first.

source ↗

Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

His fault is here double, first in that he did not permit the prophet to obey God's express commandment, and next that he pretended to have a revelation to the contrary.

source ↗

Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet was lying to him,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yō·mer lōw ’ă·nî gam- nā·ḇî kā·mō·w·ḵā ū·mal·’āḵ dib·ber ’ê·lay biḏ·ḇar Yah·weh lê·mōr hă·ši·ḇê·hū ’it·tə·ḵā ’el- bê·ṯe·ḵā wə·yō·ḵal le·ḥem wə·yê·šət mā·yim ki·ḥêš lōw

Word by word22 · parsed

וַיֹּ֣אמֶרway·yō·merThen [the prophet] repliedH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

ל֗וֹlōw. . .

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

אֲנִ֣י’ă·nîIH589

√ ʼănîy — IPronounfirst person common singular

גַּם־gam-too [am]H1571

√ gam — properly, assemblageConjunction

נָבִיא֮nā·ḇîa prophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manNounmasculine singular

nâbîyʼ — a prophet, an inspired man The claim is true. He is a prophet: v. 20 proves it, since the word of the LORD really does come to him. The lie is not about his office but about his message, which is why it worked.

כָּמוֹךָ֒kā·mō·w·ḵālike youH3644

√ kᵉmôw — a form of the prefix 'k-', but used separately as, thus, soPrepositionsecond person masculine singular

וּמַלְאָ֡ךְū·mal·’āḵand an angelH4397

√ mălʼâk — a messengerConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular

mălʼâk — a messenger A word that covers both a human courier and a heavenly one. JFB, reading it in the lower sense, suggests the sons were the “messenger.” Whatever the intent, the man of God accepted a second-hand credential against a first-hand command.

דִּבֶּ֣רdib·berspokeH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular

אֵלַי֩’ê·layto meH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionfirst person common singular

בִּדְבַ֨רbiḏ·ḇarby the wordH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

יְהוָ֜הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

לֵאמֹ֗רlê·mōrsayingH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

הֲשִׁבֵ֤הוּhă·ši·ḇê·hūBring him backH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)VerbHifilImperativemasculine singularthird person masculine singular

shûwb (Hiphil) — to cause to turn back The counterfeit oracle is built from the true oracle's own vocabulary, reversed. This is the chapter's definition of deception: not new words, but the old words turned around.

אִתְּךָ֙’it·tə·ḵāwith youH854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionsecond person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

בֵּיתֶ֔ךָbê·ṯe·ḵāyour houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular constructsecond person masculine singular

וְיֹ֥אכַלwə·yō·ḵalso that he may eatH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive imperfectthird person masculine singular

לֶ֖חֶםle·ḥembreadH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

וְיֵ֣שְׁתְּwə·yê·šətand drinkH8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive imperfect Jussivethird person masculine singular

מָ֑יִםmā·yimwaterH4325

√ mayim — waterNounmasculine plural

כִּחֵ֖שׁki·ḥêšThe old prophet was lyingH3584

√ kâchash — to be untrue, in word (to lie, feign, disown) or deed (to disappoint, fail, cringe)VerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular

kâchash — to be untrue, to feign, to lie The narrator's verdict, asyndetic and unexplained. It settles the facts and settles nothing about the man's heart, which is why the commentators divide so sharply over him.

לֽוֹ׃lōwto him

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-said to-him: “I also a-prophet like-thee, and-a-messenger spoke unto-me in-the-word-of YHWH, saying: ‘Bring-him-back with-thee unto thy-house, and-let-him-eat bread and-drink water.’” He-lied to-him.

Where the English smooths the original

מַלְאָ֡ךְ מַלְאָ֡ךְ (ū·mal·’āḵ, mălʼâk, H4397) means simply “a messenger,” and only from context “an angel.” JFB builds his whole reading on that ambiguity: the circuitous phrase hides an equivocation, offering a seemingly superior authority while the speaker privately knows it is an inferior one. Pulpit answers that the celestial messenger was named precisely to claim a higher form of revelation. The Hebrew noun will bear either.
כִּחֵ֖שׁ כִּחֵ֖שׁ (ki·ḥêš, Piel of kâchash, H3584, “to be untrue in word or in deed, to feign, to disown”) is the narrator's own verdict, dropped in without a connecting waw. K&D notes the missing copula and calls it parenthetical, inserted simply as an explanation. Hebrew narrative almost never judges; here it does, in two words.
הֲשִׁבֵ֤הוּ הֲשִׁבֵ֤הוּ (hă·ši·ḇê·hū, Hiphil imperative of shûwb) is causative: “make him turn back.” The forged oracle commands precisely the one thing the true oracle forbade (v. 17, same root). A lie that merely added something would be easier to spot; this one inverts the original word using the original word's verb.
גַּם־ גַּם־ (gam, H1571, “assemblage, also”) carries the persuasion: I too am a prophet, like thee. Cambridge prefers the order “I also am a prophet,” and locates the Judean's sin exactly here, that he did not demand as much confirmation for the reversal as he had for the original.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

Too readily hearkening to his words, and not considering that what God himself had expressly commanded, nothing but the express command of the same God could set aside: otherwise the commands of God might be made of none effect by any one who should feign to have a divine commission.

source ↗

Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

Believers are most in danger of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretences of holiness.

source ↗

John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

but, after all, he ought to have taken no directions but from the Lord himself; in this he failed

Gill first lists everything that can be said in the man's favour, then withdraws all of it in this clause. The excerpt is the conclusion, not the whole argument.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Josephus thinks these things were from God as in the case of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.

Cambridge is reporting Josephus, not endorsing him. Josephus reads the whole episode as divinely arranged so that Jeroboam would discredit the prophet; the biblical text assigns the lie to the old prophet and the judgment to God, without that explanation.

source ↗

but the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yā·šāḇ ’it·tōw way·yō·ḵal le·ḥem bə·ḇê·ṯōw way·yê·šət mā·yim

Word by word7 · parsed

וַיָּ֣שָׁבway·yā·šāḇbut the man of God went backH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shûwb — to turn back The unit's pivot verb, now in the indicative. Everything the sentence of v. 22 charges him with is contained in this one form, and the charge will quote it back at him verbatim (wat·tā·šāḇ, v. 22).

אִתּ֗וֹ’it·tōwwith himH854

√ ʼêth — properly, nearness (used only as a preposition or an adverb), nearPrepositionthird person masculine singular

וַיֹּ֥אכַלway·yō·ḵalateH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

ʼâkal — to eat Benson's note sets the principle exactly: nothing but the express command of the same God could set aside what God himself had expressly commanded, otherwise any man feigning a commission could void the commands of God.

לֶ֛חֶםle·ḥembreadH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

בְּבֵית֖וֹbə·ḇê·ṯōwin his houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcPreposition-bNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

bayith — house The threshold, not the bread, is the line. Once inside, the excommunication he had pronounced on Beth-El (vv. 8-9) is, as Pulpit puts it, neutralised in one of its parts.

וַיֵּ֥שְׁתְּway·yê·šətand drankH8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

מָֽיִם׃mā·yimwaterH4325

√ mayim — waterNounmasculine plural

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-turned-back with-him, and-he-ate bread in-his-house, and-he-drank water.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיָּ֣שָׁב וַיָּ֣שָׁב (way·yā·šāḇ, shûwb, H7725) is the very verb he had said, three verses earlier, that he was not able to do (lā·šūḇ, v. 16), and the verb the forged oracle had commanded in the Hiphil (hă·ši·ḇê·hū, v. 18). BSB supplies the subject, “the man of God”; Hebrew gives only the verb, and the verb is the confession.
בְּבֵית֖וֹ בְּבֵית֖וֹ (bə·ḇê·ṯōw, bayith, H1004) is “in his house,” the house he had been invited to (v. 15) and had refused to enter (v. 16). The offence is not appetite but address: he eats inside Beth-El, under a roof, as a guest, which is precisely what the interdict forbade.
וַיֹּ֥אכַל וַיֹּ֥אכַל ... וַיֵּ֥שְׁתְּ: three consecutive imperfects, turned, ate, drank, and not one word of comment from the narrator, who had been willing to call the old prophet a liar in v. 18. Gill supplies the defence and then withdraws it: after all, he ought to have taken no directions but from the Lord himself.

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

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hêm yō·šə·ḇîm ’el- haš·šul·ḥå̄n p̄ way·hî də·ḇar- Yah·weh way·hî ’el- han·nā·ḇî ’ă·šer hĕ·šî·ḇōw

Word by word12 · parsed

הֵ֥םhêmWhile theyH1992

√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural

יֹשְׁבִ֖יםyō·šə·ḇîmwere sittingH3427

√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplemasculine plural

yâshab — to sit Cambridge notes they were having a proper meal, and that “eat bread and drink water” means to take food and drink of any kind. The judgment falls not after the sin but during it.

אֶל־’el-atH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

הַשֻּׁלְחָ֑ן פhaš·šul·ḥå̄n p̄the tableH7979

√ shulchân — a table (as spread out)ArticleNounmasculine singular

shulchân — a table (as spread out) The table of hospitality becomes the bench of sentence. Ellicott calls it the very table of treacherous hospitality, and Poole notes he was pleasing himself with a seasonable refreshment when the severe judgment met him.

וַֽיְהִי֙way·hî. . .H1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

דְּבַר־də·ḇar-the wordH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine singular construct

dâbâr — a word The formula the old prophet had counterfeited in v. 18 now arrives in earnest, and to him. Whatever he was, he was a man to whom the word of YHWH genuinely came, which is the fact K&D uses to argue he cannot have been a merely false prophet.

יְהוָ֔הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

וַיְהִ֕יway·hîcameH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

הַנָּבִ֖יאhan·nā·ḇîthe prophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerwhoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הֱשִׁיבֽוֹ׃hĕ·šî·ḇōwhad brought him backH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)VerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

shûwb (Hiphil) — to cause to turn back He is named here not by his office but by his act. From this verse on the narrative identifies him by what he did to the man of God (vv. 20, 23, 26).

Literal — word-for-word from the original

They sitting at the-table; and-it-was, the-word-of YHWH, and-it-came unto the-prophet who had-brought-him-back.

Where the English smooths the original

יֹשְׁבִ֖ים יֹשְׁבִ֖ים (yō·šə·ḇîm, plural participle of yâshab) is durative: while they are sitting. The same root that described the old prophet's settled residence in Beth-El (v. 11) and the man of God sitting under the oak (v. 14) now has them both seated together. Pulpit says he is taken in the act.
וַֽיְהִי֙ The verse carries וַֽיְהִי֙ (way·hî, hâyâh, H1961) twice, bracketing “the word of the LORD”: it came to be, the word of the LORD, and it came. The doubling is not redundancy but the standard prophetic formula opened out. BSB compresses it to a single “came.”
הֱשִׁיבֽוֹ׃ הֱשִׁיבֽוֹ׃ (hĕ·šî·ḇōw, Hiphil perfect of shûwb with suffix) is “he caused him to turn back.” Gill and Poole both note the Hebrew can also be pointed to mean “the prophet whom he had brought back,” which the Syriac, Arabic and Junius follow; Poole weighs the arguments and keeps the received sense, since v. 21 makes it plain who speaks.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

It was his duty not to have suffered himself to be persuaded. He should have felt that his obedience was being tried, and should have required, ere he considered himself released, "the same, or as strong, evidence," as that on which he had received the obligation. Disobedience to certain positive commands of God, was one which it was at this time very important to punish signally, since it was exactly the sin of Jeroboam and his adherents.

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah—rather, "it cried," that is, the word of the Lord.

JFB's repointing (“it cried,” the word of the LORD as subject) is a minority reading; Poole, Gill and Pulpit all take the old prophet as the one who cries out.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

God would reprove his folly by him who caused him to err.

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and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God gave you,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yiq·rā ’el- ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ă·šer- bā mî·hū·ḏāh kōh ’ā·mar Yah·weh lê·mōr ya·‘an kî mā·rî·ṯā pî Yah·weh wə·lō šā·mar·tā ’eṯ- ham·miṣ·wāh ’ă·šer Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā ṣiw·wə·ḵā

Word by word24 · parsed

וַיִּקְרָ֞אway·yiq·rāand the prophet cried outH7121

√ qârâʼ — to call out to (iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

qârâʼ — to call out, proclaim The same verb as 13:2. The chapter's two oracles are bound by it, and by a grim symmetry: the voice that cried against the altar is now cried against.

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

אִ֣ישׁ’îšthe manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֗יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-whoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

בָּ֤אbāhad comeH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

מִֽיהוּדָה֙mî·hū·ḏāhfrom JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesPreposition-mNounpropermasculine singular

כֹּ֖הkōhThis is whatH3541

√ kôh — properly, like this, iAdverb

אָמַ֣ר’ā·mar. . .H559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

יְהוָ֑הYah·wehthe LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

לֵאמֹ֔רlê·mōrsaysH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

יַ֗עַןya·‘anBecauseH3282

√ yaʻan — properly, heedAdverb

כִּ֤יkî. . .H3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

מָרִ֙יתָ֙mā·rî·ṯāyou have defiedH4784

√ mârâh — to be (causatively, make) bitter (or unpleasant)VerbQalPerfectsecond person masculine singular

mârâh — to be bitter, rebellious The formal charge. Barnes explains why the penalty is so heavy: disobedience to a positive command of God was at that moment exactly the sin of Jeroboam and his adherents, and to let it pass in a prophet would have voided the whole mission.

פִּ֣יpîthe wordH6310

√ peh — the mouth (as the means of blowing), whether literal or figurative (particularly speech)Nounmasculine singular construct

peh — the mouth, the means of speech Against the mouth of YHWH the man of God had set the report of a mouth that lied. The noun is the indictment in one syllable.

יְהוָ֔הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

וְלֹ֤אwə·lōand have notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

שָׁמַ֙רְתָּ֙šā·mar·tākeptH8104

√ shâmar — properly, to hedge about (as with thorns), iVerbQalPerfectsecond person masculine singular

shâmar — to hedge about, to guard The verb of covenant keeping. It names the failure precisely: not rejection of the word, but failure to guard it against a plausible substitute.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הַמִּצְוָ֔הham·miṣ·wāhthe commandmentH4687

√ mitsvâh — a command, whether human or divine (collectively, the Law)ArticleNounfeminine singular

mitsvâh — a command, the Law collectively A weighty term, deliberately chosen. What was given to this man in vv. 8-9 was not advice about hospitality but mitsvâh, and Geneva notes the bitter fitness that God reproves his folly by the very man who caused him to err.

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerthatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

יְהוָ֥הYah·wehthe LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃’ĕ·lō·he·ḵāyour GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseNounmasculine plural constructsecond person masculine singular

צִוְּךָ֖ṣiw·wə·ḵāgave youH6680

√ tsâvâh — (intensively) to constitute, enjoinVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singularsecond person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-cried unto the-man-of-the-God who came from-Judah, saying: “Thus said YHWH: ‘Because thou-hast-rebelled-against the-mouth-of YHWH, and-not hast-thou-kept the-commandment that commanded-thee YHWH thy-God,

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּקְרָ֞א וַיִּקְרָ֞א (way·yiq·rā, qârâʼ, H7121, to call out) is the same verb used of the man of God crying against the altar in 13:2, as Pulpit points out: he who denounced the sin of Jeroboam is now denounced in turn. JFB reads the subject differently, “it cried, that is, the word of the LORD.” Poole hears in the loudness the speaker's own guilt and shame.
מָרִ֙יתָ֙ מָרִ֙יתָ֙ (mā·rî·ṯā, mârâh, H4784) is not “defied” in the sense of open defiance but “to be bitter, to be rebellious.” Cambridge notes that a very frequent rendering is “to rebel against the word of the LORD,” and that the identical expression recurs in v. 26. The man did not defy anything; he yielded, and Hebrew calls yielding to a false word rebellion.
פִּ֣י פִּ֣י (pî, peh, H6310, the mouth) is literal: “the mouth of YHWH,” which BSB renders “the word.” Poole calls it a metonymy of the cause for the effect; Cambridge records that the Revised Version restores “mouth” for consistency with v. 26. The image matters: a command that came out of a mouth, set against a command that came through a stranger's.
שָׁמַ֙רְתָּ֙ שָׁמַ֙רְתָּ֙ (šā·mar·tā, shâmar, H8104) is properly “to hedge about, as with thorns,” hence to guard. Not merely to obey a commandment but to fence it. What the man of God failed to do was put a hedge around a word he already had.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

i.e. Thou shalt not die a natural, but a violent death; and that in this journey, before thou returnest to thy native habitation; and thy carcass shall not be buried in the proper sepulchre; which was esteemed a kind of curse, and a note of infamy; as the contrary was reckoned an honour and blessing.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

With the Jews, as since with Christians, burial rites were much regarded. To be cast out unburied was deemed a great calamity (cf. Psalm 79:3 ; Jeremiah 14:16 ), and a judgement for sin, as in the case of Jezebel ( 2 Kings 9:10 ). To be buried by the side of one’s ancestors shews that all care has been bestowed upon the corpse. In the present instance the deprivation of such burial is equivalent to death in some unusual way and at a distance from home.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

rather corpse ; "carcase" is now a term of disparagement, of which, however, there is no idea in the Hebrew

Pulpit is correcting the English of the Authorised Version, not denying that nᵉbêlâh is the word used elsewhere of defiling flesh.

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but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wat·tā·šāḇ wat·tō·ḵal le·ḥem wat·tê·šət ma·yim bam·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer dib·ber ’ê·le·ḵā ’al- tō·ḵal le·ḥem wə·’al- tê·šət mā·yim niḇ·lā·ṯə·ḵā lō- ṯā·ḇō·w ’el- qe·ḇer ’ă·ḇō·ṯe·ḵā

Word by word21 · parsed

וַתָּ֗שָׁבwat·tā·šāḇbut you went backH7725

shûwb — to turn back The word of judgment is built from the words of the deed. Three verbs of v. 19 return here in the second person, and only then does the sentence follow.

וַתֹּ֤אכַלwat·tō·ḵaland ateH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectsecond person masculine singular

לֶ֙חֶם֙le·ḥembreadH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

וַתֵּ֣שְׁתְּwat·tê·šətand drankH8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectsecond person masculine singular

מַ֔יִםma·yimwaterH4325

√ mayim — waterNounmasculine plural

בַּמָּקוֹם֙bam·mā·qō·wmin the placeH4725

√ mâqôwm — properly, a standing, iPreposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerwhereH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

דִּבֶּ֣רdib·berHe toldH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular

dâbar — to speak Cambridge notes the Hebrew has simply “he said to thee,” with no need for the italicised supply of “the LORD,” since there can be no mistaking who is meant.

אֵלֶ֔יךָ’ê·le·ḵāyouH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPrepositionsecond person masculine singular

אַל־’al-notH408

√ ʼal — not (the qualified negation, used as a deprecative)Adverb

תֹּ֥אכַלtō·ḵalto do soH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfectsecond person masculine singular

לֶ֖חֶםle·ḥem. . .H3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

וְאַל־wə·’al-. . .H408

√ ʼal — not (the qualified negation, used as a deprecative)Conjunctive wawAdverb

תֵּ֣שְׁתְּtê·šət. . .H8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbQalImperfect Jussivesecond person masculine singular

מָ֑יִםmā·yim. . .H4325

√ mayim — waterNounmasculine plural

נִבְלָתְךָ֖niḇ·lā·ṯə·ḵāyour bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iNounfeminine singular constructsecond person masculine singular

nᵉbêlâh — a carcass, a flabby thing The word that will govern the rest of the unit, occurring seven times in vv. 22-30. Its other homes in the canon are the laws of defilement (Leviticus 11), the body forbidden to hang overnight (Deuteronomy 21:23), and the covenant curse of unburied dead (Jeremiah 16:4). The sentence names him with the vocabulary of what defiles.

לֹֽא־lō-shall neverH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

תָב֥וֹאṯā·ḇō·wreachH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)VerbQalImperfectthird person feminine singular

אֶל־’el-. . .H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

קֶ֥בֶרqe·ḇerthe tombH6913

√ qeber — a sepulchreNounmasculine singular construct

qeber — a sepulchre Barnes gathers the Hebrew anxiety to be buried with one's fathers from Genesis 47:30, Genesis 49:29 and 2 Samuel 19:37. The judgment is not annihilation but exclusion: he will be buried, and not at home.

אֲבֹתֶֽיךָ׃’ă·ḇō·ṯe·ḵāof your fathersH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructsecond person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

‘and-thou-didst-turn-back and-eat bread and-drink water in-the-place that he-said unto-thee: “not eat bread and-not drink water” — not shall-come thy-carcase unto the-grave-of thy-fathers.’”

Where the English smooths the original

וַתָּ֗שָׁב וַתָּ֗שָׁב (wat·tā·šāḇ) is the verb of v. 19 turned into the second person and thrown back at him. The charge is not summarised; it is quoted. Hebrew indicts by repetition.
נִבְלָתְךָ֖ נִבְלָתְךָ֖ (niḇ·lā·ṯə·ḵā, nᵉbêlâh, H5038) is rendered by the lexicon “a flabby thing,” the word for a carcass, including the carcass of an animal that died of itself and so defiles whoever touches it (Leviticus 11). Pulpit objects that “carcase” is now merely a term of disparagement and that the Hebrew carries no such idea; but the word is not neutral either. The man who refused defiling bread is named with the word for defiling flesh.
אַל־ אַל־ (ʼal, H408) here replaces the lōʼ of v. 17: the quotation of the command shifts from the absolute negative to the deprecative. A small grammatical shift, but it reports the command as spoken address (“do not eat”) rather than as standing statute.
קֶ֥בֶר קֶ֥בֶר (qe·ḇer, H6913) with אֲבֹתֶֽיךָ: the family tomb. Cambridge documents that to be cast out unburied was reckoned a great calamity and a judgment for sin, and Poole calls it a kind of curse and a note of infamy. Pulpit cautions that the words do not by themselves require a violent or even a speedy death, against K&D, who reads them as announcing exactly that.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The man of God had been delayed by his return to Bethel, and the prophet, out of pity, lends or gives him his ass. Not merely, it is probable, for the sake of speeding him on his way, but that he might have some living thing with him on a journey which he had so much cause to dread.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

But it is observable, he does not accompany him: his guilty conscience making him fear to be involved in the same judgment with him.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

There has been no mention before of an ass belonging to the prophet of Judah, but as travelling was ordinarily performed in this way, we may suppose that he had ridden from Jerusalem, and had been riding back.

Cambridge assumes the man of God had his own donkey all along; Pulpit assumes he travelled on foot and that the old prophet lent him one. The Hebrew of v. 23 is what both are trying to resolve.

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And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·hî ’a·ḥă·rê ’ā·ḵə·lōw le·ḥem wə·’a·ḥă·rê šə·ṯō·w·ṯōw lan·nā·ḇî ’ă·šer hĕ·šî·ḇōw way·ya·ḥă·ḇāš- ha·ḥă·mō·wr lōw

Word by word12 · parsed

וַיְהִ֗יway·hîAndH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אַחֲרֵ֛י’a·ḥă·rêafterH310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition

אָכְל֥וֹ’ā·ḵə·lōw[the man of God] had finished eatingH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular

ʼâkal — to eat Infinitive with suffix. Gill notes that the sentence did not spoil the appetite of either man: they proceeded to finish the meal, which one would have thought impossible.

לֶ֖חֶםle·ḥemH3899

√ lechem — food (for man or beast), especially bread, or grain (for making it)Nounmasculine singular

וְאַחֲרֵ֣יwə·’a·ḥă·rêandH310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partConjunctive wawPreposition

שְׁתוֹת֑וֹšə·ṯō·w·ṯōwdrinkingH8354

√ shâthâh — to imbibe (literally or figuratively)VerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular

לַנָּבִ֖יאlan·nā·ḇîthe old prophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

nâbîyʼ — a prophet The disputed word of the verse. Pulpit's argument from usage is strong (the Judean is never called nâbîyʼ in this chapter), but Cambridge answers that the parallel prepositions make “for him ... for the prophet” the natural reading. This synthesis records both and settles neither.

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerwhoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הֱשִׁיבֽוֹ׃hĕ·šî·ḇōwhad brought him backH7725

וַיַּחֲבָשׁ־way·ya·ḥă·ḇāš-saddledH2280

√ châbash — to wrap firmly (especially a turban, compress, or saddle)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

châbash — to bind on, to saddle Benson notices what the verse does not say: the old prophet saddles the beast but does not travel with him, his guilty conscience making him fear to be involved in the same judgment.

הַחֲמ֔וֹרha·ḥă·mō·wrthe donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)ArticleNounmasculine singular

ל֣וֹlōwfor him

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-it-was, after his-eating bread and-after his-drinking, and-he-bound for-him the-donkey, for-the-prophet who had-brought-him-back.

Where the English smooths the original

אָכְל֥וֹ אָכְל֥וֹ and שְׁתוֹת֑וֹ are infinitives construct with pronominal suffixes: literally “after his eating bread and after his drinking.” BSB turns them into a finite clause (“had finished eating and drinking”). Gill draws the uncomfortable implication from the Hebrew sequence: the word of judgment came while they ate, and they finished the meal anyway.
וַיַּחֲבָשׁ־ וַיַּחֲבָשׁ־ (châbash, H2280) for the second of three times in the unit (vv. 13, 23, 27). The same verb that fetched him back now sends him out, and will finally carry his corpse home. The narrative marks its three movements with one uncommon verb.
לַנָּבִ֖יא לַנָּבִ֖יא אֲשֶׁר הֱשִׁיבוֹ is genuinely ambiguous. BSB and Cambridge read “for the prophet whom he had brought back”; Pulpit argues at length that the term “prophet” in this chapter always denotes the Beth-El man (the Judean is always “the man of God”), and that the lamed is the dative of possession, so that the sense is “he saddled for him the ass of the prophet who had brought him back.” On Pulpit's reading the old prophet gives away his own beast.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

This sad catastrophe was a severe but necessary judgment of God, to attest the truth of the message with which the prophet had been charged. All the circumstances of this tragic occurrence (the undevoured carcass, the untouched ass, the passengers unmolested by the lion, though standing there) were calculated to produce an irresistible impression that the hand of God was in it.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

He had no sufficient discharge from the former command; for he neither was assured that the old man was a prophet, nor that the message he delivered was from God; but had reason to suspect the contrary, or at least to inquire the mind of God in this doubtful point, which he grossly neglected to do, and willingly believed the message, because it suited with his own inclination and necessity.

This is the first of three answers Poole gives to the question why so good a man was punished so severely; the other two are that the punishment was less than it appears and that it served God's public purposes.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

He had "the word of the Lord;" that is to say, the voice of God, borne in upon his soul, forbidding his return, and the word of an irreligious stranger, who gave no "sign the same day" in proof of his mission, authorizing it. There can be no doubt which he ought to have followed

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The lion of Palestine is probably of the variety still constantly found in the neighbourhood of Babylon; and the prevalence of lions is shown by the occurrence of such names as Lebaoth, or Bethlebaoth, “the house of lions” (see Joshua 15:32 ), and by the many names for the lion used in Scripture, as, for example, in Job 4:10-11 . Now that the forests have disappeared from Palestine the lions have disappeared with them.

Ellicott's note is zoological and topographical, establishing that a lion on the Beth-El road was unremarkable in itself. What is remarkable is only what it did not do.

source ↗

As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yê·leḵ ’ar·yêh way·yim·ṣā·’ê·hū bad·de·reḵ way·mî·ṯê·hū niḇ·lā·ṯōw wat·tə·hî muš·le·ḵeṯ bad·de·reḵ wə·ha·ḥă·mō·wr ‘ō·mêḏ ’eṣ·lāh wə·hā·’ar·yêh ‘ō·mêḏ ’ê·ṣel han·nə·ḇê·lāh

Word by word16 · parsed

וַיֵּ֕לֶךְway·yê·leḵAs he went on his wayH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אַרְיֵ֛ה’ar·yêha lionH738

√ ʼărîy — a lionNounmasculine singular

וַיִּמְצָאֵ֧הוּway·yim·ṣā·’ê·hūmet himH4672

√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

mâtsâʼ — to come forth to, to find The third of the unit's three findings, and the decisive one. The old prophet found him sitting (v. 14), the lion finds him going, and the old prophet will find the body (v. 28).

בַּדֶּ֖רֶךְbad·de·reḵon the roadH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-b, ArticleNouncommon singular

וַיְמִיתֵ֑הוּway·mî·ṯê·hūand killed himH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

mûwth (Hiphil) — to cause to die The verse spends one word on the killing and thirteen on the tableau. The theology is in the proportion.

נִבְלָתוֹ֙niḇ·lā·ṯōwand his bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

וַתְּהִ֤יwat·tə·hîwasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person feminine singular

מֻשְׁלֶ֣כֶתmuš·le·ḵeṯleft lyingH7993

√ shâlak — to throw out, down or away (literally or figuratively)VerbHofalParticiplefeminine singular

shâlak — to throw out, down or away (Hofal) The participle of the covenant curse: a body left where it fell, in the open road. Deuteronomy 21:23 and Jeremiah 16:4 use the same vocabulary of the same horror.

בַּדֶּ֔רֶךְbad·de·reḵin the roadH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-b, ArticleNouncommon singular

וְהַחֲמוֹר֙wə·ha·ḥă·mō·wrwith the donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)Conjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine singular

עֹמֵ֣ד‘ō·mêḏH5975

√ ʻâmad — to stand, in various relations (literal and figurative, intransitive and transitive)VerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

ʻâmad — to stand Two standing participles, a lion that does not eat and a donkey that does not bolt. Geneva reduces it to a rule of evidence: if the lion had done it for hunger he would also have devoured the body.

אֶצְלָ֔הּ’eṣ·lāhH681

√ ʼêtsel — a sidePrepositionthird person feminine singular

וְהָ֣אַרְיֵ֔הwə·hā·’ar·yêhand the lionH738

√ ʼărîy — a lionConjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine singular

עֹמֵ֖ד‘ō·mêḏstandingH5975

√ ʻâmad — to stand, in various relations (literal and figurative, intransitive and transitive)VerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

אֵ֥צֶל’ê·ṣelbesideH681

√ ʼêtsel — a sidePreposition

הַנְּבֵלָֽה׃han·nə·ḇê·lāh[it]H5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iArticleNounfeminine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-went, and-found-him a-lion in-the-way, and-it-killed-him; and-was his-carcase cast-down in-the-way, and-the-donkey standing beside-it, and-the-lion standing beside the-carcase.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּמְצָאֵ֧הוּ וַיִּמְצָאֵ֧הוּ (way·yim·ṣā·’ê·hū) is the identical form, letter for letter and suffix for suffix, used of the old prophet in v. 14. Pulpit flags the repetition and notes that mâtsâʼ often means finding after a search, not chance. BSB's “met him” hides the echo: the same verb finds him under the oak and in the road.
וַיְמִיתֵ֑הוּ וַיְמִיתֵ֑הוּ (Hiphil of mûwth, H4191) is causative, “caused him to die,” and it is all the narrative says about the death. No struggle, no lament, no detail. Every remaining word of the verse is about what happened after, and about what did not happen.
מֻשְׁלֶ֣כֶת מֻשְׁלֶ֣כֶת (muš·le·ḵeṯ, Hofal participle of shâlak, H7993, to throw out, down or away) is passive and stative: the body having been cast down and left so. The same pairing of shâlak with nᵉbêlâh marks the exposed corpses of Joshua 8:29 and Jeremiah 36:30.
עֹמֵ֣ד עֹמֵ֣ד (ʻā·maḏ, H5975) appears twice as a participle, of the donkey and of the lion, freezing the scene. K&D reads the whole arrangement as designed so that the death could not be taken for an accident; JFB lists the same details as producing an irresistible impression that the hand of God was in it.

And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·hin·nêh ’ă·nā·šîm ‘ō·ḇə·rîm way·yir·’ū ’eṯ- han·nə·ḇê·lāh muš·le·ḵeṯ bad·de·reḵ wə·’eṯ- hā·’ar·yêh ‘ō·mêḏ ’ê·ṣel han·nə·ḇê·lāh way·yā·ḇō·’ū way·ḏab·bə·rū ḇā·‘îr ’ă·šer haz·zā·qên han·nā·ḇî yō·šêḇ bāh

Word by word21 · parsed

וְהִנֵּ֧הwə·hin·nêhAnd there wereH2009

√ hinnêh — lo!Conjunctive wawInterjection

hinnêh — lo! behold! The word that makes the reader a witness. Pulpit says this publicity was precisely what God designed, so that the disobedience and death of the man of God became part of the protest against the new rites.

אֲנָשִׁ֣ים’ă·nā·šîmmenH582

√ ʼĕnôwsh — a man in general (singly or collectively)Nounmasculine plural

עֹבְרִ֗ים‘ō·ḇə·rîmpassing byH5674

√ ʻâbar — to cross overVerbQalParticiplemasculine plural

וַיִּרְא֤וּway·yir·’ūwho sawH7200

râʼâh — to see Benson notes what struck the travellers: not merely a death, but a lion that neither devoured its prey nor troubled the passers-by.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הַנְּבֵלָה֙han·nə·ḇê·lāhthe bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iArticleNounfeminine singular

מֻשְׁלֶ֣כֶתmuš·le·ḵeṯlyingH7993

√ shâlak — to throw out, down or away (literally or figuratively)VerbHofalParticiplefeminine singular

בַּדֶּ֔רֶךְbad·de·reḵin the roadH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-b, ArticleNouncommon singular

וְאֶת־wə·’eṯ-withH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker

הָ֣אַרְיֵ֔הhā·’ar·yêhthe lionH738

√ ʼărîy — a lionArticleNounmasculine singular

עֹמֵ֖ד‘ō·mêḏstandingH5975

√ ʻâmad — to stand, in various relations (literal and figurative, intransitive and transitive)VerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

אֵ֣צֶל’ê·ṣelbesideH681

√ ʼêtsel — a sidePreposition

הַנְּבֵלָ֑הhan·nə·ḇê·lāhitH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iArticleNounfeminine singular

וַיָּבֹ֙אוּ֙way·yā·ḇō·’ūand they wentH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

וַיְדַבְּר֣וּway·ḏab·bə·rūand reported thisH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

בָעִ֔ירḇā·‘îrin the cityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine singular

אֲשֶׁ֛ר’ă·šerwhereH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הַזָּקֵ֖ןhaz·zā·qênthe oldH2205

√ zâqên — oldArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

הַנָּבִ֥יאhan·nā·ḇîprophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manArticleNounmasculine singular

יֹשֵׁ֥בyō·šêḇlivedH3427

√ yâshab — properly, to sit down (specifically as judgeVerbQalParticiplemasculine singular

yâshab — to dwell The last use of the participle that opened the unit. The old prophet is still settled in Beth-El, and the body is on the road.

בָּֽהּ׃bāh

Prepositionthird person feminine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-behold, men passing-by, and-they-saw the-carcase cast-down in-the-way and-the-lion standing beside the-carcase; and-they-came and-they-spoke in-the-city where the-prophet the-old was-dwelling in-it.

Where the English smooths the original

וְהִנֵּ֧ה וְהִנֵּ֧ה (hinnêh, H2009, “lo!”) is the narrator's pointing finger, which BSB flattens into “and there were.” The interjection puts the reader among the passers-by, seeing what they saw. The scene is staged to be witnessed.
וַיִּרְא֤וּ וַיִּרְא֤וּ (râʼâh, H7200) is the same verb and form used of the sons in v. 12. The sons saw which way he went, and now strangers see where he ended; the news travels the same road twice, in opposite directions.
יֹשֵׁ֥ב יֹשֵׁ֥ב (yō·šêḇ) closes the circle opened in v. 11: the city where the old prophet was dwelling, the same participle. Cambridge asks why the circumlocution is used when Beth-El has already been named, and suggests the point is that the news spread in all directions and so reached, among other places, the one it specially concerned.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

There is in his words a characteristic reticence as to his own share in the work, in respect both of the deceit and the prediction of judgment, perhaps indicating something of the strange mixture of remorse and unscrupulous policy which comes out in his later action.

source ↗

John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

but not a syllable does he say of his own sin in deceiving him; though one would think his own conscience must smite him for it

source ↗

Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

We cannot judge of men by their sufferings, nor of sins by present punishments; with some, the flesh is destroyed, that the spirit may be saved; with others, the flesh is pampered, that the soul may ripen for hell.

Henry's block covers vv. 23-34; this sentence is his answer to the asymmetry of the chapter, that the liar lives and the man of God dies.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The word "is very expressive, for the lion kills with one blow" (Thenius)

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When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard this, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to him.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

han·nā·ḇî ’ă·šer hĕ·šî·ḇōw min- had·de·reḵ way·yiš·ma‘ way·yō·mer hū ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm ’ă·šer mā·rāh ’eṯ- pî Yah·weh Yah·weh way·yit·tə·nê·hū lā·’ar·yêh way·yiš·bə·rê·hū way·mi·ṯê·hū kiḏ·ḇar Yah·weh ’ă·šer dib·ber- lōw

Word by word25 · parsed

הַנָּבִיא֮han·nā·ḇîWhen the prophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerwhoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

הֱשִׁיב֣וֹhĕ·šî·ḇōwhad brought him backH7725

מִן־min-fromH4480

√ min — properly, a part ofPreposition

הַדֶּרֶךְ֒had·de·reḵhis journeyH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)ArticleNouncommon singular

וַיִּשְׁמַ֣עway·yiš·ma‘heard thisH8085

√ shâmaʻ — to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙way·yō·merhe saidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

ה֔וּאhūIt [is]H1931

√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)Pronounthird person masculine singular

אִ֣ישׁ’îšthe manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֣יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerwhoH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

מָרָ֖הmā·rāhdisobeyedH4784

√ mârâh — to be (causatively, make) bitter (or unpleasant)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

mârâh — to rebel, be bitter Identical to v. 21. He recites the verdict accurately and omits himself from it; Gill notes that not a syllable is said of his own sin, though one would think his conscience must have smitten him.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

פִּ֣יpîthe commandH6310

√ peh — the mouth (as the means of blowing), whether literal or figurative (particularly speech)Nounmasculine singular construct

יְהוָ֑הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

יְהוָ֜הYah·wehTherefore the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּתְּנֵ֨הוּway·yit·tə·nê·hūhas delivered himH5414

√ nâthan — to give, used with greatest latitude of application (put, make, etcConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

nâthan — to give, deliver over The strongest theological claim in the unit, and it is made by the liar. Whatever else he was, he read the event correctly.

לָאַרְיֵ֗הlā·’ar·yêhto the lionH738

√ ʼărîy — a lionPreposition-l, ArticleNounmasculine singular

וַֽיִּשְׁבְּרֵ֙הוּ֙way·yiš·bə·rê·hūand it has mauled himH7665

√ shâbar — to burst (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

shâbar — to burst, to break A single blow. The verb's reappearance in v. 28 (the lion had not broken the donkey) turns the same word into the proof that the killing was targeted, not predatory.

וַיְמִתֵ֔הוּway·mi·ṯê·hūand killed himH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

כִּדְבַ֥רkiḏ·ḇaraccording to the wordH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordPreposition-kNounmasculine singular construct

dâbâr — a word “According to the word of YHWH which He spoke to him.” The sentence of v. 22, delivered through this man's mouth, is here confirmed by this man's mouth. The unit's whole argument is that the word does what it says.

יְהוָ֖הYah·wehthat the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֥ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

דִּבֶּר־dib·ber-had spokenH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeVerbPielPerfectthird person masculine singular

לֽוֹ׃lōwto him

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-heard the-prophet who had-brought-him-back from the-way, and-he-said: “He is the-man-of-the-God who rebelled-against the-mouth-of YHWH; and-YHWH gave-him to-the-lion, and-it-broke-him and-killed-him, according-to-the-word-of YHWH that he-spoke to-him.”

Where the English smooths the original

מָרָ֖ה מָרָ֖ה (mā·rāh, mârâh, H4784) repeats the exact charge of v. 21, as Cambridge notes, and both there and here the object is the mouth of YHWH. The old prophet quotes the oracle he himself delivered, and repeats every word of the indictment except the part that concerns him.
וַיִּתְּנֵ֨הוּ וַיִּתְּנֵ֨הוּ (nâthan, H5414) is “gave him over, handed him to.” Not that a lion found him, but that YHWH gave him to the lion. The old prophet's theology of the event is exact and unflinching, and is the reading K&D and JFB both adopt.
וַֽיִּשְׁבְּרֵ֙הוּ֙ וַֽיִּשְׁבְּרֵ֙הוּ֙ (shâbar, H7665) is “to burst, to break,” not “to maul.” K&D glosses it frangere, confringere, of a lion tearing its prey; Pulpit cites Thenius that the word is very expressive, since the lion kills with a single blow. The same verb returns in v. 28 for what the lion did not do to the donkey.
ה֔וּא ה֔וּא (hū, H1931) opens his speech with a bare pronoun: “He, the man of God, who rebelled.” Ellicott hears a characteristic reticence in the wording, silence both about his own deceit and about his own part in the prediction.

Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ḏab·bêr ’el- bā·nāw lê·mōr ḥiḇ·šū- ’eṯ- ha·ḥă·mō·wr lî way·ya·ḥă·ḇō·šū

Word by word9 · parsed

וַיְדַבֵּ֤רway·ḏab·bêrThen the old prophet instructedH1696

√ dâbar — perhaps properly, to arrangeConjunctive wawVerbPielConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

dâbar — to arrange, to speak The Piel of ordered speech. It is the third time in the unit he gives his sons an instruction (vv. 13, 27, 31), and each one moves a body.

אֶל־’el-. . .H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

בָּנָיו֙bā·nāwhis sonsH1121

לֵאמֹ֔רlê·mōr. . .H559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

חִבְשׁוּ־ḥiḇ·šū-SaddleH2280

√ châbash — to wrap firmly (especially a turban, compress, or saddle)VerbQalImperativemasculine plural

châbash — to bind on, to saddle The third and final saddling. Gill notes that he must have owned more than one beast, since he had already sent the man of God off with one.

אֶֽת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הַחֲמ֑וֹרha·ḥă·mō·wrthe donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)ArticleNounmasculine singular

לִ֖יlîfor me

Prepositionfirst person common singular

וַֽיַּחֲבֹֽשׁוּ׃way·ya·ḥă·ḇō·šūSo they saddled [it]H2280

√ châbash — to wrap firmly (especially a turban, compress, or saddle)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

châbash — to saddle Poole explains the old prophet's willingness to ride out where others feared: he was secure, since so many had passed unharmed, and he perceived the death was a judgment of God for special reasons.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-spoke unto his-sons, saying: “Bind-ye for-me the-donkey.” And-they-bound.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר (Piel of dâbar, H1696) replaces the wayyōmer of v. 13: he does not merely say now, he instructs. The same root that the chapter uses for the word of YHWH is used here for a household order, which is the quiet irony of the verse.
חִבְשׁוּ־ חִבְשׁוּ־ is word for word the command of v. 13: saddle me the donkey. Nothing in between has changed the old prophet's habit of speech. The frame closes on itself, and the second ride is to collect what the first ride caused.
וַֽיַּחֲבֹֽשׁוּ׃ וַֽיַּחֲבֹֽשׁוּ׃ ends the verse with no object at all: “and they saddled.” BSB supplies “it.” The Hebrew simply stops, and the next verse is the road.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

As an evidence that the prophet’s death was not casual, nor the effect of a lion’s ravenous disposition, but of God’s singular and just judgment, who had directed the lion, by a supernatural power, how far to go, and where to stop;

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

To declare that this was only the judgment of God: for if the lion had done it for hunger, he would also have devoured the body.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

These strange circumstances were of a nature to call men's attention to the matter, and cause the whole story to be bruited abroad. By these means an incident, which Jeroboam would have wished hushed up, became no doubt the common talk of the whole people.

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and he went and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yê·leḵ way·yim·ṣā ’eṯ- niḇ·lā·ṯōw muš·le·ḵeṯ bad·de·reḵ wa·ḥă·mō·wr wə·hā·’ar·yêh ‘ō·mə·ḏîm ’ê·ṣel han·nə·ḇê·lāh hā·’ar·yêh ’eṯ- lō- ’ā·ḵal han·nə·ḇê·lāh wə·lō šā·ḇar ’eṯ- ha·ḥă·mō·wr

Word by word20 · parsed

וַיֵּ֗לֶךְway·yê·leḵand he wentH1980

√ hâlak — to walk (in a great variety of applications, literally and figuratively)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

וַיִּמְצָ֤אway·yim·ṣāand foundH4672

√ mâtsâʼ — properly, to come forth to, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

נִבְלָתוֹ֙niḇ·lā·ṯōwthe bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

מֻשְׁלֶ֣כֶתmuš·le·ḵeṯlyingH7993

√ shâlak — to throw out, down or away (literally or figuratively)VerbHofalParticiplefeminine singular

בַּדֶּ֔רֶךְbad·de·reḵin the roadH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-b, ArticleNouncommon singular

וַֽחֲמוֹר֙wa·ḥă·mō·wrwith the donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)Conjunctive wawNounmasculine singular

וְהָ֣אַרְיֵ֔הwə·hā·’ar·yêhand the lionH738

√ ʼărîy — a lionConjunctive waw, ArticleNounmasculine singular

עֹמְדִ֖ים‘ō·mə·ḏîmstandingH5975

√ ʻâmad — to stand, in various relations (literal and figurative, intransitive and transitive)VerbQalParticiplemasculine plural

ʻâmad — to stand A guard, not a kill. Benson reads the standing lion three ways at once: preserving the body from other beasts, proving the death was judgment and not accident, and signifying God's continuing regard for the remains.

אֵ֣צֶל’ê·ṣelbesideH681

√ ʼêtsel — a sidePreposition

הַנְּבֵלָ֑הhan·nə·ḇê·lāh[it]H5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iArticleNounfeminine singular

הָֽאַרְיֵה֙hā·’ar·yêhThe lionH738

√ ʼărîy — a lionArticleNounmasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

לֹֽא־lō-had notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

אָכַ֤ל’ā·ḵaleatenH398

√ ʼâkal — to eat (literally or figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

ʼâkal — to eat The unit's governing verb, now in the lion's mouth and refused. The man of God died for eating what he must not; the lion did not eat what it might have. The reversal is exact and surely deliberate.

הַנְּבֵלָ֔הhan·nə·ḇê·lāhthe bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iArticleNounfeminine singular

וְלֹ֥אwə·lō. . .H3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absConjunctive wawAdverbNegative particle

שָׁבַ֖רšā·ḇaror mauledH7665

√ shâbar — to burst (literally or figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

shâbar — to burst, to break Negated. The same verb that reported the killing in v. 26 reports the restraint here, which is how the narrative shows a single controlled commission rather than a hungry animal.

אֶֽת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הַחֲמֽוֹר׃ha·ḥă·mō·wrthe donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)ArticleNounmasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-went and-he-found his-carcase cast-down in-the-way, and-the-donkey and-the-lion standing beside the-carcase; not had-eaten the-lion the-carcase, and-not had-it-broken the-donkey.

Where the English smooths the original

עֹמְדִ֖ים עֹמְדִ֖ים is now plural, one participle covering both animals together: the donkey and the lion standing. In v. 24 they were described separately; here the two are a single guard. Poole calls the whole arrangement a concurrence of miracles.
לֹֽא־אָכַ֤ל Two negated perfects carry the meaning of the verse: the lion had not eaten, and had not broken. Hebrew narrative rarely reports absences; here the absences are the miracle. Geneva states the inference as a rule of evidence: had the lion done it for hunger, it would also have devoured the body.
שָׁבַ֖ר שָׁבַ֖ר (shâbar, H7665) is the same verb used in v. 26 of what the lion did to the man. Negated here, it becomes the proof of design: the beast that broke a prophet with one blow left the pack animal untouched. Barnes notes the circumstances were of a kind to make the whole story the common talk of the people.

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

“If there were any truth,” says Henry, “in the vulgar opinion, sure the corpse bled afresh when he touched it; for he was, in effect, the murderer.”

Benson is quoting Matthew Henry inside his own commentary; the sentence is Henry's, recorded here as Benson prints it.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The mourning is specially mentioned, because in the East professional wailers were and are employed at funerals.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

The lion perhaps made off as soon as he came, or, if he stayed, the prophet was not afraid of him, seeing he did not attempt to devour the carcass, nor touch the ass, nor do any hurt to those that passed by

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So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

han·nā·ḇî ’eṯ- way·yiś·śā niḇ·laṯ ’îš- hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm way·yan·ni·ḥê·hū ’el- ha·ḥă·mō·wr way·šî·ḇê·hū haz·zā·qên han·nā·ḇî way·yā·ḇō ’el- ‘îr lis·pōḏ ū·lə·qā·ḇə·rōw

Word by word17 · parsed

הַנָּבִ֜יאhan·nā·ḇîSo the old prophetH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manArticleNounmasculine singular

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

וַיִּשָּׂ֨אway·yiś·śālifted upH5375

√ nâsâʼ — to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relativeConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

nâsâʼ — to lift, to bear Benson, quoting Henry, puts the moral edge on the gesture: if there were truth in the vulgar opinion the corpse would have bled afresh at his touch, for he was in effect the murderer.

נִבְלַ֧תniḇ·laṯthe bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iNounfeminine singular construct

אִישׁ־’îš-of the manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֛יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

וַיַּנִּחֵ֥הוּway·yan·ni·ḥê·hūlaidH5117

√ nûwach — to rest, iConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

nûwach — to rest, to set down The unit's verb of final placement, used three times in three verses. Every one of them is the old prophet's doing.

אֶֽל־’el-it onH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

הַחֲמ֖וֹרha·ḥă·mō·wrthe donkeyH2543

√ chămôwr — a male ass (from its dun red)ArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיְשִׁיבֵ֑הוּway·šî·ḇê·hūand brought it backH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)Conjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singularthird person masculine singular

shûwb (Hiphil) — to bring back The fourth causative bringing-back. He cannot stop doing the one thing the man of God was forbidden to do.

הַזָּקֵ֔ןhaz·zā·qênto his ownH2205

√ zâqên — oldArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

הַנָּבִ֣יאhan·nā·ḇîH5030

√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manArticleNounmasculine singular

וַיָּבֹ֗אway·yā·ḇōH935

√ bôwʼ — to go or come (in a wide variety of applications)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-H413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

עִיר֙‘îrcityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Nounfeminine singular construct

לִסְפֹּ֖דlis·pōḏto mourn for himH5594

√ çâphad — properly, to tear the hair and beat the breasts (as Orientals do in grief)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

çâphad — to wail, to beat the breast A rare, physical verb of grief. Its pairing with hôwy in v. 30 is the formula the Verifier links to Jeremiah 22:18.

וּלְקָבְרֽוֹ׃ū·lə·qā·ḇə·rōwand bury himH6912

√ qâbar — to interConjunctive waw, Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-lifted the-prophet the-carcase-of the-man-of-the-God, and-he-laid-it upon the-donkey, and-he-brought-it-back; and-came the-prophet the-old to-the-city, to-lament and-to-bury-him.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּשָּׂ֨א וַיִּשָּׂ֨א (nâsâʼ, H5375) is “lifted, bore, took up,” a verb of burden-bearing. BSB's “lifted up” is fair, but the root also carries forgiving and pardoning senses elsewhere; here it simply means that the man who caused the death now carries it.
וַיַּנִּחֵ֥הוּ וַיַּנִּחֵ֥הוּ (Hiphil of nûwach, H5117, to rest) is “he caused it to rest” upon the donkey. The identical root is used of laying the body in the grave (v. 30) and of the command about his own bones (v. 31). Three rests, the last of them his own.
וַיְשִׁיבֵ֑הוּ וַיְשִׁיבֵ֑הוּ is the Hiphil of shûwb again: he brings him back, exactly as in vv. 20, 23 and 26. He brought back a living man to a meal and now brings back a dead one to a grave, with the same verb both times.
לִסְפֹּ֖ד לִסְפֹּ֖ד (çâphad, H5594) is not quiet grieving but, by the lexicon, to tear the hair and beat the breasts. A relatively rare verb (29 verses). Pulpit notes that professional wailers were employed at Eastern funerals, so the mourning is publicly staged.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

"It is a cruel courtesy to kill a man and then help him to his grave" (Hall).

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Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The mourning of the old prophet, and the burial of the body in his own sepulchre, probably show some touch of remorse and personal compassion for the victim of his treacherous policy, mingled with the desire of preserving the tomb, which was to be his own last resting-place, from desecration, when the prediction of the prophet of Judah should be accomplished.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

As Joseph of Arimathaea did the body of our Lord Matthew 27:60 .

Barnes is noting a shared burial custom (a private rock-cut tomb lent to another), not proposing a typology. The typological reading in the christ section is machine synthesis and is marked as such.

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

his very carcass resting there might be a witness of their madness and desperate wickedness, in continuing their abominable idolatry after such an assurance of the dreadful effects of it.

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Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they lamented over him, “Oh, my brother!”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·yan·naḥ ’eṯ- niḇ·lā·ṯōw bə·qiḇ·rōw way·yis·pə·ḏū ‘ā·lāw hō·w ’ā·ḥî

Word by word8 · parsed

וַיַּנַּ֥חway·yan·naḥThen he laidH5117

√ nûwach — to rest, iConjunctive wawVerbHifilConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

nûwach — to give rest Pulpit's quotation of Hall is the sharpest comment in the brief on this verse: it is a cruel courtesy to kill a man and then help him to his grave.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

נִבְלָת֖וֹniḇ·lā·ṯōwthe bodyH5038

√ nᵉbêlâh — a flabby thing, iNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

בְּקִבְר֑וֹbə·qiḇ·rōwin his own tombH6913

√ qeber — a sepulchrePreposition-bNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

qeber — a sepulchre Barnes notes the parallel of practice with Joseph of Arimathaea at Matthew 27:60, and describes the rock-cut family tombs with their recessed cells. Ellicott reads the act as remorse mingled with the desire to keep his own resting place safe from the desecration his guest had foretold.

וַיִּסְפְּד֥וּway·yis·pə·ḏūand they lamentedH5594

√ çâphad — properly, to tear the hair and beat the breasts (as Orientals do in grief)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine plural

עָלָ֖יו‘ā·lāwover himH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPrepositionthird person masculine singular

ה֥וֹיhō·wOhH1945

√ hôwy — oh!Interjection

hôwy — oh! alas! The woe-word of the prophets turned into a mourner's cry. Whatever the old prophet intended, the vocabulary of judgment is what comes out of his mouth over the body.

אָחִֽי׃’ā·ḥîmy brotherH251

√ ʼâch — a brother (used in the widest sense of literal relationship and metaphorical affinity or resemblance (like father))Nounmasculine singular constructfirst person common singular

ʼâch — a brother The title is the problem. Ellicott observes that the messenger of wrath had been enticed into familiar intercourse with the prophet of the new idolatry and then publicly proclaimed as his brother, so that his death could be used to discredit his warning.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-laid his-carcase in-his-own-grave; and-they-lamented over-him: “Ah, my-brother!”

Where the English smooths the original

וַיַּנַּ֥ח וַיַּנַּ֥ח (Hiphil of nûwach) again: he gave rest to the body. The verb of Sabbath and of settling is used of a man putting into his own tomb a corpse he is responsible for.
בְּקִבְר֑וֹ בְּקִבְר֑וֹ is “in his grave,” the suffix referring to the old prophet, as Geneva and Gill both say: the tomb he had prepared for himself, since coming from Samaria he had no fathers' sepulchre in Beth-El. Verse 22 denied the man of God his fathers' grave; v. 30 gives him a stranger's.
ה֥וֹי ה֥וֹי (hôwy, H1945, “oh!”) is the prophetic woe-cry, the same interjection that opens oracles of doom, used here as a funeral formula. Paired with אָחִֽי (“my brother”) it is the lament K&D, Poole, Gill and Cambridge all trace to Jeremiah 22:18, where a king is denied exactly this cry.

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Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

His motive in making this request was either that his remains might not be disturbed when the predicted events took place (see 2Ki 23:18), or he had some superstitious hope of being benefited at the resurrection by being in the same cave with a man of God.

JFB offers two motives and prefers neither; the second (a superstitious hope about the resurrection) is his own conjecture, not something the text says.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

his view in this was, that when Josiah came to burn the bones of the priests, he would spare the bones of this man of God; and so his, lying by them, and mingled with them, would be spared also, and so it proved, 2 Kings 23:18 .

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Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

Though he was a lying prophet, yet he desired to die the death of a true prophet. Gather not my soul with the sinners of Beth-el, but with this man of God

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Here the LXX. adds ‘in order that my bones may be preserved along with his bones.’ And Josephus expands this idea thus: “for he would not be outraged after his death if he were buried along with him, for the bones would not be recognized.”

Cambridge is reporting the Septuagint plus and Josephus's expansion of it, both of which go beyond the Masoretic text.

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After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·hî ’a·ḥă·rê qā·ḇə·rōw ’ō·ṯōw way·yō·mer ’el- bā·nāw lê·mōr bə·mō·w·ṯî ū·qə·ḇar·tem ’ō·ṯî baq·qe·ḇer ’ă·šer ’îš hā·’ĕ·lō·hîm qā·ḇūr bōw han·nî·ḥū ‘aṣ·mō·ṯāw ’eṯ- ’ê·ṣel ‘aṣ·mō·ṯāy

Word by word22 · parsed

וַיְהִי֮way·hîH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אַחֲרֵ֣י’a·ḥă·rêAfterH310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partPreposition

קָבְר֣וֹqā·ḇə·rōwhe had buried himH6912

√ qâbar — to interVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular

אֹתוֹ֒’ō·ṯōwH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object markerthird person masculine singular

וַיֹּ֤אמֶרway·yō·mer[the prophet] saidH559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

אֶל־’el-toH413

√ ʼêl — near, with or amongPreposition

בָּנָיו֙bā·nāwhis sonsH1121

לֵאמֹ֔רlê·mōr. . .H559

√ ʼâmar — to say (used with great latitude)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct

בְּמוֹתִי֙bə·mō·w·ṯîWhen I dieH4191

√ mûwth — to die (literally or figuratively)Preposition-bVerbQalInfinitive constructfirst person common singular

mûwth — to die Infinitive with suffix. Benson's reading is that though he was a lying prophet, he desired to die the death of a true one and be gathered not with the sinners of Beth-El but with this man of God.

וּקְבַרְתֶּ֣םū·qə·ḇar·temyou must buryH6912

√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive perfectsecond person masculine plural

אֹתִ֔י’ō·ṯîmeH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object markerfirst person common singular

בַּקֶּ֕בֶרbaq·qe·ḇerin the tombH6913

√ qeber — a sepulchrePreposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֛ר’ă·šerwhereH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

אִ֥ישׁ’îšthe manH376

√ ʼîysh — a man as an individual or a male personNounmasculine singular construct

הָאֱלֹהִ֖יםhā·’ĕ·lō·hîmof GodH430

√ ʼĕlôhîym — gods in the ordinary senseArticleNounmasculine plural

קָב֣וּרqā·ḇūris buriedH6912

√ qâbar — to interVerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine singular

qâbar — to inter Passive participle. The dead man's presence, not the owner's title, now defines the tomb.

בּ֑וֹbōw

Prepositionthird person masculine singular

הַנִּ֖יחוּhan·nî·ḥūLayH5117

√ nûwach — to rest, iVerbHifilImperativemasculine plural

nûwach — to lay, give rest (Hiphil imperative) His final command to his sons, and the third instruction of the unit after vv. 13 and 27. Each one concerns a body.

עַצְמֹתָ֔יו‘aṣ·mō·ṯāwmy bonesH6106

√ ʻetsem — a bone (as strong)Nounfeminine plural constructthird person masculine singular

ʻetsem — a bone (as strong) The word for what outlasts flesh. Gill and JFB both read the request as a calculation on 2 Kings 23:18, where Josiah spares these very bones; Cambridge preserves the LXX plus and Josephus's blunter version, that mingled bones could not be told apart.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

אֵ֚צֶל’ê·ṣelbesideH681

√ ʼêtsel — a sidePreposition

עַצְמֹתָֽי׃‘aṣ·mō·ṯāyhis bonesH6106

√ ʻetsem — a bone (as strong)Nounfeminine plural constructfirst person common singular

ʻetsem — bone The chiasm (his bones, lay, my bones) binds the two men in the ground. Whatever the motive, it is a public bet on the truth of the oracle the old prophet had helped to undermine.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-it-was after his-burying him, and-he-said unto his-sons, saying: “In-my-dying, ye-shall-bury me in-the-grave that the-man-of-the-God is-buried in-it; beside his-bones lay-ye my-bones.

Where the English smooths the original

בְּמוֹתִי֙ בְּמוֹתִי֙ (bə·mō·w·ṯî, infinitive construct of mûwth with first person suffix) is “in my dying,” not “when I die.” The old prophet dates his instruction from inside his own death, which is the only place from which the altar-oracle will matter to him.
הַנִּ֖יחוּ הַנִּ֖יחוּ (Hiphil imperative of nûwach) is the third use of this root in three verses: he laid the body on the donkey (v. 29), laid it in the grave (v. 30), and now commands that his own bones be laid down. Rest is what he keeps arranging, and the last arrangement is for himself.
עַצְמֹתָ֔יו The Hebrew order is beside his bones lay my bones, with עַצְמֹתָיו (third person suffix, “his bones”) standing first and עַצְמֹתָי (first person, “my bones”) last. The interlinear glosses are supplied in English order and so read reversed; the sense is not in doubt. ʻetsem (H6106) is “a bone as strong,” the enduring part.
קָב֣וּר קָב֣וּר (qā·ḇūr, Qal passive participle of qâbar) is a state, “is buried,” not an act. The grave is described by its occupant. From here on the tomb is identified in Israel not by whose it was but by who lies in it, which is exactly what 2 Kings 23:17-18 records.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

The expression "cities of Samaria" belongs to the author of these books, and is used proleptically of the kingdom of the ten tribes

source ↗

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

The word Samaria cannot have been employed by the old prophet, in whose days Samaria did not exist 1 Kings 16:24 . The writer of Kings has substituted for the term used by him that whereby the country was known in his own day.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The occurrence of these words in the narrative seems clear evidence that the story in its present form is not contemporary with the events, and may therefore have been written down even later than Josiah’s time.

Cambridge draws a dating conclusion from the anachronism that Barnes, Poole and K&D do not; all four agree on the fact of the anachronism itself.

source ↗

for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

kî had·dā·ḇār ’ă·šer qā·rā biḏ·ḇar Yah·weh ‘al- ham·miz·bê·aḥ ’ă·šer bə·ḇêṯ- ’êl wə·‘al kāl- bāt·tê hab·bā·mō·wṯ ’ă·šer bə·‘ā·rê šō·mə·rō·wn hā·yōh yih·yeh

Word by word20 · parsed

כִּי֩kîforH3588

√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction

הַדָּבָ֗רhad·dā·ḇārthe messageH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֤ר’ă·šerthatH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

קָרָא֙qā·rāhe cried outH7121

√ qârâʼ — to call out to (iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

qârâʼ — to call out, cry The chapter's oracular verb. Its final occurrence is a liar certifying a true word, which is the strangest fact in the unit and the one K&D uses to argue he was a genuine prophet after all.

בִּדְבַ֣רbiḏ·ḇarby the wordH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordPreposition-bNounmasculine singular construct

יְהוָ֔הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

עַל־‘al-againstH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

הַמִּזְבֵּ֖חַham·miz·bê·aḥthe altarH4196

√ mizbêach — an altarArticleNounmasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

בְּבֵֽית־bə·ḇêṯ-vvvH1008

√ Bêyth-ʼÊl — Beth-El, a place in PalestinePreposition

אֵ֑ל’êlin BethelH1008

√ Bêyth-ʼÊl — Beth-El, a place in PalestinePrepositionNounproperfeminine singular

וְעַל֙wə·‘aland againstH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsConjunctive wawPreposition

כָּל־kāl-allH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct

בָּתֵּ֣יbāt·têthe shrinesH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine plural construct

bayith — house Construct plural: the buildings erected over the high places. The same noun that named the old prophet's house, into which the man of God was lured (vv. 15, 19).

הַבָּמ֔וֹתhab·bā·mō·wṯon the high placesH1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationArticleNounfeminine plural

bâmâh — an elevation, a high place The institution the whole chapter is aimed at, and the one Jeroboam will restock in v. 33. The oracle and the apostasy name the same object.

אֲשֶׁ֖ר’ă·šerH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

בְּעָרֵ֥יbə·‘ā·rêin the citiesH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine plural construct

שֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃פšō·mə·rō·wnof SamariaH8111

√ Shômᵉrôwn — Shomeron, a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular

Shômᵉrôwn — Samaria An anachronism by any reckoning, and the commentators say so openly. Cambridge draws the strongest conclusion, that the story in its present form is not contemporary with the events; Poole and Barnes treat it as the historian's ordinary updating of a place-name.

הָיֹ֨הhā·yōhwill surely come to passH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalInfinitive absolute

hâyâh — to be, to come to pass Infinitive absolute plus imperfect. The unit ends its prophetic thread on the most emphatic construction Hebrew has, and 2 Kings 23:15-18 records the payment.

יִהְיֶ֜הyih·yeh. . .H1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalImperfectthird person masculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

“For surely-being it-shall-be, the-word that he-cried in-the-word-of YHWH against the-altar that in-Beth-El, and-against all houses-of the-high-places that in-the-cities-of Samaria.”

Where the English smooths the original

הָיֹ֨ה יִהְיֶ֜ה הָיֹ֨ה יִהְיֶ֜ה is the infinitive absolute doubled with the imperfect of the same root (hâyâh, H1961): “being, it shall be.” Hebrew's strongest available affirmation, which BSB renders “will surely come to pass.” The old prophet's final utterance is the most emphatic sentence in the unit, and it certifies the word he had set out to neutralise.
קָרָא֙ קָרָא֙ (qârâʼ, H7121) is the verb of 13:2 and 13:21: the man of God cried against the altar, the old prophet cried the sentence against him, and now the old prophet certifies the crying. One verb carries all three oracles of the chapter.
בָּתֵּ֣י הַבָּמ֔וֹת בָּתֵּ֣י הַבָּמ֔וֹת is literally “houses of the high places” (bâmâh, H1116, an elevation), not simply “shrines.” K&D sees a prophetic element in the plural, since at that moment only Beth-El and Dan existed; Barnes and Pulpit answer that lesser high places were already scattered through the land.
שֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃ שֹׁמְרֽוֹן׃ (Shômᵉrôwn, H8111) cannot have been spoken at this date: Samaria was founded by Omri in 1 Kings 16:24, two generations later. Barnes, K&D, Poole, Gill and Cambridge all say so, and treat the term as the historian's own, substituted for the name the country bore in his day.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Charles EllicottCommentary for English Readers1878

The emphatic tone of the words, “whosoever would, he consecrated him,” possibly indicates that, in spite of all that Jeroboam and his prophet could do, there was some difficulty in securing candidates for his unauthorised priesthood.

source ↗

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

The tautology is significant. He returned not from his sin, but returned to it

source ↗

Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

without any respect to tribe or family, or integrity of body, or mind, or life; all which were to be regarded in the priesthood.

source ↗

Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

So the wicked do not profit by God's threatenings, but go backward and become worse and worse, 2Ti 3:13.

source ↗

Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’a·ḥar haz·zeh had·dā·ḇār yā·rā·ḇə·‘ām lō- šāḇ hā·rā·‘āh mid·dar·kōw way·yā·šāḇ way·ya·‘aś kō·hă·nê ḇā·mō·wṯ miq·ṣō·wṯ hā·‘ām yə·mal·lê ’eṯ- yā·ḏōw he·ḥā·p̄êṣ wî·hî kō·hă·nê ḇā·mō·wṯ

Word by word21 · parsed

אַחַר֙’a·ḥarEven afterH310

√ ʼachar — properly, the hind partAdverb

הַזֶּ֔הhaz·zehtheseH2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatArticlePronounmasculine singular

הַדָּבָ֣רhad·dā·ḇāreventsH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordArticleNounmasculine singular

יָרָבְעָ֖םyā·rā·ḇə·‘āmJeroboamH3379

√ Yârobʻâm — Jarobam, the name of two Israelite kingsNounpropermasculine singular

לֹֽא־lō-did notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

שָׁ֥בšāḇrepentH7725

√ shûwb — to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

shûwb — to turn back The verb the man of God died for doing is the verb Jeroboam is condemned for not doing. That single root, used both ways within one chapter, is the sharpest thing in the unit: the same motion that destroys a prophet would have saved a king.

הָרָעָ֑הhā·rā·‘āhof his evilH7451

√ raʻ — bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)ArticleAdjectivefeminine singular

מִדַּרְכּ֣וֹmid·dar·kōwwaysH1870

√ derek — a road (as trodden)Preposition-mNouncommon singular constructthird person masculine singular

וַ֠יָּשָׁבway·yā·šāḇbut againH7725

shûwb — to turn again, to do again Idiomatic here for repetition: he turned and made, that is, he went on making. K&D and Pulpit both note the construction, and Pulpit calls the tautology significant.

וַיַּ֜עַשׂway·ya·‘aśhe appointedH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

כֹּהֲנֵ֣יkō·hă·nêpriestsH3548

√ kôhên — literally one officiating, a priestNounmasculine plural construct

בָמ֔וֹתḇā·mō·wṯfor the high placesH1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationNounfeminine plural

מִקְצ֤וֹתmiq·ṣō·wṯfrom every classH7098

√ qâtsâh — a terminationPreposition-mNounfeminine plural construct

qâtsâh — a termination, an extremity From the ends of the people: indiscriminate recruitment. Barnes reads the lack of any standard as evidence that the office was not greatly sought, though 2 Chronicles 13:9 shows a price was still exacted.

הָעָם֙hā·‘āmof peopleH5971

√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular

יְמַלֵּ֣אyə·mal·lêHe ordainedH4390

√ mâlêʼ — to fill or (intransitively) be full of, in a wide application (literally and figuratively)VerbPielImperfectthird person masculine singular

mâlêʼ — to fill With yâd, the ordination idiom of Exodus and Leviticus. The Levitical language survives intact in a rite that has abandoned the Levites (2 Chronicles 11:14).

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

יָד֔וֹyā·ḏōwH3027

√ yâd — a hand (the open one (indicating power, means, direction, etcNounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

yâd — a hand (as power, means) The hand that Exodus 29 fills with the LORD's offering is here filled by the king. Jeroboam is the subject of the verb; in the Torah it is the priest who is brought and God who commands.

הֶֽחָפֵץ֙he·ḥā·p̄êṣanyone who desiredH2655

√ châphêts — pleased withArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

châphêts — pleased with, desiring The sole criterion. Poole spells out what has been discarded: tribe, family, bodily integrity, soundness of mind and of life, all of which the law required.

וִיהִ֖יwî·hîto beH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConjunctive imperfect Jussivethird person masculine singular

כֹּהֲנֵ֥יkō·hă·nêa priestH3548

√ kôhên — literally one officiating, a priestNounmasculine plural construct

בָמֽוֹת׃ḇā·mō·wṯof the high placesH1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationNounfeminine plural

Literal — word-for-word from the original

After the-thing the-this, not turned-back Jeroboam from-his-way the-evil; and-he-turned-back and-he-made from-ends-of the-people priests-of high-places: the-one-desiring, he-filled his-hand, and-he-became priests-of high-places.

Where the English smooths the original

לֹֽא־שָׁ֥ב לֹֽא־שָׁ֥ב ... וַ֠יָּשָׁב: the unit's pivot verb (shûwb, H7725) is first denied of Jeroboam and then affirmed of him in the same sentence. Pulpit catches the tautology exactly: he returned not from his sin, but returned to it. BSB's “did not repent ... but again he appointed” loses the single repeated root.
מִקְצ֤וֹת מִקְצ֤וֹת הָעָם֙ (qâtsâh, H7098, a termination, an extremity) is “from the ends of the people,” which Cambridge and the Revised Version render “from among all the people” rather than the Authorised Version's “of the lowest.” The point is indiscriminacy, not poverty: anyone at all, from any end of the nation.
יְמַלֵּ֣א אֶת־יָד֔וֹ יְמַלֵּ֣א אֶת־יָד֔וֹ is “he filled his hand,” the technical idiom for ordination, as K&D, Pulpit and Poole all note from Exodus 28:41, Exodus 29:9 and Leviticus 8:25-28, where the consecrand's hands were filled with the offering to be waved before the LORD. Jeroboam keeps the gesture and empties it of its content.
הֶֽחָפֵץ֙ הֶֽחָפֵץ֙ (châphêts, H2655, “pleased with, delighting in”) is “the one who desires it.” The single qualification for Jeroboam's priesthood is wanting the job. Ellicott hears in the emphatic phrasing a hint that even so there was difficulty in finding candidates.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

this obstinate persistence in ungodly conduct was the guilt which had as its natural consequence the destroying of his house from the face of the earth.

source ↗

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

An occasion of sin, and a mean of hardening all his posterity in their idolatry; or, rather, it became a punishment, as the word sin often signifies.

source ↗

Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

This persistence in wrong, after the warning given him, brought a judgment, not only on Jeroboam himself, but on his family.

source ↗

The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

of that daring schismatic policy which, in all its branches, betrayed a complete disregard of the terms of the covenant, and which was persevered in contemptuous defiance of the repeated warnings of God.

source ↗

And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

haz·zeh way·hî bad·dā·ḇār lə·ḥaṭ·ṭaṯ bêṯ yā·rā·ḇə·‘ām ū·lə·haḵ·ḥîḏ ū·lə·haš·mîḏ mê·‘al pə·nê hā·’ă·ḏā·māh

Word by word11 · parsed

הַזֶּ֔הhaz·zehAnd thisH2088

√ zeh — the masculine demonstrative pronoun, this or thatArticlePronounmasculine singular

וַיְהִי֙way·hîwasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

בַּדָּבָ֣רbad·dā·ḇār. . .H1697

√ dâbâr — a wordPreposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular

dâbâr — a word, a thing The noun that has carried the whole chapter (the word of YHWH, vv. 17, 18, 20, 26, 32) closes it in the mundane sense of a deed. K&D reads the preposition as expressing persistence in that deed.

לְחַטַּ֖אתlə·ḥaṭ·ṭaṯthe sinH2403

√ chaṭṭâʼâh — an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiationPreposition-lNounfeminine singular construct

chaṭṭâʼâh — an offence and its penalty One noun holding both the act and its recompense, which is why the commentators divide over which sense governs here. Both are true of Jeroboam, and the ambiguity is not a defect of the Hebrew.

בֵּ֣יתbêṯof the houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct

יָרָבְעָ֑םyā·rā·ḇə·‘āmof JeroboamH3379

√ Yârobʻâm — Jarobam, the name of two Israelite kingsNounpropermasculine singular

וּלְהַכְחִיד֙ū·lə·haḵ·ḥîḏthat led to its exterminationH3582

√ kâchad — to secrete, by act or wordConjunctive waw, Preposition-lVerbHifilInfinitive construct

kâchad — to secrete, to efface To hide away, hence to blot out. Barnes notes the political mechanism: the forfeiture of the crown (1 Kings 11:38) carried with it the destruction of the male line, as in 1 Kings 15:29.

וּלְהַשְׁמִ֔ידū·lə·haš·mîḏand destructionH8045

√ shâmad — to desolateConjunctive waw, Preposition-lVerbHifilInfinitive construct

shâmad — to desolate The stronger of the two verbs, used of the extermination of nations. Paired with kâchad it leaves nothing, and 1 Kings 15:29 records its fulfilment under Baasha.

מֵעַ֖לmê·‘alfromH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition-m

פְּנֵ֥יpə·nêthe faceH6440

√ pânîym — the face (as the part that turns)Nouncommon plural construct

הָאֲדָמָֽה׃פhā·’ă·ḏā·māhof the earthH127

√ ʼădâmâh — soil (from its general redness)ArticleNounfeminine singular

ʼădâmâh — soil, ground The unit ends on dirt. A chapter that began with an altar of stones and ashes ends with a dynasty wiped from the face of the ground, and between them lies one prophet's body in the road.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-it-became, in-the-thing the-this, sin to-the-house-of Jeroboam, and-to-efface and-to-destroy from-upon the-face-of the-ground.

Where the English smooths the original

בַּדָּבָ֣ר בַּדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֔ה is “in this thing,” not “this thing was.” K&D insists the beth is not a scribal slip for the article but expresses persisting in a thing (comparing 1 Chronicles 7:23 and 9:33). Cambridge suspects a scribe's slip after 1 Kings 12:30. On K&D's reading the guilt lies in the persistence, which is exactly what v. 33 has just described.
לְחַטַּ֖את לְחַטַּ֖את (chaṭṭâʼâh, H2403) covers, by the lexicon, both “an offence, sometimes habitual sinfulness” and “its penalty.” Benson, Poole and Gill all take it here in the second sense, the sin standing for the punishment of sin; Cambridge takes the sin as itself the destroying power, since it is what called the judgment forth.
וּלְהַכְחִיד֙ וּלְהַכְחִיד֙ (Hiphil of kâchad, H3582, “to secrete, by act or word,” hence to efface) paired with וּלְהַשְׁמִ֔יד (shâmad, H8045, to desolate) gives two infinitives of erasure. The first root's primary sense is to hide or conceal: the house of Jeroboam is not only destroyed but blotted out of sight.
הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ (ʼădâmâh, H127, soil, from its redness) is the last word of the unit: “from upon the face of the ground.” Not a political removal but an erasure from the soil itself, the same idiom used of the flood generation and of Israel's own threatened exile.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The settled man and the walking man — 11-15

The unit opens with a participle, not an event: a prophet was יֹשֵׁב (yō·šêḇ), settled, in Beth-El. Barnes weighs that one word as an indictment, noting that the truly pious Israelites had quitted their homes when Jeroboam changed the worship, so that a man who stayed, and stayed at the chief seat of the new cult, was devoid of deep religious feeling. Pulpit lists the same evidence and concludes it is a sufficient index to his character; Benson and Poole add that his sons were at the altar and their father did not rebuke them. Ellicott alone reaches for the deeper diagnosis: like Balaam, this man united true prophetic gifts with a low worldliness of temper. K&D (at v. 31) dissents from all of them and defends him as a true prophet acting from good intentions by sinful means. The narrative refuses to arbitrate. What it does instead is set two postures against each other: one man sitting in Beth-El, one man walking out of it, and then, at v. 14, catch the walking man sitting under the oak, with the same participle.

ii. The word that was forged from the word — 16-19

The man of God's refusal is not “I will not” but לֹא אוּכַל, I am not able (yâkôl, H3201, of moral as well as physical capacity). Gill records that he was resolute although there is reason to think he was hungry and thirsty. What breaks him is not an argument but a counterfeit of his own credential: he had said “in the word of YHWH” (v. 17) and the old prophet says “in the word of YHWH” (v. 18), the identical phrase, with a messenger inserted in front of it. Cambridge puts the failure precisely where the grammar puts it: the Judean did not seek as much confirmation for the reversed order as he had for the first. JFB reads the word מַלְאָךְ as a deliberate equivocation; Pulpit reads it as a claim to superior authority; Ellicott says the lie was believed because it chimed in with a secret reluctance to obey, so that the belief was itself a self-deceit. Then the narrator, breaking his own habit, judges: כִּחֵשׁ לוֹ, he lied to him, with no connecting waw, which K&D notes is inserted parenthetically as bare explanation. Verse 19 answers in three flat verbs. He turned back, he ate, he drank. Benson's comment is the exact measure of it: nothing but the express command of the same God could set aside what God had expressly commanded.

iii. The sentence at the table — 20-22

Ellicott calls this the most terrible feature of the history, that the divine sentence is spoken through the very lips which had lured the prophet from his path, and at the very table of treacherous hospitality. Poole sees the placement: there the prophet meets a severe judgment, where he was pleasing himself with a seasonable refreshment. Geneva's gloss is the shortest and the sharpest, that God would reprove his folly by the man who caused him to err. The charge uses מָרִיתָ (mârâh, H4784, to be bitter, to be rebellious) against פִּי יְהוָה, the mouth of the LORD, and Barnes explains why so small an act drew so large a penalty: disobedience to a positive command of God was exactly the sin of Jeroboam and his adherents, and was at that moment the one thing that had to be punished signally. The sentence itself is denial of burial with his fathers, which Cambridge and Poole both rank, in Hebrew estimation, as a judgment and a mark of infamy.

iv. The lion that stands and does not eat — 23-28

The narrative reports the death in a single clause and then spends five verses on what the lion did not do. JFB lists the marks: the undevoured carcass, the untouched ass, the passers-by unmolested, all calculated to produce an irresistible impression that the hand of God was in it. K&D says the same in the negative: contrary to its nature the lion neither consumed the man nor tore the ass, so that the death could not be read as an accident. Geneva reduces it to a rule of evidence, that if the lion had done it for hunger he would also have devoured the body. Benson goes further and reads the standing lion as a token of God's favour to the deceased, whose remains were precious to Him. The Hebrew supports the reading with two participles, עֹמֵד repeated, a frozen tableau in the road, and with וַיִּמְצָאֵהוּ, the identical verb and suffix by which the old prophet had found him under the oak (v. 14). Poole faces the justice question head on and answers in three parts: the sin was not small, the punishment was not as great as it looks, and the death served ends beyond the man. Benson and Henry both refuse a tidy answer and appeal to a judgment to come.

v. Alas, my brother: the shared grave — 29-32

The man who caused the death performs the funeral. Benson quotes Henry's grim aside that if there were any truth in the vulgar opinion, the corpse would have bled afresh at his touch, for he was in effect the murderer; Pulpit quotes Hall, that it is a cruel courtesy to kill a man and then help him to his grave. Ellicott reads remorse mixed with policy: compassion for the victim, and a desire to keep his own last resting-place safe from the desecration the prophecy foretold. Gill and JFB both make that calculation explicit from 2 Kings 23:18, where Josiah spares the bones. The lament הוֹי אָחִי, ah, my brother, is the formula K&D, Poole, Gill and Cambridge all trace to Jeremiah 22:18. And then the liar becomes, one last time, a true prophet: the word cried against the altar shall surely come to pass, Hebrew הָיֹה יִהְיֶה, infinitive absolute doubling the verb. Barnes, K&D, Poole and Cambridge all note the phrase “cities of Samaria” could not have been spoken then, since Samaria was not built until 1 Kings 16:24; the historian has written the prediction in the language of his own day.

vi. And Jeroboam did not turn back — 33-34

The unit ends where the pivot-verb began. לֹא־שָׁב ... וַיָּשָׁב: he did not turn back from his evil way, and he turned back and made priests. Pulpit catches the tautology exactly, that he returned not from his sin but returned to it. Ellicott hears something else in “whosoever would, he consecrated him,” namely that there was some difficulty in securing candidates for an unauthorised priesthood; Barnes agrees and notes that 2 Chronicles 13:9 shows a price was still charged. The idiom for ordination is יְמַלֵּא אֶת־יָדוֹ, he filled his hand, which K&D, Poole and Pulpit all trace to Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8, where the consecrated priest's hands were filled with the offering. Jeroboam keeps the gesture and empties it. The last word of the unit is הָאֲדָמָה, the ground, from off whose face his house will be wiped. Geneva's note is the plainest summary of the whole: the wicked do not profit by God's threatenings, but go backward and become worse and worse.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Read as one movement, this unit is about how a true word is defeated: not by argument, not by threat, and not by the king. Jeroboam offered the man of God a meal and a reward and got nothing (vv. 7-10). What succeeded was a man who spoke the same formula, “in the word of the LORD,” and attached to it a messenger. The lie borrowed not just the vocabulary of revelation but its exact syntax, and reversed the one verb, shûwb, that the original command had forbidden. That is why the punishment falls where it does. The man of God is not condemned for eating; he is condemned for accepting a second word without the evidence he had required for the first, which is the fault Cambridge names, and which Barnes rightly links to Jeroboam's own sin of treating a positive command of God as negotiable. ⚙ What I cannot resolve, and will not pretend to, is the asymmetry that troubled Henry, Benson, Poole and Dodd alike: the liar goes home, buries his victim, and dies in his bed. Scripture does not soften this. Henry's response is that the judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom and that there is a judgment to come; Benson's is that nothing is a more sensible proof of another life than to see the righteous rigorously treated here. ⚙ My own reading adds only this, offered to be tested: the old prophet's escape is not mercy withheld from the Judean but a debt left standing, and the story knows it, because the last thing the liar does is ask to be buried in the grave of the man he killed. He wants to be found, at the resurrection of that altar, on the obedient man's side of the tomb. The following line is my synthesis, not Scripture: the word he broke is the only thing he can be buried with.

The word he broke is the only thing he can be buried with.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The corpse thrown down in the road: nᵉbêlâh and the denial of burial structural / thematic: confirmed

The sentence of v. 22 and its execution in vv. 24, 25, 28, 29 and 30 turn on נְבֵלָה (nᵉbêlâh, H5038), a word the lexicon renders “a flabby thing,” used of a carcass that defiles. The Verifier returns the same lexeme at Deuteronomy 21:23, where a hanged man's nᵉbêlâh must not remain overnight on the tree; at Joshua 8:29 and Jeremiah 36:30, where a body is cast (שָׁלַךְ, shâlak, H7993) into the open, the identical pairing found in 1 Kings 13:24; and at Jeremiah 16:4, where unburied corpses are the covenant curse itself. Poole and Cambridge both record that in Israelite reckoning the loss of the family tomb was a mark of infamy and a judgment for sin. ⚙ The unit therefore enacts a covenant curse on a covenant messenger: the man who would not eat in the unclean place becomes, by eating, the unclean thing.

Deuteronomy 21:23 · Joshua 8:29 · Jeremiah 16:4 · Jeremiah 36:30

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexeme H5038 nᵉbêlâh (in 41 vv) at all four refs, with H7993 shâlak (in 121 vv) shared at Joshua 8:29 and Jeremiah 36:30. A real verbal link within a shared motif of the unburied body; no text quotes another, so no quotation is claimed.

“Saddle me the donkey”: châbash as the first move of a journey that cannot be undone structural / thematic: confirmed

Three times in this unit (vv. 13, 23, 27) a journey begins with חָבַשׁ (châbash, H2280), a relatively uncommon verb meaning to wrap or bind firmly. The Verifier finds the same verb paired with חֲמוֹר (chămôwr, H2543) at Genesis 22:3, where Abraham saddles his donkey and goes to the place (מָקוֹם, mâqôwm, H4725, the same lexeme as 1 Kings 13:16, 22) God told him of; and at 2 Samuel 17:23, where Ahithophel saddles his donkey, goes home, sets his house in order, and is buried in his father's קֶבֶר (qeber, H6913). ⚙ The two comparisons pull opposite ways and that is the point: Abraham's saddling is obedience going out to the place of God's word, Ahithophel's is a man riding home to the grave of his fathers, which is the one thing denied to the man of God here. The unit's third saddling (v. 27) carries a corpse into a borrowed tomb.

Genesis 22:3 · 2 Samuel 17:23 · Judges 19:10

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H2280 châbash (in 30 vv) and H2543 chămôwr (in 93 vv) at all three refs, plus H4725 mâqôwm (in 379 vv) at Genesis 22:3 and H6913 qeber (in 62 vv) at 2 Samuel 17:23. Shared vocabulary and a shared narrative pattern; nothing here is a citation.

The tomb of your fathers withheld, and the tomb of a stranger given structural / thematic: confirmed

The judgment of v. 22 is stated in the vocabulary of burial: קֶבֶר אֲבֹתֶיךָ, the qeber of your fathers. The Verifier finds the same lexeme, with קָבַר (qâbar, H6912) and the causal particle יַעַן (yaʻan, H3282) that introduces the charge in v. 21, one chapter later at 1 Kings 14:13, where Jeroboam's son Abijah alone of that house shall come to a grave, because in him something good toward the LORD was found. It appears again at Jeremiah 26:23, where a prophet's nᵉbêlâh is thrown into the graves of the common people. ⚙ Read together, the three passages set up the same ledger: in this narrative world a grave is a verdict, and the man of God's verdict is reversed only by a stranger's charity in v. 30.

1 Kings 14:13 · Jeremiah 26:23

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6913 qeber (in 62 vv), H6912 qâbar (in 122 vv) and H3282 yaʻan (in 94 vv) at 1 Kings 14:13; H6913 qeber, H5038 nᵉbêlâh (in 41 vv) and H7993 shâlak (in 121 vv) at Jeremiah 26:23. Verbal overlap inside a shared theme of burial as verdict; no quotation.

“Ah, my brother!” the lament formula verbal / quotation: confirmed

The cry over the body in v. 30 is הוֹי אָחִי (hōw ʼāḥî), the interjection hôwy (H1945) joined to ʼâch (H251), with the mourning verb סָפַד (çâphad, H5594, properly to tear the hair and beat the breast). K&D, Poole, Gill and Cambridge independently cite Jeremiah 22:18 for the same formula, where Jehoiakim is denied exactly this lament. A Verifier pair check on 1 Kings 13:30 and Jeremiah 22:18 returns the rare shared pair çâphad (29 verses) and hôwy (47 verses) together with ʼâch. ⚙ Neither text cites the other; what they share is a fixed funeral cry, which makes the irony sharp in both directions. The liar gives the man he killed the lament a king will be refused.

Jeremiah 22:18

basis: Verifier pair check: shared rare Hebrew lexemes H5594 çâphad (in 29 vv) and H1945 hôwy (in 47 vv) with H251 ʼâch (in 571 vv). The rarity supports a genuine verbal link, but it is a shared fixed formula of lamentation, not one text quoting the other, and it is recorded here as such.

“Lay my bones beside his bones” and the bones Josiah let alone structural / thematic: confirmed

The old prophet's last command (v. 31) uses עֶצֶם (ʻetsem, H6106, a bone as strong) twice in chiasm and the Hiphil of נוּחַ (nûwach, H5117, to give rest), the same root he used when he laid the body on the donkey (v. 29) and in the grave (v. 30). A Verifier pair check on 1 Kings 13:31 and 2 Kings 23:18 returns those same two lexemes shared, with ʼîysh. Gill, JFB, Pulpit and Cambridge all read the motive straight from that later text: when Josiah burned the priests' bones on the Beth-El altar he ordered that this prophet's bones be let alone, and with them the bones of the prophet from Samaria. ⚙ The liar's most calculating act is also his clearest confession of faith: he stakes his own bones on the accuracy of the word he helped to discredit.

2 Kings 23:18

basis: Verifier pair check: shared Hebrew lexemes H6106 ʻetsem (in 108 vv) and H5117 nûwach (in 139 vv), with H376 ʼîysh (in 1449 vv). Moderately common lexemes plus an explicit narrative back-reference in 2 Kings 23:18; a fulfilment link, not a quotation, so no verbal tier is claimed. Cambridge (on v. 32) argues the narrative in its present form may postdate Josiah, which would make the connection literary rather than predictive; that dispute is about the date of composition and does not affect the shared-lexeme basis recorded here.

An angel with another gospel (cross-Testament) structural / thematic: confirmed

The mechanism of v. 18 is a second messenger contradicting a first command, credentialled by an מַלְאָךְ (mălʼâk, H4397, messenger or angel). Paul states the rule that this narrative dramatises: even if an angel out of heaven should preach a different gospel, let him be anathema (Galatians 1:8), and the test of 1 John 4:1 is the same instinct. ⚙ This link cannot be verbal. The Greek of Galatians and the Hebrew of 1 Kings share no Strong's numbers, and no New Testament text cites this story. What they share is a structure: a later, higher-seeming authority urging reversal of a word already given, and a rule that the first word outranks the messenger. Cambridge, without reaching for the New Testament, locates the Judean's sin at exactly that point, that he did not demand for the reversal the confirmation he had for the original.

Galatians 1:8 · 1 John 4:1

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers are impossible and none is claimed. The recorded basis is a shared pattern, an angel-credentialled reversal of a prior divine word, plus Cambridge's comment on v. 18 that the fault lay in accepting the reversal without equal confirmation.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The Prophet who would not eat at the tempter's word novel

⚙ The test put to the man of God was bread in a condemned place, offered with a claim of divine authority. The Gospels record the same two elements pressed on Christ in the wilderness: bread when he was hungry, and then Scripture itself quoted back at him (Matthew 4:3-6). Where the man of God accepted a second word that cancelled the first, Christ answered that man lives by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God, the same פֶּה (peh, mouth) that v. 21 says this prophet rebelled against. Deuteronomy 18:18 promised a prophet in whose mouth God would put his words; 1 Kings 13 shows what it costs when the mouth that carries the word is not proof against hunger. ⚙ I record this as my own reading, not as anything the commentators in this brief assert: the connection of Deuteronomy 8:3 to the wilderness temptation is apostolic and explicit, but its application to this unit is mine.

Deuteronomy 18:18 · Matthew 4:3-4 · Deuteronomy 8:3

Laid in another man's tomb novel

Barnes, commenting on v. 30, makes the link himself: the old prophet laid the body in his own grave, as Joseph of Arimathaea did the body of our Lord (Matthew 27:60). ⚙ The parallel holds only at the level of the act, and the two burials run in opposite moral directions. Here a man who caused a death gives his tomb out of remorse and self-interest; there a disciple who had hidden his allegiance gives his tomb out of love. But both graves are borrowed, and in both cases the borrowed grave becomes the pledge of a word yet to be fulfilled: the old prophet stakes his bones on the altar-oracle coming true (v. 32), and the sealed tomb of Matthew 27 is where the word about the third day was tested. ⚙ The identification of the burial custom is Barnes's; the typological weight I place on it is my own.

Matthew 27:60 · 1 Kings 13:30-32

The body on the tree and the body in the road novel

The word for the man of God's remains, נְבֵלָה (nᵉbêlâh, H5038), is the same word Deuteronomy 21:23 uses of the executed man whose body must not hang overnight, for he is under the curse of God. Paul cites that verse explicitly of Christ: cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree (Galatians 3:13), and it is the standing apostolic reading of Deuteronomy 21:23. ⚙ That citation is ancient and explicit; its application to this chapter is mine alone, and this entry is therefore marked novel. The connection I draw is this: in 1 Kings 13 the disobedient prophet's body lies exposed in the road as the visible sentence on a broken word, and the lion neither devours it nor departs, so that the judgment is seen to be God's and not an accident. At Golgotha a body under the same designated curse hangs exposed, and it is taken down and buried before nightfall in obedience to that very law. The judgment on the disobedient prophet is real, and it is exhausted in him; the judgment borne on the tree is real, and it is borne for others. Ellicott's warning at v. 18 stands against sentimentality here: the lie was believed because it chimed in with a secret reluctance to obey.

Deuteronomy 21:23 · Galatians 3:13

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text: the Hebrew of v. 11 has the singular בְנוֹ (“his son”) with singular verbs, shifting to a plural verb and pronoun at the end of the verse. BSB, the LXX, Syriac and Vulgate all read the plural throughout; Pulpit defends the Masoretic singular as the harder reading and K&D and Cambridge explain the shift as one son reporting first. At v. 12 the same tension recurs in the vowel points: the Masoretic way·yir·’ū means “his sons saw,” while all the versions read the Hiphil “his sons shewed him,” which BSB follows. Cambridge and Pulpit both record the variant.

Interlinear: the Berean word order in this unit sometimes follows English rather than Hebrew, and two places should be flagged. At v. 31 the surface עַצְמֹתָיו (third masculine singular suffix, “his bones”) is glossed “my bones,” and עַצְמֹתָי (first person suffix, “my bones”) is glossed “his bones,” because the English clause reverses the Hebrew order. The Hebrew reads “beside his bones lay my bones.” At v. 24 and v. 25 the direct object markers and the lion's clause are similarly reordered. The literal renderings above follow the Hebrew sequence, not the gloss sequence.

Uncertain: (1) The character of the old prophet is genuinely contested in the sources. Josephus, the Targum, most of the rabbis and, among those quoted here, Benson, Barnes, JFB, Poole, Henry, Pulpit and Ellicott all read him as at best a compromised man; K&D, following Ephraem Syrus, Theodoret and Hengstenberg, insists he was a true prophet acting from good intentions by sinful means. The Hebrew narrator judges only the act (he lied to him, v. 18), never the man. This synthesis does not settle it. (2) Verse 23 is ambiguous in Hebrew: Pulpit argues at length that the phrase means “he saddled for him the ass of the prophet who brought him back,” taking the lamed as a dative of possession, while Cambridge and K&D take it as “for the prophet whom he had brought back.” Both readings are recorded above; neither is asserted as certain. (3) “The cities of Samaria” (v. 32) cannot have been spoken by a contemporary, since Samaria was founded in 1 Kings 16:24. Barnes, K&D, Poole, Gill and Cambridge all say so, and Cambridge draws the further conclusion that the story in its present form is later than the events, possibly later than Josiah. This is a text-historical judgment of the named commentators, not a Verifier result.

Sources: the Pulpit Commentary entries on vv. 18 and 24 and the K&D entry carried at vv. 27-32 are capped in the brief; excerpts here are taken only from the visible portion. Thread bases are Verifier-computed shared Strong's lexemes with frequencies as stated, except where a badge says otherwise. The Galatians 1:8 and 1 John 4:1 thread is cross-Testament and carries no shared-lexeme basis by definition, and is tiered accordingly. All ⚙ material in the movements, sola reading and christ sections is machine synthesis and fallible; the named quotations are verbatim public-domain commentary and the interlinear data is sourced.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)