1 Kings 13:26

1Ki 13:26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard [thereof], he said, It [is] the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him.

Ver. 26. Who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord.] Still his sin is styled disobedience, though he were tricked into it. It was no good excuse of our grandame Eve to say, The serpent deceived me, and I did eat.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ki_13:26-32

And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof.

On the character of the old prophet of Bethel

The most careful review of this mans conduct does not make it easy to comprehend it; nor, indeed, do we know enough about him to satisfy us in pronouncing decidedly on the subject. Still there are circumstances in his history which do throw light on certain points of his character; and give them sufficient distinctness for us to apprehend a drift in them, and see an instruction which they convey to us. The first circumstance I would notice, is what we find in the twenty-third chapter of the Second Book of Kings; where we read, at the eighteenth verse, that the relics of him who was buried by the side of the man of God, are stated to be the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. He was originally of Samaria, the capital of his country; and now, in his old age, we find him removed to Bethel; the very mount of corruption, the temple of sacrilege, the very throne and stronghold of that son of Nebat, who had so fearfully made Israel to sin. Wherefore was he there? Had he gone there in grief and dismay at the doings of his prince, to remonstrate against and correct them? Had he gone, in jealousy of zeal and affection for the honour of his God and his Church? Alas! no; he could have gone with no such wish or object as this, or it would not have required Gods special mission of one of His prophets from Judah, to declare the violated truth before king, and priests, and people at Bethel! It is too clear that the old prophet must have been, at least, a consenting party to the doings which had made Israel an abomination in the sight of God. He must have even preferred the new order of things under this spiritual revolution of Jeroboam, or he need not have remained where they must day after day have done violence to his habits, and shocked his principles of religion.

1. That the burden of causing this misery and sin was mainly to be laid to the old prophets charge, there can be no doubt whatever. Although the delinquency of the man of God was great, the guilt of his aged brother was greater far; the former, indeed, yielded unjustifiably to temptation, but the latter assumed a part fit only for the malice of Satan himself. Our blessed Lord spoke with His characteristic monitory expression, when He joined the character of a liar and a murderer together; and pointed out to certain of the Jews that their father the devil had been a destroyer from the beginning, because he abode not in the truth, and there was no truth in him.

2. The next thing we should observe, is the singular faith and courage of his conduct, after he had been forced to announce his own victims punishment, and after the result of his treachery had broken, in its dreadful reality, upon his mind. Compunction and remorse evidently seized upon his mind, when he set forth upon the sorrowful errand of bringing back to an honoured burial, and a deep mourning, the man whom he had hurried to this untimely end. He saw and acknowledged the finger of God in this thing.

3. Moreover, it is evident that he must by this time have become touched with the truths which God had proclaimed by the mouth of His servant, and the richly earned vengeance in store for the crying sins of Israel. For, according to the words of our text, he solemnly forewarned his sons of the certain accomplishment of the saying which was cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria; this, said he, shall surely come to pass. And that there was repentance in the after-conduct of the old prophet; and that God was mercifully pleased to look upon it with a pitying eye, there is some ground for hope in the issue of the event, as it came to pass in Gods own time. For when Josiah had accomplished the Divine vengeance on all the abominations of Bethel; had deposed its priests, broken clown its high places, and defiled its altars; and was in the act of taking the dead from the sepulchres on the mount, and burning them on the altars of the former sin; we read that he religiously spared the sepulchre of the man of God that came from Judah; and that they let his bones alone, together with the bones of the prophet that came cub of Samaria. A signal act of mercy this, on a day of severe and general retribution!

Lessons:

1. I need scarcely say that this example directs its first and broadest rebuke against all such as would ever knowingly and wilfully oppose and pervert the truth. This is a species of guilt so monstrous and offensive in the eyes of God and man; so merely malicious in its whole drift, and policy, and endeavour; that one would think it needs only to be noted, to be at once shunned and abhorred. It was the first origin of all corruption and misery on the face of Gods pure and perfect creation; the cause of mans degradation, and the cursing of the earth for his sake: by it sin entered into the world, and death by sin.

2. But further, there is a modification of the old prophets sin, into which we may sometimes fall, without at all going to its full extent. We are apt to be enamoured of our own particular views of what we are pleased to think is truth; to cherish these, and to propagate these, without sufficient warranty for their sound and solid foundation in what is right. (J. Puckle, M. A.)

The grave and its epitaph

Bury me, said the remorseful old man to his sons standing in tears around his miserable death-bed, bury me in the same grave with the bones of the man of God out of Judah. And the old prophets sons so buried their father. And an awful grave that was in Bethel, with an awful epitaph upon it. Now, suppose this Suppose that you were buried on the same awful principle--in whose grave would your bones lie waiting together with his till the last trump to stand forth before God and man together? And what would your epitaph and his be? Would it be this: Here lie the liar and his victim ? Or would it be this: Here lie the seducer and the seduced? Or would it be this: Here lie the hater and him he hated down to death? Or would it be this: Here lie the tempting host and his too willing to be tempted guest? Or, if you are a minister, would it be this: Here lies a dumb dog, and beside him one who was a crowded preacher in the morning of his days, but a castaway before night? Alas, my brother. (A. Whyte, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(26) He said, It is the man of God.—The old prophet did not know how his prediction was to be fulfilled, but recognised at once its supernatural fulfilment. 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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

26. disobedient unto the word] The R.V. gives here as the A.V. in 1Ki_13:21 unto the mouth. This is the literal rendering, and is as intelligible as the other. The LXX. (Vat.) gives for this verse only: ‘And he who brought him back from the way heard it and said, This is the man of God who rebelled against the word of the Lord.’ The next verse (27) is not represented at all in that version.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the prophet took up the carcass of the man of God,.... 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:

and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back; to his own city:

and the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him; to perform the funeral rites, according to the custom of the place.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or rather,

concerning him; for so the particle lamed is oft used, as Gen 10:13; Psa 3:2; 91:11, compared with Mat 4:6. See Poole "1Ki 13:20".

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient Heb. rebelled; same word as in ver. 21 unto the word Heb. mouth," as in ver. 21 of the Lord: therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn Heb. as marg., broken. The word "is very expressive, for the lion kills with one blow" (Thenius) and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When the old prophet at Bethel heard of this, he said, "It is the man of God, who was disobedient to the word of the Lord; the Lord hath delivered him to the lion, so that it hath torn him (שׁבר, frangere, confringere, used of a lion which tears its prey in pieces) and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which He spake to him."

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

the body

"the dead body of the man of God"

left in the road

"lying in the road"

translationWords

word of God

son

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.