4. Now when the king heard the word of the man of God, which he proclaimed against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar saying: “Seize him!” But the hand which he stretched out against him withered—he could not even draw it back to himself.
5. The altar also was split apart and the fat ashes poured out from the altar, just as was the sign that the man of God gave with the word of Adonai.
6. So the king responded by saying to the man of God: “Please seek the face of Adonai your God, and pray for me, so my hand may be restored to me!” So the man of God sought the face of Adonai and the king’s hand was restored to him, becoming as it was before.
7. Then the king said to the man of God: “Come home with me and have something to eat, and then, I will give you a reward.”
8. But the man of God said to the king: “Even if you give me half your house, I will not go with you nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place.
9. For so I was charged by the word of Adonai, saying, ‘You are to eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way by which you came.’”
10. So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
11. Now one old prophet was living in Bethel. His son came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel and all the words that he had spoken to the king they related to their father.
12. Then their father asked them: “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God that came from Judah went.
13. Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me!” So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it.
14. Then he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he said.
15. “Come home with me,” he said to him, “and eat bread!”
16. But he said: “I cannot return with you nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
17. For it was said to me by the word of Adonai: You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor should you return back by the way by which you came.”
18. So he said to him: “I also am a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me with the word of Adonai saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He lied to him.)