1 Kings 13

2 he cried against the altar, etc. This prediction was delivered three hundred and sixty years before the event (see 2 Kings xxiii. 15).

3 the ashes. The ashes of the sacrifices.

6. Intreat . . . the Lord thy God. Jeroboam looks for help now, not to the objects of his worship, but to Him whose law and services he had set at nought; but, like Pharaoh in a similar case (Exod. x. 17), he cares only for the removal of the judgement.

9. Eat no bread, nor drink water. To do this would have been a symbol of peace and friendship. The command to return by a different route was an additional precaution against forming any acquaintance by the way. The near vicinity and relation of this apostate people exposed the inhabitants of Judah to peculiar danger of infection from their sin.

11 an old prophet. This old prophet at Beth-el, though a worshipper of Jehovah, and endowed with prophetic inspiration, seems, like Balaam, not to have been a faithful and godly man (see ver. 18).

19 did eat bread . . . and drank water. Not duly considering that, while the prohibition which he had received came immediately from God, he had only this man’s word in opposition to it. His conduct showed a too easy credulity in compliance with his own inclination.

24 slew him. This judgement on the disobedient prophet vindicated his message, the authority of which had been compromised by his conduct. And the impression of the event upon the people was deepened by the miraculous restraint upon the lion: see ver. 28.

32. Samaria. This word shows that the book was compiled after Omri had built and named Samaria: see xvi. 24.

33 the lowest of the people. See note on xii. 31.

34 this thing became sin. And thus in after times Jeroboam was known as the king “who did sin and made Israel to sin”: see xiv. 16; xv. 30, 34; and 2 Kings x. 31; xiii. 6, etc.