Daily Text and Bible Reading: Wednesday, April 22 [Press play below]

13.1 By the word of Jehovah, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make sacrificial smoke.
13.2 Then he called out against the altar by the word of Jehovah and said: “O altar, altar! This is what Jehovah says: ‘Look! A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David! He will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places, those making sacrificial smoke on you, and he will burn human bones on you.’”
13.3 He gave a sign on that day, saying: “This is the sign that Jehovah has declared: Look! The altar will be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be spilled out.”
13.4 As soon as the king heard the word that the man of the true God had called out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said: “Seize him!” Immediately, the hand that he had stretched out against him dried up, and he could not draw it back.
13.5 Then the altar was ripped apart and the ashes were spilled out from the altar according to the sign that the man of the true God had given by the word of Jehovah.
13.6 The king now said to the man of the true God: “Please, beg for the favor of Jehovah your God, and pray in my behalf that my hand may be restored to me.” At this the man of the true God begged for the favor of Jehovah, and the king’s hand was restored to its former condition.
13.7 The king then said to the man of the true God: “Come home with me and take some food, and let me give you a gift.”
13.8 But the man of the true God said to the king: “Even if you gave me half your house, I would not come with you and eat bread or drink water in this place.
13.9 For this is what I was commanded by the word of Jehovah: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water, and you must not return by the way you came.’”
13.10 So he left by another way, and he did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
13.11 There was a certain old prophet dwelling in Bethel, and his sons came home and related to him all the things that the man of the true God had done that day in Bethel and the words he had spoken to the king. After they related this to their father,
13.12 their father asked them: “Which way did he go?” So his sons showed him the way that the man of the true God from Judah had gone.
13.13 He now said to his sons: “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it.
13.14 He followed the man of the true God and found him sitting under a big tree. Then he said to him: “Are you the man of the true God who came from Judah?” He replied: “I am.”
13.15 He said to him: “Come home with me and eat bread.”
13.16 But he said: “I cannot go back with you or accept your invitation, nor may I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.
13.17 For I was told by the word of Jehovah, ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there. You must not return by the way you came.’”
13.18 At this he said to him: “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel told me by the word of Jehovah, ‘Have him come back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He deceived him.)
13.19 So he went back with him to eat bread and drink water in his house.
13.20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of Jehovah came to the prophet who had brought him back,
13.21 and he called out to the man of the true God from Judah, saying, “This is what Jehovah says: ‘Because you rebelled against the order of Jehovah and did not keep the commandment that Jehovah your God gave you,
13.22 but you went back to eat bread and drink water in the place about which you were told, “Do not eat bread or drink water,” your dead body will not come into the tomb of your forefathers.’”
13.23 After the man of the true God ate bread and drank, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.
13.24 Then he got on his way, but a lion came across him on the road and killed him. His dead body was thrown onto the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion was also standing beside the dead body.
13.25 There were men passing by who saw the dead body thrown onto the road and the lion standing beside the dead body. They came in and told about it in the city where the old prophet lived.
13.26 When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard of it, he immediately said: “It is the man of the true God who rebelled against the order of Jehovah; so Jehovah gave him over to the lion, to maul and to kill him, according to the word of Jehovah that he spoke to him.”
13.27 He then said to his sons: “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it.
13.28 Then he went on his way and found the dead body thrown onto the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the dead body, nor had it mauled the donkey.
13.29 The prophet lifted up the dead body of the man of the true God and put him on the donkey, and he brought him back into his own city to mourn and bury him.
13.30 So he laid the dead body in his own tomb, and they kept crying out over him: “Too bad, my brother!”
13.31 After burying him, he told his sons: “When I die, you must bury me in the place where the man of the true God is buried. Lay my bones next to his bones.
13.32 The word that he called out by the word of Jehovah against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of worship on the high places in the cities of Samaria is sure to take place.”
13.33 Even after this happened, Jeroboam did not turn back from his bad way, but he kept appointing priests for the high places from the people in general. He would install as priests anyone who so desired, saying: “Let him become one of the priests for the high places.”
13.34 This sin on the part of the household of Jeroboam led to their destruction and annihilation from the face of the earth.

14.1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
14.2 So Jeroboam said to his wife: “Rise up, please, and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Look! Ahijah the prophet is there. He is the one who spoke of me becoming king over this people.
14.3 Take with you ten loaves of bread, sprinkled cakes, and a flask of honey, and go to him. He will then tell you what is going to happen to the boy.”
14.4 Jeroboam’s wife did what he said. She rose up and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Ahijah’s eyes stared straight ahead, and he could not see because of his age.
14.5 But Jehovah had told Ahijah: “Here is the wife of Jeroboam coming to inquire of you regarding her son, for he is sick. I will tell you what to say to her. When she arrives, she will conceal her identity.”
14.6 As soon as Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she was coming into the entrance, he said: “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you concealing your identity? I have been assigned to give you a harsh message.
14.7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: “I raised you up from among your people to make you a leader over my people Israel.
14.8 Then I ripped the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you have not become like my servant David, who kept my commandments and who walked after me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.
14.9 But you have done worse than all those who were prior to you, and you made for yourself another god and metal images to offend me, and it is I whom you have turned your back on.
14.10 For that reason I am bringing calamity on the house of Jeroboam, and I will annihilate from Jeroboam every male, including the helpless and weak in Israel, and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, just as one clears away the dung until it is all gone!
14.11 Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the heavens will eat, for Jehovah has spoken it.”’
14.12 “Now rise up; go to your house. When you set foot in the city, the child will die.
14.13 All Israel will mourn him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam’s family will be laid in a grave, because he is the only one of the house of Jeroboam in whom Jehovah the God of Israel has found something good.
14.14 Jehovah will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will do away with the house of Jeroboam from that day forward, yes, even now.
14.15 Jehovah will strike Israel down like a reed that sways in the water, and he will uproot Israel off this good land that he gave to their forefathers, and he will scatter them beyond the River, because they made their sacred poles, offending Jehovah.
14.16 And he will abandon Israel because of the sins that Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”
14.17 At that Jeroboam’s wife rose up and went on her way and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the boy died.
14.18 So they buried him, and all Israel mourned him, according to Jehovah’s word that he had spoken through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
14.19 And the rest of the history of Jeroboam, how he waged war and how he reigned, is written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Israel.
14.20 And the length of Jeroboam’s reign was 22 years, after which he was laid to rest with his forefathers; and his son Nadab became king in his place.
14.21 Meanwhile, Rehoboam the son of Solomon had become king in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned for 17 years in Jerusalem, the city that Jehovah had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel as the place to put his name. The name of Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah the Ammonitess.
14.22 And Judah was doing what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, and by the sins they committed they provoked him more than their forefathers had done.
14.23 They too kept building for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and sacred poles on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree.
14.24 There were also male temple prostitutes in the land. They acted according to all the detestable things of the nations that Jehovah had driven out before the Israelites.
14.25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
14.26 He took the treasures of the house of Jehovah and the treasures of the king’s house. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.
14.27 So King Rehoboam made copper shields to replace them, and he entrusted them to the chiefs of the guard, who guarded the entrance of the king’s house.
14.28 Whenever the king came to the house of Jehovah, the guards would carry them, and then they would return them to the guard chamber.
14.29 And the rest of the history of Rehoboam, all that he did, is it not written in the book of the history of the times of the kings of Judah?
14.30 There was constant warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
14.31 Then Rehoboam was laid to rest with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And his son Abijam became king in his place.