The prophet who spoke to Jeroboam at the altar of Bethel had been warned by the Lord not to eat nor drink in that place, but to return at once to his own home, by a different road from that which he had traveled when coming to Bethel. So when Jeroboam urged him to stay a while and rest from his journey, the prophet answered that he could not because God had warned him not to eat nor drink in that place. Even the offer of a reward from the King did not cause the prophet to remain in Bethel.
When he turned to go away, some young men who were standing near hurried home to tell their father about the words that this man of God had spoken to the wicked King. Now their father was also a prophet, and he wished very much to see this brave man who dared to talk so boldly to the wicked ruler. He asked his sons which way the prophet of Judah had gone, and they told him. Then he called for his ass, and they saddled and brought the animal to him.
“As the old man hurried along the way to overtake the prophet from Judah he decided to tempt him to disobey God. Presently he came upon a man sitting under an oak-tree by the roadside. He stopped his beast and asked, “Are you the prophet from Judah?” The man replied, “I am.” “Then come with me,” he said, “for I want you to eat bread at my home.” But the prophet answered, “I can not go, for God has commanded me not to eat nor drink in this place.”
The old man then told a lie to the prophet. He said, “An angel told me to bring you back to my home in the city of Bethel to eat bread.” The prophet believed this lie, and he rose and went back with the old man to the city. But while he was eating and drinking God spoke to him and rebuked him for his disobedience. He told the prophet that he would surely be punished, for he had known what he was supposed to do and he did not need an angel to speak other words than God’s words to him.
The prophet rose from his meal and started once more for his homeland. But he had not gone far outside the city when a lion came out of the woods and killed him. The lion did not try to eat his flesh, but stood quietly watching his dead body. And the ass upon which the prophet had been riding stood near by as if waiting for his master to rise up again and mount him. He did not seem to be afraid of the lion.
By and by some people came along the road, and they saw the lion and the ass and the body of a dead man lying between them. These people hurried to the city and told what they had seen. And the old man who had called the prophet back to eat bread at his house, said, “This must be the prophet whom the lion has killed. I will go and see for myself.” So he commanded his sons the second time to saddle his ass, that he might ride out to see what had happened to the prophet from Judah. And he found the lion, and there, too, lying torn beside the road, he saw the prophet’s body.
The old man was sorry when he saw what had befallen his friend. He picked up the dead body and placed it upon the ass and took it back to the city, and there he buried it in the grave that he had prepared for himself. Then he mourned for the dead man. And he commanded his sons to bury him, when he should die, in the same grave, with the prophet who had been faithful to cry aloud against the sins of Jeroboam, but who had failed to obey all the words of the Lord.