than that which he had come. Among his astonished audience that day had been the sons of an old resident

in Bethel, whose real character it is not easy to read.215

In the sacred narrative he is throughout designated as Navi, or Prophet (literally: one who wells forth"),

while the Divine messenger from Judah is always described as "man of Elohim" - a distinction which must

have its meaning. On their return from the idol-temple, the eldest of his sons 216 described to the old prophet

the scene which they had witnessed. Inquiring from them what road the "man of God" had taken - which

they, and probably many others had watched 217 - he hastily rode after him, and overtook him.

The "man of Elohim" was resting under "the terebinth" -apparently a well-known spot where travelers were

wont to unlade their beasts of burden, and to halt for shelter and repose (a kind of "Travelers' Rest").

Repeating the invitation of Jeroboam, he received the same answer as the king. There could be even less

hesitation now, since the "man of God" had actually left Bethel, nor could he possibly have deemed it right

to return thither. Upon this the old prophet addressed him as a colleague, and falsely pretended, not indeed

that Jehovah, but that "an angel in the word of Jehovah," had directed him to fetch him back, when the other

immediately complied. As the two sat at table in Bethel, suddenly "the word of Jehovah was upon the

prophet218 who had brought him back." Because he had "resisted (rebelled against) the mouth of Jehovah,

and not kept the commandment which Jehovah had commanded him,"  219 his dead body should not come

into the sepulcher  220 of his fathers.

Startling as such an announcement must have been, it would set two points vividly before him: his

disobedience and his impending punishment - the latter very real, according to the views prevailing at the

time (Genesis 47:30; 49:29; 50:25; 2 Samuel 19:37, etc.), although not implying either immediate or even

violent death. It is very surprising to - us and indicative of the absence of the higher moral and spiritual

elements - that this announcement was not followed by any expression of sorrow or repentance, but that the

meal seems to have continued uninterrupted to the end. Did the old prophet seem to the other only under an

access of ecstatic frenzy? Did the fact that he announced not immediate death blunt the edge of his

message? Had disobedience to the Divine command carried as its consequence immediate spiritual

callousness? Or had the return of the "man of God" to Bethel after all been the result of a deeper

estrangement from God, of which the first manifestation had already appeared in what we have described as

his strangely insufficient answer to Jeroboam's invitation and offer? These are necessarily only suggestions

- and yet it seems to us as if all these elements had been present and at work to bring about the final result.

The meal was past, and the "old prophet" saddled his ass to convey his guest to his destination. But the

end of the journey was never reached. As some travelers were passing that way, they saw an unwonted

spectacle which must have induced them to hasten on their journey. Close by the roadside lay a dead body,

and beside it stood the ass 221 which the uhhappy man had ridden -both guarded, as it were, by the lion, who

had killed the man, evidently by the weight of his paw as he knocked him down,222 without, however,

rending him, or attempting to feed on his carcass. Who the dead man was, the travelers seem not to have

known, nor would they, of course, pause by the road.

On passing through Bethel - which from the narrative does not seem to have been their ultimate destination,

but the first station which they reached they naturally "talked in the town" about what they had just seen in

its neighborhood. When the rumor reached the "old prophet," he immediately understood the meaning of

all. Riding to the spot, he reverently carried home with him the dead body of the "man of God," mourned

over, and buried him in his own sepulcher, marking the place by a monumental pillar to distinguish this from

other tombs, and to keep the event in perpetual remembrance. But to his sons he gave solemn direction to

lay him in the same tomb - in the rock-niche by the side of that in which the "man of God" rested. This was

to be a dying testimony to "the man of God" that his embassy of God had been real, and that surely the

"thing would be" (that it would happen) "which he had cried in the word of Jehovah against the altar which

(was)at Bethel, and against all the Bamoth-houses which (are)  223 in the cities of Samaria."