Глава 13

The story of a prophet from Judea who predicted the destruction of the Bethel altar and the entire cult of the calves. 1 Kings 13:1. And behold, the man of God came from Judah according to the word of the Lord to Bethel, while Jeroboam stood at the altar to burn incense. If the common people in the ten-tribe kingdom could not foresee the disastrous consequences of Jeroboam’s reform “and were even pleased that their God, Jehovah, was becoming (thanks to the calf service) closer and more accessible to them” (see Prof. Pokrovsky, p. 326), then the representatives of the priesthood of Levi, in large numbers leaving the territory of the kingdom of Israel and moving to Judea and Jerusalem, reacted to this completely differently ( 2 Chronicles 11:13–14 ). But prophecy, both Jewish and Israeli, spoke out even more directly and sharply against the cult of Jeroboam. (1 Kings 14:1–16) contains a threatening denunciation of this cult from the very prophet of the kingdom of Israel, Ahijah, who once (1 Kings 11:29–39) predicted the kingdom for Jeroboam. In ch. XIII contains a striking story about the protest against the cult of Jeroboam on the part of a certain “man of God” - a prophet from Judea 11. Josephus (Jude. Ancient. VIII, 8, 5) calls him Jadon (´Ιάδων), apparently identifying him with Ieddo (2 Chron. 9:29), which, however, is incorrect, since the last prophet was alive long later under Abijah (2 Chron. 13:22). 1 Kings 13:2. And he spoke the word of the Lord to the altar and said: altar, altar! Thus says the Lord: Behold, a son will be born to the house of David, whose name is Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and he will burn human bones on you. “Altar, altar” is a metonymy instead of the entire cult, the destruction of which the prophet predicts. This prophecy, in which King Josiah is named and its executor (2 Kings 22:1), came true exactly more than 300 years later (2 Kings 23:14–18). However, others understand the name of Josiah in the common sense: “helped by Jehovah” (Keil), and the entire story of Chapter XIII. understood as a later adaptation of folk tradition, after the time of Josiah (Ewald. Geschichte III, s. 476–480). 1 Kings 13:3. And he gave a sign that day, saying, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken this: behold, this altar will break down, and the ashes that are on it will be scattered.” 1 Kings 13:4. When the king heard the word of the man of God spoken to the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, Take him. And his hand, which he stretched out towards him, became numb, and he could not turn it towards himself. 1 Kings 13:5. And the altar broke down, and the ashes of the altar scattered, according to the sign which the man of God gave by the word of the Lord. 1 Kings 13:6. And the king [Jeroboam] said to the man of God, Appease the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may turn unto me. And the man of God appeased the face of the Lord, and the king's hand turned towards him and became as before. The beginning of the verse is attributed by the accepted LXX and Slavic texts to Josiah: καὶ δώσει ἐν τῆ ἡμέρα ἐκέινη τὸ τέρας, “and he will give a miracle on that day” - undoubtedly erroneous (cf. v. 5), correct in Russian Synod.: “And (the prophet from Judea) gave a sign on that day” (in LXX: 11, 19, 44, 52, 55, 71, 74, 92, 106, 108, 120, 121, 128, 158, 236, 242, etc. in Golmes have “ ἔδωκε "). A “sign” (Heb. mophet) is not a miracle only in general (Heb. from), but amazing for those who see it. “Ashes” (Heb. deshen) are not the ash of burnt wood, but the remains of meat and fat after the burning of the altar (Lev. 1:16, 4:12). The terrible word of the prophet about the altar was not slow to be fulfilled with literal accuracy (v. 5). “But the evil king, when he should have been horrified by the miracle performed by the prophet and feared the Sender, stretched out his hand and ordered to take the prophet. But the hand, from relaxation of the muscles and veins, remained extended” (Blessed Theodoret, question 48). The sudden paralysis of Jeroboam's arm was probably due to atrophy of the main artery of the arm (Smith. A dictionary of the Bible, vol. II, p. 304). Only through the prayer of the prophet did a new miracle happen - the healing of the king’s paralyzed hand. 1 Kings 13:7. And the king said to the man of God: Come with me into the house and refresh yourself with food, and I will give you a gift. 1 Kings 13:8. But the man of God said to the king, “Even though you give me half your house, I will not go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place. 1 Kings 13:9. for this is what I have been commanded by the word of the Lord: “You shall not eat bread there or drink water, and do not return by the way you came.” 1 Kings 13:10. And he went another way and did not go back the way by which he came to Bethel. Jeroboam, wanting to thank the prophet, and at the same time smooth out the difficult impression on the eyewitnesses of the incident, invites the Jewish prophet to the house for reinforcement and to receive a gift. But the prophet resolutely refuses, referring to God’s very specific and unconditional command to him - not to eat bread and not drink water (vv. 9, 17) in the land of Israel, i.e. - since eating food with someone is a sign of friendly communication with this person (Gen. 43:32; Luke 15:2; Gal. 2:12; 1 Cor. 1:27) - not to have any communication with the country and inhabitants of the ten-tribe kingdom, which showed that the country of Israel, having accepted the cult introduced by Jeroboam, became hateful to God, who also forbids the prophet to enter into any communication with its inhabitants: “ad detestationem idolatriae, ut ipso facto ostenderet, Bethelitas idolatras adeo esse detestabiles et a Deo quasi excommunicates, ut nullum fidelium cum iis cibi vel potus communionem habere velit" (Cornelius a lapide). The Prophet was also forbidden to return along the same route, probably so as not to be recognized and detained on the way back. This time the prophet precisely fulfilled God’s command (v. 10), which, however, was prevented by a certain Bethel prophet (vv. 11–24). 1 Kings 13:11. There lived an old prophet in Bethel. His son came and told him everything that the man of God had done today at Bethel; and the words that he spoke to the king were told by the sons to their father. 1 Kings 13:12. And their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed which way the man of God, who came from Judea, went. 1 Kings 13:13. And he said to his sons: Saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled a donkey for him, and he sat on it. The Jewish tradition gave unfavorable judgments about the character and dignity of the Bethel prophet (called throughout the text by the name nabi prophet, while the Jewish one is called everywhere “the man of God,” ish gaelogim, the last name, according to Blessed Theodoret (ibid.), is given only to those who have acquired perfect virtue, such as Moses and Elijah, or who are similar to them). The Targum calls him a prophet of lies or a false prophet. Talmudists consider the Bethel prophet even a prophet of Baal, who was awarded revelation only at the moment of eating the food of the Jewish prophet (v. 20) precisely for his hospitality to the latter. I. Flavius ​​(Jude Ancient VIII, 9, 1) also considers the Elder of Bethel to be a false prophet, who usually flattered Jeroboam and saw a rival in the Jewish prophet, whom he decided to destroy. But the biblical text nowhere presents the Elder of Bethel as a false prophet. “I believe,” says Blessed Theodoret (ibid.), “that the other (i.e. Bethel) was God's prophet; He used false words not in order to harm the man of God, but in order to himself receive a blessing from him... And that he was a prophet, and not a false prophet, is clear from the fact that through him God predicted a future disaster for the man of God; Moreover, he believed what was prophesied about this, and commanded his sons that when he died, they should bury him along with the body of the man of God” (question 43). 1 Kings 13:14. And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak tree, and said to him, “Are you the man of God, who came from Judea?” And he said: I am. Having learned from his sons about the prophet of Judah, his prediction and actions in Bethel, the Bethel prophet goes after him and finds him sitting under an oak tree (LXX: ὑπὸ δρῦν), - Heb. ela – actually; terebinthus (Vulg: terebinthus) – “an oak-like tree with evergreen leaves and cluster-shaped fruits, reaches a considerable height, which is why it is used for topographical definitions: (Gen. 35:4; Judges 6:11,19; 1 Samuel 17:2,19)” (Gesenius). Here we are talking about the terebinth known in Bethel (ha-ela - with a member), perhaps identical with the one under which Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, was buried (Gen. 5:8). 1 Kings 13:15. And he said to him, “Come into my house and eat bread.” 1 Kings 13:16. He said: I cannot return with you and go to you; I will not eat bread or drink water from you in this place, 1 Kings 13:17. for the word of the Lord told me: “You shall not eat bread or drink water there, and do not return by the way that you went.” 1 Kings 13:18. And he said to him: I am a prophet just like you, and the angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, and said: “Bring him back to your house; let him eat bread and drink water.” - He lied to him. When the Jewish prophet refuses the request of the Bethel prophet to come to him to eat food (v. 15), repeating what he said to Jeroboam (16–17, cf. 9), the Bethel prophet motivates his invitation as follows: “And I am a prophet like you, and the angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord and said: bring him back to your house” (v. 18); if the statement that he is a prophet is true and is further confirmed by the revelation he received (vv. 20-22), then the reference to the command to return the prophet is a lie, although used without bad purposes. But here, as in the entire story, the expression “the word of Jehovah” (vv. 1, 9, 17–18) is characteristic of the biblical view of revelation, as a designation and personification of the really active power of God, as a pre-image of the New Testament Logos; on the other hand, the mediatorial participation in the revelation of an Angel is significant (v. 18): this idea also appears more than once in the Old Testament - in the prophets Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah (see in the dissertation of A. Glagolev, Old Testament Biblical Teaching about Angels, Kyiv, 1900, pp. 305–404). 1 Kings 13:20. While they were still sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet, who turned him back. 1 Kings 13:21. And he spoke to the man of God who came from Judea, and said, Thus says the Lord: Because you have not obeyed the mouth of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, 1 Kings 13:22. but you returned, ate bread and drank water in the place about which He told you: “You shall not eat bread and drink water,” your body will not enter the tomb of your fathers. The disobedience of the prophet of the Jews, according to the judgment of God, of course, for the modern and future destinies of the Kingdom of God, has to be punished severely, especially for the ancient Jewish views on the afterlife, as on communication with the forefathers (Gen.47:29–30,50:5; 2Kings.19:37; 1Kings.2:34; Jer.26:23), deprived burials in the tomb of the fathers. 1 Kings 13:23. After he ate bread and got drunk, he saddled a donkey for the prophet whom he had turned. 1 Kings 13:24. And he went. And a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body lay abandoned on the road; the donkey stood next to him, and the lion stood next to the body. 1 Kings 13:25. And so, people passing by saw a body thrown on the road, and a lion standing next to the body, and they went and told it in the city in which the old prophet lived. 1 Kings 13:26. The Prophet, who turned him back from the road, heard this, said: this is the man of God who did not obey the mouth of the Lord; The Lord gave him over to the lion, who broke him and killed him, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke to him. The tragic end of the Jewish prophet is an obvious punishment from God (cf. the punishment of the new inhabitants of the land of Israel by lions), (2 Kings 17:25; Lev.26:22). By the extraordinary death of His messenger, the Lord showed that from His chosen ones He requires special zeal and accuracy in fulfilling His commands. Blessed Theodoret says: “From this we learn that the stronger will be more severely tortured (Wis. 6:6). Whoever hears God's voice should not believe the human voice that claims the opposite, but wait for the Commander to stop him from doing what he commanded. I think that this punishment is intended to confirm the prophecy about the altar. For it is impossible for the story of such a man to be hidden; and this was enough to instill fear in those who heard.” On the other hand, “God honored the prophet even after his death, because he appointed a murderer as his guard” (question 43). 1 Kings 13:27. And he said to his sons: Saddle the donkey for me. And they mounted. 1 Kings 13:28. He went and found his body abandoned on the road; the donkey and the lion stood near the body; The lion did not eat the body and did not break the donkey. 1 Kings 13:29. And the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, and put it on a donkey, and took him back. And the old prophet went to his city to mourn and bury him. 1 Kings 13:30. And he laid his body in his tomb and wept for him: alas, my brother! 1 Kings 13:31. After burying him, he said to his sons: when I die, bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones; 1 Kings 13:32. for the word that he spoke at the commandment of the Lord about the altar in Bethel and about all the high places in the cities of Samaria will be fulfilled. Paying the last debt to the deceased Jewish prophet on the part of the Bethel prophet is a tribute of respect and, perhaps, bitter repentance on his part; the testament of the Bethel prophet about his own burial with the Jewish prophet in the same tomb, in addition, testifies to his deep faith in the truth of the prophetic word and intends to prevent the desecration of his own ashes during the coming reform of Josiah: the last purpose of the order is indicated by the text of LXX and Glory. (v. 31 – end) addition: ἵνα σωθῶσι τὰ ὀστᾶ μου μετὰ τῶν ὀστῶν αὐτοῦ , glor.: “may my bones be saved with his bones” - an explanatory note that could have been in the original text (cf. 2 Kings 23:16–18). - “Alas, my brother!” (v. 30) is a common Hebrew formula for mourning deceased relatives and friends (cf. Jer. 22:18). The mention of Samaria, as an entire region (v. 32), in the mouth of the Bethel prophet was used proleptically by the writer: Samaria was built 50 years after Jeroboam I - by Omri (1 Kings 16:24). 1 Kings 13:33. And after this event, Jeroboam did not leave his bad path, but continued to appoint high priests from among the people; whoever wanted, he dedicated, and he became a priest of the heights. 1 Kings 13:34. This led the house of Jeroboam to sin and destruction and to its destruction from the face of the earth. Both the mission of the Jewish prophet (vv. 1–10) and his tragic death and burial itself (vv. 11–32) had the goal of turning Jeroboam away from his chosen path of willful change in the area of ​​worship, but this goal was not achieved 12: Jeroboam continued his activities that were displeasing to God, for example, in terms of spreading the universal priesthood (v. 33), cf. (1 Kings 12:31; 2 Chronicles 11:15,13:9): “whoever wanted, he dedicated” (from Hebrew: “filled his hand”, glor.: “fulfilling his hand”, cf. (Exodus 28:41); blessed Theodoret, question 44). These two denunciations of the cult of bulls by the Israeli prophet Ahijah and the Jewish “man of God” complement each other to the same extent as later denunciations of the prophet Hosea - an Israeli (Hos.8:4-5,10:9,13:1-2, etc.) and the prophet Amos - a Jew (Am.4:4,5:4-5,8:14) According to Josephus (Jude. Ancient VIII, 9), the prophet of Bethel himself destroyed the beneficial effect of the threatening denunciation of the Jewish prophet on Jeroboam, precisely explained to him the terrible signs: the stiffening of the king’s hand and the disintegration of the altar in a natural way, and generally undermined Jeroboam’s trust in the Jewish prophet. But this equally contradicts both (1 Kings 13:26–32) and (2 Kings 23:18) You might be interested in: