Bible Strands
1 Kings 13:32
for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet of Judah speaks to his sons at his gravesite, directing them to inter his bones beside the man of God who denounced Jeroboam’s altar. This instruction follows immediately after the man of God’s death and burial, concluding the prophet’s final words.
The words — The Hebrew כִּי (ki) functions as “for,” grounding the burial command in a stated reason, while הָיֹה וְיִהְיֶה (ha.yoh we-yih.yeh) literally means “certainly it will happen.” These terms tie the physical act of burial to the guaranteed outcome of the spoken prophecy.
The thread — The declaration against Bethel’s altar and Samaria’s high places originates in 1 Kings 13:2 and resurfaces in the later history of Israel’s shrines (1 Kings 16:24). Leviticus 26:30 parallels the promised destruction of these elevated worship sites.
Why it lands — The text states that the prophetic word against idolatrous altars will execute regardless of ongoing rebellion. It requires the reader to treat divine judgment as an established fact rather than a conditional warning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Beth–el, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 16:24 He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver and built a city there, calling it Samaria after the name of Shemer, who had owned the hill.
- 1 Kings 13:2 And he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, “O altar, O altar, this is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David, and upon you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’”
- Leviticus 26:30 I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
- 1 Kings 12:31 Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.
- 2 Kings 23:16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the hillside, and he sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar to defile it, according to the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who had foretold these things.
- 1 Kings 12:29 One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
- 2 Chronicles 25:13 Meanwhile the troops that Amaziah had dismissed from battle raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-horon. They struck down 3,000 people and carried off a great deal of plunder.
- Ezra 4:10 and the rest of the peoples whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and elsewhere west of the Euphrates.
- John 4:4 Now He had to pass through Samaria.