Bible Strands
1 Kings 13:4
Now when King Jeroboam, who was at the altar in Bethel, heard the word that the man of God had cried out against it, he stretched out his hand and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward him withered, so that he could not pull it back.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — King Jeroboam stands at the altar in Bethel and orders his attendants to seize the man of God after hearing the prophet's public warning. The moment occurs immediately following the prophet's declaration against the altar's sacrificial function.
The words — The Hebrew כִּשְׁמֹעַ (kishmoa) translates literally as "when heard," marking the precise trigger for Jeroboam's command. The phrase אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים (ish ha'elohim) identifies the prophet strictly as "the man of God."
The thread — Divine judgment on royal defiance appears in Genesis 19:11 through blinding strikes and in Revelation 11:5 via fire from the prophets' mouths. This pattern mirrors the immediate physical reversal Jeroboam experiences when his hand withers.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that prophetic authority cannot be overridden by political power. It requires the reader to accept that divine warnings carry immediate, tangible consequences.
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
And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Beth–el, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.
Cross-references
- Revelation 11:5 If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone who wants to harm them must be killed.
- 2 Chronicles 18:25 And the king of Israel declared, “Take Micaiah and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son,
- Genesis 19:11 And they struck the men at the entrance, young and old, with blindness, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the door.
- 2 Kings 6:18 As the Arameans came down against him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Please strike these people with blindness.” So He struck them with blindness, according to the word of Elisha.
- 2 Chronicles 16:10 Asa was angry with the seer and became so enraged over this matter that he put the man in prison. And at the same time Asa oppressed some of the people.
- 2 Chronicles 25:15 Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet, who said, “Why have you sought this people’s gods, which could not deliver them from your hand?”
- Psalms 105:15 “Do not touch My anointed ones! Do no harm to My prophets!”
- Jeremiah 20:2 he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
- Jeremiah 26:8 and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, “You must surely die!
- Jeremiah 26:20 Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did.