1 Kings 13:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
1 Kings 13:22
But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
eaten
וַתֹּ֤אכַלva.To.khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
bread
לֶ֙חֶם֙le.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
drunk
וַתֵּ֣שְׁתְּva.Te.shet
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
water
מַ֔יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
place
בַּמָּקוֹם֙ba.ma.kOm
H4725
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
say
דִּבֶּ֣רdi.Ber
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Eat
תֹּ֥אכַלTo.khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
bread
לֶ֖חֶםLe.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
drink
תֵּ֣שְׁתְּTe.shet
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
water
מָ֑יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
carcase
נִבְלָתְךָ֖niv.la.te.Kha
H5038
a flabby thing · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
come
תָב֥וֹאta.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
sepulchre
קֶ֥בֶרKe.ver
H6913
a sepulchre · noun, common masculine singular construct
fathers
אֲבֹתֶֽיךָ'a.vo.Tei.kha
H1
father · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Kings 13:30 And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!
1 Kings 14:13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good t…
2 Chronicles 21:19-20 And it came to pass, that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he died of sore…
Isaiah 14:18-20 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
Jeremiah 22:18-19 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 13:11-22
The man of God had honestly and resolutely refused the king's invitation, though he promised him a reward; yet he was over-persuaded by an old prophet to come back with him, and dine in Beth-el, contrary to the command given him. Here we find how dearly his dinner cost him. Observe with wonder,
I. The old prophet's wickedness. I cannot but call him a false prophet and a bad man, it being much easier to believe that from one of such a bad character should be extorted a confirmation of what the man of God said (as we find, Kg1 13:32) than that a true prophet, and a good man, should tell such a deliberate lie as he did, and father it upon God. A good tree could never bring forth such corrupt fr…
he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah--rather, "it cried," that is, the word of the Lord.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 13:22
Thy carcass shall not come - This intimated to him that he was to die an untimely death, but probably did not specify by what means.
John Gill on 1 Kings 13:22
But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the Lord did say to thee, eat no bread, nor drink no water,.... Which command he observed when first there, though invited by the king; and yet, after he had got out of the place, was prevailed upon to return and transgress the command:
thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers; signifying that he should die before he came to the land of Judah, and he should be buried in another place, and which was verified.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 13:20-22
As they were sitting at table the word of the Lord came to the old prophet, so that he cried out to the man of God from Judah: "Because thou hast been rebellious against the command of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment, ... thou wilt not come to the grave of thy fathers," i.e., thou wilt meet with a violent death by the way. This utterance was soon fulfilled.
The Church Fathers
Yet from that love of the human heart, because of which "no one ever hated his own flesh," if people believe that anything would be lacking to their bodies after death that in their own people or country the solemnity of burial demands, they become sad ..., and before death they fear for their bodies that which has no effect on them after death. Thus we read in the book of Kings that God through a prophet threatens another prophet who transgressed his word, that his body should not be returned to the sepulcher of his ancestors. Scripture records it in these words: "Thus says the Lord: Because you have not been obedient to the Lord and have not kept the commandment that the Lord your God commanded you, and [you] have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place where he commanded you that you should not eat bread or drink water, your dead shall not be brought in the sepulcher of your ancestors." If we consider the extent of this punishment according to the Evangelist, where we learn that after the body has been slain there is no occasion to fear that the lifeless members will suffer, it should not be called punishment. But, if we consider it in relation to the love of a person for his own flesh, then he might have been frightened and saddened while living at what he was not to feel when dead. This, then, was the nature of the punishment: The soul grieved that something would happen to its body, although, when it did happen, the soul did not grieve. Only to this extent did the Lord wish to punish his servant, for it was not from his own obstinacy that he refused to carry out the command, but, because of the deceit of another person who was deceiving him, he thought he obeyed when he did not obey.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Funeral — Burying was among the Jews the only mode of disposing of corpses (Gen. 23:19; 25:9; 35:8, 9, etc.). The first traces of burning the dead are found in 1 Sam. 31:12. The burning of the body was affixed…
Disobedience To God · Exemplified: The prophet — Exemplified: The prophet
Judgments · The prophet of — The prophet of
Offence · Exemplified: Old prophet — Exemplified: Old prophet
Water · Was used by Jews: As their principal beverage — Was used by Jews: As their principal beverage
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Tyndale Open Study Notes on 1 Kings 13:20-22
Although the old prophet had lied, God communicated through him. The severe pronouncement against the man of God was that because of his disobedience, he would be denied burial in his ancestral tomb. This death sentence was quickly carried out. Disobedience to the clear command of God is a serious offense (Num 14:21-23; Deut 11:26-28).
Rashi on 1 Kings 13:21
And he called. The old prophet called the man of God.9Alternatively, and “he prophesied about the prophet of God.”—Targum Yonoson
