1 Kings 13:14

_AND WENT AFTER THE MAN OF GOD, AND FOUND HIM SITTING UNDER AN OAK: AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, ART THOU THE MAN OF GOD THAT CAMEST FROM JUDAH? AND HE SAID, I AM._ Went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak, [Septuagint: hupo drun; but the Syriac, Arabic, and Vulgate versions render, 'under a terebinth']....

11-22 The old prophet's conduct proves that he was not really a godly man. When the change took place under Jeroboam, he preferred his ease and interest to his religion. He took a very bad method to bring the good prophet back. It was all a lie. Believers are most in danger of being drawn from their duty by plausible pretences of holiness. We may wonder that the wicked prophet went unpunished, while the holy man of God was suddenly and severely punished. What shall we make of this? The judgments of God are beyond our power to fathom; and there is a judgment to come. Nothing can excuse any act of wilful disobedience. This shows what they must expect who hearken to the great deceiver. They that yield to him as a tempter, will be terrified by him as a tormentor. Those whom he now fawns upon, he will afterwards fly upon; and whom he draws into sin, he will try to drive to despair....

Verse 1 Kings 13:14. _AND WENT AFTER THE MAN OF GOD_] I can hardly think that this was with any evil design. His sons had given him such an account of the prediction, the power, and influence of this prophet, that he wished to have a particular acquaintance with him, in order that he might get farther information relative to the solemn import of the prophecy which he had denounced against the idolatry at Beth-el. This good man could not have been an object of the old prophet's malevolence....

UNDER AN OAK - literally, “under the oak,” or “the terebinth-tree.” There was a single well-known tree of the kind, standing by itself in the vicinity of Bethel, which the author supposed his readers to be acquainted with....

EXPOSITION THE DISOBEDIENCE AND DEATH OF THE MAN OF GOD.—The seduction of the man of God, who has borne such fearless witness against Jeroboam's ecclesiastical policy, and his tragical end, are now narrated, partly because of the deep impression the story made at the time, but principally because these events were in themselves an eloquent testimony against the worship of the calves and the whole ecclesiastical policy of Jeroboam, and a solemn warning for all time against any, the slightest, departure from the commandments of God. The very unfaithfulness of this accredited messenger of the Most High, and the instant punishment it provoked, became part of the Divine protest against the new _regime, _against the unfaithfulness of Israel; whilst the remarkable manner in which these occurrences were recalle

AND WENT AFTER THE MAN OF GOD, AND FOUND HIM SITTING UNDER AN OAK,.... To shelter him from the heat, and being faint, hungry, and thirsty; so the ancients of old made use of oaks for a covering, before houses were invented e; thus Abraham pitched his tent in the plain, or under the oak, of Mamre, Genesis 13:18 AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, ART THOU THE MAN OF GOD THAT CAMEST FROM JUDAH? which he might guess at from his habit, and from the description his sons had given of him: AND HE SAID, I AM; owned himself to be the person he inquired after. e Suidas in voce δενδρυαζειν....

2. JEROBOAM AND REHOBOAM AND THEIR REIGN CHAPTER 13 The Man of God from Judah _ 1. The man of God and Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:1)_ 2. The temptation and lying message (1 Kings 13:11) 3. Judgment announced (1 Kings 13:20) 4. The fate of the man of Judah (1 Kings 13:23) 5. Jeroboam's impenitence (1 Kings 13:33) A dramatic scene opens this chapter. The idolatrous King is engaged in his religious ceremony when an unnamed man of God interrupted him. He did not rebuke Jeroboam, but addressed

1 Kings 12:25 to 1 Kings 13:34. THE SIN OF JEROBOAM. THE PROPHET AT BETHEL. The sources cannot be exactly determined. Some (see Cent.B) may belong to the annals of the northern kingdom, but the tone is decidedly Deuteronomic. The prophet's message to Jeroboam is certainly late. Jeroboam's first act as recorded was to build or fortify Shechem (1 Kings 12:25). Then for some reason he transferred his seat of government to the E. of Jordan to Penuel. Possibly he was hard pressed by his former patron Shishak, who invaded Israel in his reign (1 Kings 14:25). There is no proof of this; but Abner after Saul's death set up Ishbosh

AN OAK. the oak....

_under an oak_ The tree named in the Hebrew is probably the terebinth. The noun has the article in the original, and it refers perhaps to some well-known tree which was a landmark in the neighbourhood. The terebinth is a very longlived tree, and an aged one would be sure to become noted....