1 Kings 13:32

_FOR THE SAYING WHICH HE CRIED BY THE WORD OF THE LORD AGAINST THE ALTAR IN BETHEL, AND AGAINST ALL THE HOUSES OF THE HIGH PLACES WHICH ARE IN THE CITIES OF SAMARIA, SHALL SURELY COME TO PASS._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

23-34 God is displeased at the sins of his own people; and no man shall be protected in disobedience, by his office, his nearness to God, or any services he has done for him. God warns all whom he employs, strictly to observe their orders. We cannot judge of men by their sufferings, nor of sins by present punishments; with some, the flesh is destroyed, that the spirit may be saved; with others, the flesh is pampered, that the soul may ripen for hell. Jeroboam returned not from his evil way. He promised himself that the calves would secure the crown to his family, but they lost it, and sunk his family. Those betray themselves who think to support themselves by any sin whatever. Let us dread prospering in sinful ways; pray to be kept from every delusion and temptation, and to be enabled to walk with self-denying perseverance in the way of God's commands....

Verse 1 Kings 13:32. _IN THE CITIES OF SAMARIA_] It is most certain that Samaria, or as it is called in Hebrew _Shomeron_, was not built at this time. We are expressly told that Omri, king of Israel, founded this city on the hill which he bought for two talents of silver, from a person of the name of _Shemer_, after whom he called the city Samaria or _Shomeron_; (see 1 Kings 16:24); and this was fifty years after the death of Jeroboam. How then could the old prophet speak of _Samaria_, not then in existence, unless he did it by the spirit of prophecy, calling things that are not as though they were; as the man of God called Josiah by name _three hundred_ years before he was born? Some suppose that the historian adds these words because Samaria existed in _his time_, a...

AGAINST ALL THE HOUSES OF THE HIGH PLACES - i. e., more than the two high places at Dan and Bethel. There were many lesser high places in the land, several of which would be likely to be in Israel 1 Kings 3:4. IN THE CITIES OF SAMARIA - The word Samaria cannot have been employed by the old prophet, in whose days Samaria did not exist 1 Kings 16:24. The writer of Kings has substituted for the term used by him that whereby the country was known in his own day....

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

FOR THE SAYING WHICH HE CRIED BY THE WORD OF THE LORD AGAINST THE ALTAR IN BETHEL,.... That the priests should be offered on it, and men's bones be burnt upon it; for as for its being rent, and the ashes of it poured out, that had been done already: AND AGAINST ALL THE HOUSES OF THE HIGH PLACES WHICH ARE IN SAMARIA, SHALL SURELY COME TO PASS: by which it appears that there were temples, and high places, and altars built in other parts of the kingdom besides Dan and Bethel, of the destruction of which the man of God prophesied, though not before mentioned; all which the old prophet gave credit to, and firmly believed would be accomplished. The kingdom of Israel, in later times, had the name of Samaria, from the chief city of it, Isaiah 7:9, here spoken of by anticipation, for as yet it was not in being, see...

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

HE CRIED. Compare 1 Kings 13:2....

_high places which_are _in the cities of Samaria_ On the building of Samaria, see 1 Kings 16:24. The occurrence of these words in the narrative seems clear evidence that the story in its present form is not contemporary with the events, and may therefore have been written down even later than Josiah's time. See above on 1 Kings 13:2....