This chapter places before us one of the great riddles among the prophets. We have a prophet named Iddo, a true prophet without any doubt, who was sent from Yehudah to Beit El to deliver a prophecy concerning the altar, and he receives a clear and explicit prophecy from God: do not eat bread in that city, do not drink water there, and do not return by the way you came. And behold, suddenly another man arrives, who also claims to be a prophet, and says to him: God told me exactly the opposite. And the prophet follows him, eats and drinks, and pays for this with his life. We will read the entire chapter here through the eyes of the Malbim, who resolves the difficulty with a wonderful precision in the language of the verses.
כִּי־כֵן צִוָּה אֹתִי בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה לֵאמֹר לֹא־תֹאכַל לֶחֶם וְלֹא תִשְׁתֶּה־מָּיִם וְלֹא תָשׁוּב בַּדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר הָלָכְתָּ׃ - For so He commanded me by the word of God, saying: You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way you came.
At first glance the question cries out: how could it enter one's mind that a prophet with whom God spoke directly would go and perform an act following another man who claims to be a prophet and tells him the opposite? I heard from God Himself, and if there were any updates, God would inform me Himself. The matter is not understood at all.
The Malbim explains: the Holy One, blessed be He, truly did speak directly with the prophet Iddo, and warned him not to return by the way and not to eat in that place. But in these two commands there is room to be uncertain about their scope. "Do not return by the way you came" - one can understand that you must in no way retrace steps you have walked, in any direction and on any side; and "you came" - you may not go back. And one can understand it another way: you came from Yehudah to Beit El, and that very route, from Yehudah to Beit El, you may not travel back. But if you went by another route, there is no warning here against retracing those steps. According to the second understanding, one who left Beit El by another route and traveled halfway, and is now told to retrace his steps back to Beit El, it may be that there is no prohibition in this at all, for this is not the route from Yehudah to Beit El, and the command was not about this.
And likewise in the command "do not eat bread nor drink water" - two ways to understand it. One possibility: never eat bread or drink water in this city. Second possibility: when you come to deliver the prophecy there, be careful not to eat and not to drink; but after you have left the city, that is finished, and you may go back and eat and drink, for the entire command applied only while you are in the city on your mission. Would you be forbidden to eat there for your whole life? The moment you left, the command lapsed.
And the false prophet comes and resolves both understandings leniently: this is not called returning by the way you came, since you already went by another route; and the prohibition of eating was stated only while you are in the city, and not after you left it. And therefore, he tells him, you are obligated to do as I say, and these are not my words but the word of God.
וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא אוּכַל לָשׁוּב אִתָּךְ וְלָבוֹא אִתָּךְ וְלֹא־אֹכַל לֶחֶם וְלֹא־אֶשְׁתֶּה אִתְּךָ מַיִם בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה׃ - And he said: I cannot return with you nor come with you, nor will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
The prophet answers him that he cannot for two reasons, corresponding to the two warnings: "I cannot return with you nor come with you" - I cannot come to your house, for to do so I would have to retrace those very steps on the way by which I have just come; and further, "nor will I eat bread" - I was told not to eat and not to drink in this place, without any limit of time, forever.
כִּי־דָבָר אֵלַי בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה לֹא־תֹאכַל לֶחֶם וְלֹא־תִשְׁתֶּה שָׁם מָיִם לֹא־תָשׁוּב לָלֶכֶת בַּדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר־הָלַכְתָּ בָּהּ׃ - For a word came to me by the word of God: You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, you shall not return to go by the way you came.
Here the Malbim makes a wonderful observation of precision. These words the prophet had already said to Yeravam, but there he expressed them in an entirely different formulation. In verse 9 it says: "For so He commanded me by the word of God, saying: You shall not eat bread nor drink water" - without the word "there" - "nor return by the way you came." And here: "For a word came to me by the word of God: You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, you shall not return to go by the way you came by it." "He commanded me" means: He told me explicitly. "A word came to me by the word of God" means: this is what I understand from the words of God. To Yeravam he spoke in the language of absolute command; to the false prophet he speaks in the language of an unspecified word whose interpretation and ruling I know.
And all the additions he made are the proof of his ruling: "and you shall not drink water there" - from the words of Hashem one can understand that the prohibition depends on the place, and if so it makes no difference whether it is now or two hours ago or in two days; the place has not changed, "there" still remains "there," and even after I have left this is no reason to permit it. And likewise "you shall not return to go by the way you came by it" - there is room to understand that I must not walk any walking on a way I have walked once, and any way you walked you may never return to it. That is to say: I cannot tell you that this is an explicit command, but it is the word of Hashem, and this is how I understand it from His words.
וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ גַּם־אֲנִי נָבִיא כָּמוֹךָ וּמַלְאָךְ דִּבֶּר אֵלַי בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה לֵאמֹר הֲשִׁבֵהוּ אִתְּךָ אֶל־בֵּיתֶךָ וְיֹאכַל לֶחֶם וְיֵשְׁתְּ מָיִם כִּחֵשׁ לוֹ׃ - And he said to him, "I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Hashem, saying: Bring him back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water." He was lying to him.
The Malbim says: the sons of the old prophet told him the entire dialogue that the true prophet had with Yeravam, and so he grasped that the wording here differed from the wording there. And since the wording was different, he understood that the matter was not entirely clear even to the prophet himself. And precisely here the evil inclination enters: "sin crouches at the door" - wherever there is doubt. "Doubt" (safek) has the numerical value of Amalek. In the place where one is not certain, there the evil inclination found itself an opening: who says so? Perhaps it was not so?
Therefore the false prophet comes and argues: you come to be stringent, because the word of Hashem is unclear and it is reasonable to be concerned and act stringently. But I tell you - the whole matter of being concerned and acting stringently applies only when there is no other explicit command of Hashem permitting the thing. But if Hashem sent His angel to inform me that the thing is permitted, then you have no command that contradicts my words. I do not oppose what you were commanded, but only what you understand from the command and impose upon yourself as a stringency - and this is a mistaken interpretation. And see how wonderful the matter is: there is no prophet here contradicting the first command; he agrees completely with the first command, and only contradicts the stringency that was built on interpretation. "You have a doubt? I have an explicit command, and a doubt does not override a certainty."
A similar question is asked regarding the Akeidah: the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself said to Avraham "take now your son, your only one, whom you love, Yitzchak... and offer him up as a burnt offering," whereas to nullify the act an angel came. How does Avraham listen to the command of an angel after he received a direct command from Hashem? The answer: the angel did not contradict the words of Hashem. The Holy One, blessed be He, said "offer him up" and not "slaughter him," and the angel said to him: I told you to offer him up - now bring him down. When a person or an angel comes and does not nullify the previous words but only clarifies them, and there is no outright contradiction here, one may listen to him. But if an angel of Hashem had come and said to Avraham "Hashem did not tell you to offer him up" - even Avraham would not have listened to him. And an additional lesson we learn from there: in order to harm a person, to slaughter a person, you specifically need a direct command from Hashem; but in order to save a person from harm - even an angel suffices.
וַיְהִי הֵם יֹשְׁבִים אֶל־הַשֻּׁלְחָן וַיְהִי דְּבַר־יְהֹוָה אֶל־הַנָּבִיא אֲשֶׁר הֱשִׁיבוֹ׃ - And it was, as they were sitting at the table, that the word of Hashem came to the prophet who had brought him back.
In passing we see from here that in their time even the wicked had a kosher table; even the wicked would not eat non-kosher food. And this is likewise proven from elsewhere: from where did the ravens bring food to Eliyahu the prophet? From the table of Achav. That is to say, at Achav's table there was only glatt kosher food. His wife Izevel was an idol worshipper, and may Hashem have mercy at what she did, and with all that in his house there was only kosher of the highest standard, and everything the ravens brought was kosher. This teaches us that even wicked people in those days - to eat non-kosher food or meat that had not been ritually slaughtered would not even occur to them.
And who is "the prophet who had brought him back"? There is an opinion that wishes to say it refers to the man of God, but the verse proves it is not so, for it does not say "to the prophet who had been brought back" but "who had brought him back" - he is the one who brought back. And do not be surprised that Scripture calls the false prophet "prophet," for it is the way of Tanach to call even those who prophesy falsely by the name prophets.
And here Chazal wondered: how is it possible that a false prophet receives prophecy? And not merely prophecy, but a prophecy that comes upon him while he is awake and thinking with his mind! Usually the prophet falls asleep, and only then "in a dream I speak with him," or he would divest himself of all his senses - and here he sits with his companion at the table and receives prophecy from Hashem. For this reason some wished to say that this was a true prophet, but Chazal do not say so: he was a false prophet. And Chazal explained this prophecy: "Great is a meal, for it brings near those who are far and drives away those who are near, and causes the Divine Presence to rest upon the prophets of the Baal."
"Bringing near those who are far off" - this refers to Michah, who opened a soup kitchen. The smoke that rose from his soup kitchen mingled with the smoke of the house of idol worship that he had, an ephod and teraphim and so forth, and it mingled with the smoke of the altar. The ministering angels sought to push him away, but the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Leave him be, for his bread is available to travelers on the road. "And He rests His Divine Presence upon the prophets of Baal" - this is from our chapter, for here is a prophet of Baal, a false prophet, a prophet of idol worship, and suddenly he receives prophecy from Hashem. And this is an enormous wonder, for this morsel is something we would not even define as a morsel at all: what did he feed him? Poison! This was the final meal that he brought him, on account of which the true prophet lost his life, and even so it is called "a morsel." We see from here how much importance our Sages attach to the very act of a person opening his table to his fellow and giving him to eat and drink.
The Malbim asks: why did the prophecy not come to the true prophet himself? One explanation: in order to show the true prophet how disqualified his deed was, to the point that it is as if I no longer speak with you, and I prefer to speak with the false prophet rather than with you. So grave is the matter of listening to the voice of a man who prophesies and resolves your doubts for you, while you yourself heard prophecy from the mouth of Hashem, and therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, does not reveal Himself to him.
But the Malbim offers a simpler explanation: the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted the matter to be revealed and made public. Had He spoken only with the true prophet, he would have received the message that he had sinned, would have gone off and been punished, and no one would have known that the death came because of his transgression. Consequently everyone would have said: you see, this was not a true prophet at all! Here he went on the road, a lion attacked him and killed him. And this would have rejected the entire prophecy that he had delivered to Yerovam. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the prophecy upon the false prophet, and it was the false prophet who publicized the matter, that he was the one who had brought him back, that he had received no prophecy beforehand, and only afterward received a true prophecy. And then everyone understood that the true prophet was punished because of his own private transgression, that he did not listen to the voice of the word of Hashem, but the prophecy he delivered to Yerovam is absolutely true, and they would cast no doubts or misgivings upon it. There will be one who tells the matter as it truly was.
וַיִּקְרָא אֶל־אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר־בָּא מִיהוּדָה לֵאמֹר כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה יַעַן כִּי מָרִיתָ פִּי יְהֹוָה וְלֹא שָׁמַרְתָּ אֶת־הַמִּצְוָה אֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ׃ - And he cried out to the man of God who came from Yehudah, saying: Thus said Hashem, because you rebelled against the mouth of Hashem and did not keep the commandment that Hashem your God commanded you.
Why does it say "you rebelled"? After all, he was in doubt. Rather, anything that is transmitted in the name of Hashem and about which there is a doubt, whether the command of Hashem includes this situation or does not include it, in any case you must be stringent. If you were told that there was a doubt whether there is poison here, would you say "what kind of doubt is this? Twenty percent that there is poison, let us drink, what could happen"? Only the greatest of fools would say such a thing. You would not take the risk even at one percent, even at half a percent. And if so, in the matter of the word of Hashem, a doubt in Torah law is treated stringently. Because of the doubt you were obligated to act according to the most stringent and extreme possibility in your understanding, and not to listen to the voice of this man. And this is "which Hashem your God commanded you" - a command transmitted directly from Hashem cannot be nullified in any way unless the Creator of the world comes again and transmits to you a different command.
From here the Malbim explains a great principle: why is it that a prophet who tells us to nullify a commandment on a one time basis, as a temporary directive and not on a permanent basis, we accept from him, whereas if he tells us to serve idols we do not accept from him at all, not even a single time? Because "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods" we heard from the mouth of the Almighty. You heard a direct command from Hashem, "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods before Me" - how could you listen to a prophet who says "this time Hashem said that you may indeed have them"? Even once, even as a temporary directive, it is impossible. To nullify a direct command requires a renewed divine revelation, another standing at Mount Sinai. And so too here: you heard directly from Hashem "do not return by the way" and "do not eat bread there" - how could you accept a message from flesh and blood who tells you that he is a prophet of Hashem and instructs you to do the opposite?
וַתָּשָׁב וַתֹּאכַל לֶחֶם וַתֵּשְׁתְּ מַיִם בַּמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֵלֶיךָ אַל־תֹּאכַל לֶחֶם וְאַל־תֵּשְׁתְּ מָיִם לֹא־תָבוֹא נִבְלָתְךָ אֶל־קֶבֶר אֲבֹתֶיךָ׃ - And you returned and ate bread and drank water in the place of which He said to you, do not eat bread and do not drink water; your corpse shall not come to the grave of your fathers.
The Malbim says: if you look closely at the verse you will see that the interpretation regarding the return to the city was correct, and only the interpretation regarding the eating, that the entire prohibition applied only as long as he was in the city, was the mistaken one. And how do we see this? For it does not say "in the place of which He said to you, do not return and do not eat bread," but rather "in the place of which He said to you, do not eat bread and do not drink water." The emphasis is on the eating and drinking and not on the return, for regarding the return one could indeed say that there is no prohibition here. But on your own you were obligated to be stringent in this as well, and to be concerned that even retracing your steps backward was included in the prohibition.
And what is the punishment? "Your corpse shall not come to the grave of your fathers." We have a principle: those on a mission of a mitzvah are not harmed, neither on their way there nor on their way back. Now, had the true prophet regarded his return to his city as part of the mitzvah, he would have reasoned to himself that Hashem still says to him do not eat bread and do not drink water, for he is still within the mitzvah, since even on the return he is on the journey of a mitzvah. But he understood otherwise: I arrived at Beit El, I delivered the command of Hashem, the mitzvah is complete. And if the mitzvah is complete, then I am no longer under a command, and I may receive instructions from the false prophet. And since this is so, you are no longer a mission of a mitzvah, and consequently you are liable to be harmed. Therefore a lion came and attacked him on the road. But had he received the words of Hashem stringently, he would have said: I went to Beit El as a mission of a mitzvah and I return to Yehudah as a mission of a mitzvah, and then the lion would not have been able to harm him. Here indeed is measure for measure.
וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי אָכְלוֹ לֶחֶם וְאַחֲרֵי שְׁתוֹתוֹ וַיַּחֲבָשׁ־לוֹ הַחֲמוֹר לַנָּבִיא אֲשֶׁר הֱשִׁיבוֹ׃ - And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
One sin leads to another. By now he had already received a decree from Hashem that he would be punished for his eating. What should he have done? He should have gone and made himself vomit and returned home at once, for he had eaten forbidden food. But instead, "We are already in the middle of the meal, are we going to stop in the middle?" - "after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk": he did not hold back, but continued eating until he was done. I ate, and I will eat some more. And not only that: he had come on foot, and now "he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back" - the false prophet, the old prophet, even provides him transportation services back home and prepares a donkey for him. You were told not to accept anything from this city, and here you are both finishing the meal and accepting a gift, a donkey to carry you.
וַיֵּלֶךְ וַיִּמְצָאֵהוּ אַרְיֵה בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיְמִיתֵהוּ וַתְּהִי נִבְלָתוֹ מֻשְׁלֶכֶת בַּדֶּרֶךְ וְהַחֲמוֹר עֹמֵד אֶצְלָהּ וְהָאַרְיֵה עֹמֵד אֵצֶל הַנְּבֵלָה׃ - And he went, and a lion found him on the way and killed him, and his corpse was cast down on the way, and the donkey was standing beside it, and the lion was standing beside the corpse.
וְהִנֵּה אֲנָשִׁים עֹבְרִים וַיִּרְאוּ אֶת־הַנְּבֵלָה מֻשְׁלֶכֶת בַּדֶּרֶךְ וְאֶת־הָאַרְיֵה עֹמֵד אֵצֶל הַנְּבֵלָה וַיָּבֹאוּ וַיְדַבְּרוּ בָעִיר אֲשֶׁר הַנָּבִיא הַזָּקֵן יֹשֵׁב בָּהּ׃ - And behold, men passing by saw the corpse cast down on the way and the lion standing beside the corpse, and they came and spoke of it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
The passersby see a wondrous thing, in fact several wonders at once. First, a lion that struck down a man while there was a donkey present. A lion's way is to attack the animal first and only afterward the man; naturally the beast is harmed first. Second, if it killed him because it was hungry, why did it not devour him? And if it did not devour him, then it was not hungry, so why did it kill him? And not only that, but it stands there beside them both, waiting like a posted sentry. Therefore they came and told of the astonishing matter. Here too we see divine providence: they speak specifically in the city where the old prophet dwelt, so that he would hear and learn of the matter.
וַיִּשְׁמַע הַנָּבִיא אֲשֶׁר הֱשִׁיבוֹ מִן־הַדֶּרֶךְ וַיֹּאמֶר אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים הוּא אֲשֶׁר מָרָה אֶת־פִּי יְהֹוָה וַיִּתְּנֵהוּ יְהֹוָה לָאַרְיֵה וַיִּשְׁבְּרֵהוּ וַיְמִתֵהוּ כִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־לוֹ׃ - And the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard, and he said: It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of Hashem, and Hashem gave him to the lion, which mauled him and killed him, according to the word of Hashem that He had spoken to him.
Notice his wording: "It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of Hashem." He does not say "through my sin," he does not tell them that he was the one who spoiled things and caused all this.
וַיֵּלֶךְ וַיִּמְצָא אֶת־נִבְלָתוֹ מֻשְׁלֶכֶת בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַחֲמוֹר וְהָאַרְיֵה עֹמְדִים אֵצֶל הַנְּבֵלָה לֹא־אָכַל הָאַרְיֵה אֶת־הַנְּבֵלָה וְלֹא שָׁבַר אֶת־הַחֲמוֹר׃ - And he went and found his corpse cast down on the way, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse nor mauled the donkey.
He sees with his own eyes the strange and wondrous scene, and this strengthens his conviction that this was no natural death but a miraculous, wondrous death by the word of Hashem, for the Holy One, blessed be He, exacted retribution from the righteous man for disobeying His word. And from here, says the Malbim, there is also a moral lesson: the lion is an animal that has no understanding, it is not a man and not endowed with intellect, and its nature is to eat, yet even so it restrained itself and did not eat. And you, prophet of Hashem, who possess intellect and understanding, and were commanded not to eat, behold, you ate. The lion acted against its nature without any understanding, while you, who possess understanding, followed your desire and ate in the city.
וַיִּשָּׂא הַנָּבִיא אֶת־נִבְלַת אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים וַיַּנִּחֵהוּ אֶל־הַחֲמוֹר וַיְשִׁיבֵהוּ וַיָּבֹא אֶל־עִיר הַנָּבִיא הַזָּקֵן לִסְפֹּד וּלְקָבְרוֹ׃ - And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him.
וַיַּנַּח אֶת־נִבְלָתוֹ בְּקִבְרוֹ וַיִּסְפְּדוּ עָלָיו הוֹי אָחִי׃ - And he laid his corpse in his own grave, and they mourned over him: Alas, my brother!
Who mourned over him? It is quite possible that the entire city did, for they had heard the prophecy delivered in Beit El and understood that there was a message here from God, that this prophet was a true prophet and a great man, and so they saw the need to eulogize him. As for the meaning of "Alas, my brother": the Metzudat David explains that it is as if he said to him: I grieve for you, my friend, you are like my brother and my companion.
וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי קָבְרוֹ אֹתוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־בָּנָיו לֵאמֹר בְּמוֹתִי וּקְבַרְתֶּם אֹתִי בַּקֶּבֶר אֲשֶׁר אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים קָבוּר בּוֹ אֵצֶל עַצְמֹתָיו הַנִּיחוּ אֶת־עַצְמֹתָי׃ - And it came to pass after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying: When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.
What is the repetition here? First he says "bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried," and then "lay my bones beside his bones." The answer is that it was their custom to bury a person, and afterward to gather the bones and place them in a burial casket. Therefore he says: bury me there; and even if you do not bury me there but in some other place, in any case take my bones and lay them in that same place.
כִּי הָיֹה יִהְיֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר קָרָא בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֲשֶׁר בְּבֵית־אֵל וְעַל כָּל־בָּתֵּי הַבָּמוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּעָרֵי שֹׁמְרוֹן׃ - For the word that he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar which is in Beit El, and against all the shrine houses which are in the cities of Shomron, shall surely come to pass.
He informs his sons: what he prophesied shall surely come to pass, the prophecy will be fulfilled. And how do I know? Because I see that he is a true prophet, and I myself received a prophecy concerning him and it all came true regarding him. Some wished to prove from here that the old prophet was a true prophet, since he mentions "the cities of Shomron" and Shomron had not yet been built at that time. The Malbim says: there is no proof here against the words of Chazal, since he heard this expression from Ido, for that is how Ido spoke about the cities of Shomron, and therefore he too uses that same expression even though Shomron had not yet been built.
And why did he ask to be buried with him? Because he knows that these things will be fulfilled and come to pass, and if so, they will also bring me out, one of the prophets of Baal, and they will burn my bones too upon the altar, as the true prophet said. And what is my insurance policy that this will not happen? That I be buried with him. If I am buried beside him, no one will go and dig and rummage in the grave of the prophet of the Lord in order to remove my bones from it. This is the command he gave his sons.
אַחַר הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה לֹא־שָׁב יָרָבְעָם מִדַּרְכּוֹ הָרָעָה וַיָּשָׁב וַיַּעַשׂ מִקְצוֹת הָעָם כֹּהֲנֵי בָמוֹת הֶחָפֵץ יְמַלֵּא אֶת־יָדוֹ וִיהִי כֹּהֲנֵי בָמוֹת׃ - After this thing Yeravam did not turn back from his evil way, but again made from among all the people priests of the high places; whoever desired, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places.
Not only did he not cease from his evil deeds, but he even went and made new appointments, priests of the high places. "Whoever desired, he consecrated him": he did not seek specifically the finest of the people, nor the distinguished ones; to me they are all equal, anyone who wishes may come and serve.
וַיְהִי בַּדָּבָר הַזֶּה לְחַטַּאת בֵּית יָרָבְעָם וּלְהַכְחִיד וּלְהַשְׁמִיד מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה׃ - And this thing became a sin to the house of Yeravam, to cut it off and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.
"To sin" - from the root meaning lack or deficiency. This matter caused a deficiency not only to him but also to his household, as it says, "and I will set My face against that man and against his family." And because of this it was decreed upon him, as we will see in the next chapter, "to cut off and to destroy from the face of the earth" - all the members of his household, so that no name, remnant, or memory remained for Yeravam ben Nevat and all his family.
This chapter is an eternal lesson in the power of doubt. A true prophet received a clear command from the mouth of the Almighty, yet in two details there was room to be uncertain about the scope of the command, and through that very narrow opening the evil inclination entered in the guise of a false prophet, one who does not contradict the command but merely interprets it leniently. The central lesson: a command heard directly from the mouth of Hashem is not annulled except through a new divine revelation, and in a case of doubt, a Torah doubt is treated stringently, just as a person does not take even a one percent risk with possible poison. And since he regarded his return as one no longer being an emissary of a mitzvah, he removed himself from the protection of "those sent to perform a mitzvah are not harmed," and the lion came, measure for measure. Against this stand other aspects as well: the power of a shared drink that draws down the Divine Presence even upon the prophets of the Baal, the individual providence that arranged for the matter to become publicized so that people would not cast doubt on the prophecy delivered to Yeravam, and the moral from the lion that conquered its nature without possessing understanding, whereas man, who possesses knowledge, is drawn after his desire. And in the end, Yeravam sees it all and does not repent, and by that very matter the decree of the annihilation of the entire house of Yeravam is sealed.