Chapter 13 of Melachim A is one of the most dramatic chapters in the book: Yeravam ben Nevat stands at the altar he built in Beit El, and at that very moment a man of God arrives from Yehuda and rebukes him. This chapter contains an open miracle, the withering of the king's hand and its healing, an immediate sign to confirm a distant prophecy, and a tremendous lesson about the nature of man: do miracles bring a person to repentance, and what truly determines a person's path. We will proceed according to the order of the pesukim, based on the explanations of the commentators and the words of Chazal.
וְהִנֵּה אִישׁ אֱלֹהִים בָּא מִיהוּדָה בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה אֶל־בֵּית־אֵל וְיָרׇבְעָם עֹמֵד עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לְהַקְטִיר׃ - And behold, a man of God came from Yehuda by the word of Hashem to Beit El, and Yeravam was standing by the altar to offer.
Note the timing: precisely on the day that Yeravam was about to offer, the Holy One, Blessed be He, sent the prophet to rebuke him. Had the prophet come beforehand, they would have warned Yeravam: "Beware, there is a prophet here, keep away from him." Therefore the prophet arrived exactly when Yeravam was standing at the altar offering, so that the words would carry the proper echo and impression. This is what the verse emphasizes with "by the word of Hashem": when a person plans on his own, the timing may not come out precisely; but here the Holy One, Blessed be He, arranged for him to come at exactly the right moment. And Chazal say: who was this prophet? Iddo the prophet was his name.
וַיִּקְרָא עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה וַיֹּאמֶר מִזְבֵּחַ מִזְבֵּחַ כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה הִנֵּה־בֵן נוֹלָד לְבֵית־דָּוִד יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ שְׁמוֹ וְזָבַח עָלֶיךָ אֶת־כֹּהֲנֵי הַבָּמוֹת הַמַּקְטִרִים עָלֶיךָ וְעַצְמוֹת אָדָם יִשְׂרְפוּ עָלֶיךָ׃ - And he called out against the altar by the word of Hashem and said: Altar, altar, so says Hashem: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Yoshiyahu is his name, and he shall slaughter upon you the priests of the high places who offer upon you, and human bones shall be burned upon you.
The prophet turns to the altar itself and declares that a king from the house of David will arise, whose name is Yoshiyahu, and he will slaughter upon this altar the priests of the high places who offer upon it. The living of his time he will slaughter upon the altar, and those who have already died he will remove from their graves and burn their bones upon it.
The Abarbanel derives a fundamental point from here: the prophet did not see things in a general and blurred manner, as some have supposed, but rather saw in his prophecy the details and the finest particulars, even to the point of knowing names. To understand the sharpness of this, let us compare it to the "unclear glass" - the knowledge the nations had through astrology and reading the stars (and I am not speaking of the horoscopes of our day, which are utter nonsense, but of the genuine knowledge they once had). There the vision was very blurred: Pharaoh sees "blood awaiting you in the wilderness," and does not know how to interpret it - is this the blood of the people's circumcision through Yehoshua? "The savior of Israel is judged by water" - will he drown in the Nile? And in the end it turns out that it referred to the waters of Meriva. For what is astrology? One sees a particular star that symbolizes a person, and another star that symbolizes evil, and from the overlap between them they conclude that a certain kind of misfortune will occur in a certain place. Names? Of that there is nothing to speak at all, it is impossible to see names. But here the prophecy is precise down to the name. And moreover: the prophet does not say "Behold, a son shall be born" but "Behold, a son is born," because Yoshiyahu had already been born, and he says that when this man rises to reign he will uproot this idolatry.
וְנָתַן בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא מוֹפֵת לֵאמֹר זֶה הַמּוֹפֵת אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר יְהֹוָה הִנֵּה הַמִּזְבֵּחַ נִקְרָע וְנִשְׁפַּךְ הַדֶּשֶׁן אֲשֶׁר־עָלָיו׃ - And he gave on that day a sign, saying: This is the sign that Hashem has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be torn apart and the ashes upon it shall be poured out.
What is "on that day"? Here the prophet performs a sign and a wonder to prove his words, and why? Because he is speaking of distant times, of a long era. To say what will happen in a hundred years is the simplest thing - one can say anything, in detail, and it can be written down; but to say what will happen in two minutes is very difficult. Therefore, when a prophet comes and announces that Yoshiyahu will arise and do such and such, his listeners can say: thank you very much, very nice - but prove that your words are true. Which of us will be around then to see what you are saying? And perhaps you are inventing fabrications? So he said to them: now I will prove it to you - at this moment the altar will be torn apart and the ashes upon it will be poured out. And this is a proof: one who is able to perform such a sign now, the future things he foretold will also come to pass.
We have already explained several times: a prophecy accompanied by a physical action is a prophecy that will be fulfilled no matter what. We saw this with the tearing of the garment, when Achiyah the Shilonite tore his cloak and divided its pieces to show Yerovam that he would receive tribes and the rest would go to Rechavam. A physical action was performed there. They brought the matter down from abstract reality into physical reality. A mere statement is speech with no permanence; but when one takes hold and tears, an act has been done, and the thing has substance. So too here: the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted a physical action that would make it tangible that the matter would come to pass in any event, and therefore there was the splitting of the altar and the spilling of the ashes. This is a sign: just as the ashes are spilled from the altar now, so will the ashes of the bones of the priests who will be burned upon it be spilled upon it. This sign indicates that with complete certainty the matter will be fulfilled.
וַיְהִי כִשְׁמֹעַ הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת־דְּבַר אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר קָרָא עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ בְּבֵית־אֵל וַיִּשְׁלַח יָרׇבְעָם אֶת־יָדוֹ מֵעַל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לֵאמֹר תִּפְשֻׂהוּ וַתִּיבַשׁ יָדוֹ אֲשֶׁר שָׁלַח עָלָיו וְלֹא יָכֹל לַהֲשִׁיבָהּ אֵלָיו׃ - And it came to pass, when the king heard the word of the man of God, who cried against the altar in Beit El, that Yerovam put forth his hand from the altar, saying: Seize him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, withered, and he could not draw it back to himself.
The hand froze. He was left standing with his hand outstretched, turning every which way with his hand like that, unable to bend it and draw it back to himself. And note carefully: the withering of the hand was not stated in God's instruction. The prophet was not sent to say that the king's hand would wither; it is not part of the prophecy. Rather, it was a punishment for the honor of the prophet.
And Chazal say: Come and see that the Holy One, blessed be He, is more concerned for the honor of the righteous than for His own honor. Here is this wicked and corrupt Yerovam standing on the altar and offering incense, holding a firepan full of incense, offering to idolatry and stuffing them all full, and did anything happen to his hand? Nothing at all. But the moment he raised his hand to signal that the prophet be seized, his hand immediately withered. From here we learn that the Holy One, blessed be He, spares the honor of His servants and prophets more than His own honor. As for My own honor, says the Holy One, blessed be He, I forgo it, not, God forbid, forgoing it entirely, but rather that its time will come; but the honor of the prophet was exacted at that very moment.
וְהַמִּזְבֵּחַ נִקְרָע וַיִּשָּׁפֵךְ הַדֶּשֶׁן מִן־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ כַּמּוֹפֵת אֲשֶׁר נָתַן אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה׃ - And the altar was split, and the ashes spilled from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.
The altar was split exactly as he said, and the sign the prophet gave was fulfilled that very day, and there is no longer any room to say "perhaps your words are not correct." And note the emphasis "by the word of the Lord": the splitting of the altar was by the word of the Lord, for this is what the prophet was commanded to say; but the stretching out of the hand and its withering were not by the word of the Lord, rather the Holy One, blessed be He, brought this about as a counter-response to the action of Yerovam ben Nevat.
וַיַּעַן הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים חַל־נָא אֶת־פְּנֵי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהִתְפַּלֵּל בַּעֲדִי וְתָשֹׁב יָדִי אֵלָי וַיְחַל אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים אֶת־פְּנֵי יְהֹוָה וַתָּשׇׁב יַד־הַמֶּלֶךְ אֵלָיו וַתְּהִי כְּבָרִאשֹׁנָה׃ - And the king answered and said to the man of God: Entreat now the face of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the face of the Lord, and the king's hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.
Now behold a wondrous thing. The king stands with his hand outstretched and says to the prophet: Do me a favor, pray to "the Lord your God." Not my God, I have other gods, here is my idolatry, this is my god; but you go and speak with your boss so He arranges this matter for me. And see how absurd this is: the man is standing right here, sees an open miracle, the altar is split, his hand withers, surely there is a Creator of the world, and yet he is capable of continuing on his way, and even of saying "entreat now the face of the Lord your God."
And what does "and it became as it was before" mean? Chazal say: just as before he stands and offers incense, so afterward he stands and offers incense. "They read the same Haftarah as last year" - exactly as it was before, so he continues. How can such a thing be? "Though you pound the fool in a mortar among crushed grain with a pestle, his foolishness will not depart from him." No matter how much you pound the fool, his foolishness will not depart from him.
What is the meaning of all this? Many people think: if only God would show me a miracle, if only I would see a Divine revelation, then it would all be settled, everyone would repent. But history proves otherwise. A nation that witnessed the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai made a golden calf forty days later. A nation that left Egypt, where a maidservant at the sea saw what Yechezkel ben Buzi did not see, and yet all along the way we find "they rebelled against the word of God," "why did you take us out of Egypt." Miracles do not turn a person into an observer of mitzvot; that is not what determines a person's faith and his service of God. What does determine it? The person's inner will to do God's will, his inner submission. If a person will not bring himself to submission, nothing brought to him from the outside will convince him.
This is the error of many, who think: all we need is to prove to a person that there is a Creator of the world, and that is it, behold, an observer of mitzvot. But tell me, once you have proven to him that there is a Creator of the world, does he no longer feel like playing soccer on Shabbat? Has the evil inclination for forbidden relations already left him? Is comfort no longer a foundational pillar of his entire being? And so on and so forth. For a person is built mainly of emotion. Most of the decisions we make, some would say all of them, and we will not exaggerate but say the overwhelming majority, and this is confirmed even by psychologists and not only by masters of mussar, are emotional decisions and not intellectual ones. A car dealer was once asked: a person who comes to buy a car, what does he mainly pay attention to? The color. "Listen, the inspection came out really excellent, but what can I tell you, green does not quite appeal to me." "Oh, that one, that is a car, that is beautiful, that is silver." "But this is not, this is a wagon; that one already looks like a car." This is a purely emotional decision, not an intellectual one.
Therefore it is a mistake to think that if we prove it to him, we are done. You can bring him all the proofs in the world, but there is one phrase that overrides everything: "I do not feel like it." Who said I must act according to reason? True, reason says so, but I feel more like doing it this way. As someone once said: I have many reasons to stop smoking, but the taste of the cigarette overrides them all. The rationale indeed points one way, but the "I feel like it" is stronger, and the "I feel like it" prevails.
This is exactly what happened here. When the Holy One, blessed be He, showed Yarovam ben Nevat a sign and a wonder, did He solve for him the problem that had brought him to all of this? No. Yarovam says to himself: fine, I have repented, everything is settled, but will I not lose the kingship again? They will once more go up to Yerushalayim and see me sitting while Rechavam stands, and everyone will say: look, this one is not a king, that one is a serious king, he reads from a Torah scroll while this one just sits off to the side. Well, did you solve my problem? You did not. And so he continues and offers incense as before.
But we must ask: why in fact did the Holy One, blessed be He, heal his hand? Yarovam should have gone about his whole life with his hand stretched out like that, and it would have been a sign and a wonder to anyone who saw him. First, what a disgrace this would have been for him; and second, everyone who saw him would ask: wait, why is this? And they would tell him: it is because God rebuked him for what he did, and everyone would recall what had happened. If so, why did God not leave the matter as it was?
Rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, wanted to show Yarovam something. At the deeper level, what did Yarovam say with "please entreat the face of the Lord your God"? Tell me, will my repentance be accepted? If I want to return now, is there room for it? Someone who sinned and caused the multitude to sin and did so very much, is there room for him to repent? To this the Holy One, blessed be He, responds to him: behold, "and the king's hand was restored to him." I am willing, I heal you. And if I heal you, then I have opened for you an opening as wide as the entrance hall, only walk through it. But all of this did not help. And see how much the evil traits, how much the evil natures, how much desire and honor were stronger in him than his own life, than everything. We will see this further on as well: after the Holy One, blessed be He, tells him to turn back, we will see how strong desire and honor were in him, to the point that he was willing to lose everything, as long as his honor would not be harmed in the least.
וַיְדַבֵּר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶל־אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים בֹּאָה־אִתִּי הַבַּיְתָה וּסְעָדָה וְאֶתְּנָה לְךָ מַתָּת׃ - And the king spoke to the man of God: Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a gift.
וַיֹּאמֶר אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ אִם־תִּתֶּן־לִי אֶת־חֲצִי בֵיתֶךָ לֹא אָבֹא עִמָּךְ וְלֹא־אֹכַל לֶחֶם וְלֹא אֶשְׁתֶּה־מַּיִם בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה׃ - And the man of God said to the king: If you were to give me half your house, I would not come with you, and I would not eat bread nor drink water in this place.
The king seeks to honor him: come to my house, I will make you a meal and give you a gift. And the man of God replies: even if you were to give me half your house, and Yarovam apparently had an impressive house of several stories, even that would not convince me to come with you, nor to eat bread nor to drink water in this place.
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 the Lord, saying: You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.
He has an explicit command from Hashem not to do this. Notice that there are two commands here: the first, that he not eat a meal in that place, in the city of Beit El; and the second, that he not return by the same road on which he came to the city.
The Radak explains: he was permitted to enter a city of idol worshipers only for a specific need, and that need was the rebuke. Once you have finished the rebuke, who gave you permission to come and take a vacation here in the city? It is forbidden for you, you must leave at once. Is a person permitted to enter a church? And if Hashem sent him in order to rebuke them, then from the moment you have rebuked them you must flee from there immediately.
The Ralbag adds a further reason: in order to point out that there is no benefit or enjoyment to be had from them, for all of them will eventually perish because of this sin. "Do not eat there" means, as it were, when you eat there you are eating from the sacrifices of the dead. These people are all about to go to their destruction, and you would be eating, as it were, from someone dead, from those upon whom a decree of annihilation already rests.
And why was he told not to return by the road on which he came? So that the road to that city would not remain fixed in his memory. If you travel again by way of that place, the road will become engraved in you; therefore go by another road, so that that place will not be etched into your memory. It is such an evil place, with such negative influences, that once you have left it, it is better to forget it as quickly as possible.
וַיֵּלֶךְ בְּדֶרֶךְ אַחֵר וְלֹא־שָׁב בַּדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר בָּא בָהּ אֶל־בֵּית־אֵל׃ - And he went by another road, and did not return by the road on which he had come to Beit El.
And indeed that is what he does: he goes by another road and does not return by the same path he had trodden on his way there.
וְנָבִיא אֶחָד זָקֵן יֹשֵׁב בְּבֵית־אֵל וַיָּבוֹא בְנוֹ וַיְסַפֶּר־לוֹ אֶת־כׇּל־הַמַּעֲשֶׂה אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים הַיּוֹם בְּבֵית־אֵל אֶת־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֶל־הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיְסַפְּרוּם לַאֲבִיהֶם׃ - Now a certain old prophet was dwelling in Beit El, and his son came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Beit El, the words that he had spoken to the king, and they recounted them to their father.
Who was this old prophet? There are versions that state his name was Michah, and so it is brought in the Targum, and even among the words of Chazal there is one opinion that this was Michah. And some say it was Yonatan ben Gershom, who was a Levi there, and he was the prophet mentioned here. But what is agreed upon by nearly all, not entirely certain, yet by nearly all, is that he was a false prophet, that is, among the prophets who would prophesy for Yeravam ben Nevat and for the idol worshipers.
There is another point to note: the verse opens with "and he told him" in the singular and concludes with "and they recounted them" in the plural. Rather, one son came and began to tell, and when the rest of the sons came they said to him: Did you hear what happened? And this one adds this and that one adds that, until "and he told" became "and they recounted them." They describe before him all the miracle and wonder that had occurred.
וַיְדַבֵּר אֲלֵהֶם אֲבִיהֶם אֵי־זֶה הַדֶּרֶךְ הָלָךְ וַיִּרְאוּ בָנָיו אֶת־הַדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר הָלַךְ אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר־בָּא מִיהוּדָה׃ - And their father said to them: Which road did he go by? And his sons had seen the road on which the man of God who had come from Yehudah had gone.
He asks by which road he went, and they show him the road that the man of God who came from Yehuda had taken. The purpose, as we will see in the next verse, is to go and overtake him.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־בָּנָיו חִבְשׁוּ־לִי הַחֲמוֹר וַיַּחְבְּשׁוּ־לוֹ הַחֲמוֹר וַיִּרְכַּב עָלָיו׃ - And he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode upon it.
וַיֵּלֶךְ אַחֲרֵי אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים וַיִּמְצָאֵהוּ יֹשֵׁב תַּחַת הָאֵלָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הַאַתָּה אִישׁ־הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר־בָּאתָ מִיהוּדָה וַיֹּאמֶר אָנִי׃ - And he went after the man of God and found him sitting under the terebinth, and he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Yehuda? And he said, I am.
"הָאֵלָה" is the name of a tree, and there he finds the man of God resting so as to continue on his way, for the man of God had no donkey to ride upon, as we will see further on.
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו לֵךְ אִתִּי הַבָּיְתָה וֶאֱכֹל לָחֶם׃ - And he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread.
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 go with you, and I will not eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.
כִּי־דָבָר אֵלַי בִּדְבַר יְהֹוָה לֹא־תֹאכַל לֶחֶם וְלֹא־תִשְׁתֶּה שָׁם מָיִם לֹא־תָשׁוּב לָלֶכֶת בַּדֶּרֶךְ אֲשֶׁר־הָלַכְתָּ בָּהּ׃ - For it was told to me by the word of Hashem, You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, and you shall not return by the road on which you came.
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.
וַיָּשׇׁב אִתּוֹ וַיֹּאכַל לֶחֶם בְּבֵיתוֹ וַיֵּשְׁתְּ מָיִם׃ - And he returned with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
The old prophet invites him to his house, and the man of God refuses and answers exactly as he had answered the king: I have an explicit word of Hashem not to eat bread, not to drink water there, and not to return by the road on which I came. The old man then tells him: I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Hashem to bring you back to my house so that you may eat bread and drink water. And Scripture itself testifies and reveals the truth to us: "כִּחֵשׁ לוֹ" - he lied to him. And the man of God returned with him, ate bread in his house and drank water.
The chapter opens with precise divine timing: the prophet arrives at Beit El by the word of Hashem exactly as Yarovam is standing and offering incense, and he proclaims a prophecy detailed even to a name, Yoshiyahu, who will slaughter upon the altar the priests of the high places and burn human bones upon it. To confirm so distant a prophecy the prophet gives an immediate sign, and a sign accompanied by a physical act is one that must necessarily be fulfilled. Yarovam stretches out his hand against the prophet and his hand withers, not because of the prophecy, but because the Holy One, blessed be He, is more protective of His servants' honor than of His own. From here comes the great moral lesson: even though he saw an open miracle and was even healed through the prophet's prayer as an opening to repentance, Yarovam continued to offer incense "as before," for miracles do not change a person; it is the inner will, the submission and the feeling that are decisive, and "I do not feel like it" overrides every proof. On the other side stands the man of God, who refused half a king's house in the name of Hashem's command, and yet failed when a false prophet came and called out to him, "I too am a prophet like you," for a person does not fall specifically because of open temptation, but because of that which comes wrapped in the garb of the word of Hashem.