5. The altar was torn apart, and the ashes from the altar were poured ⌊on the ground⌋. This was the miraculous sign the man of God performed at the Lord’s command.
6. Then the king asked the man of God, “Please make an appeal to the Lord your God, and pray for me so that I can use my arm again.” So the man of God made an appeal to the Lord, and the king was able to use his arm again, as he had earlier.
7. The king told the man of God, “Come home with me; have something to eat and drink, and I will give you a gift.”
8. The man of God told the king, “Even if you gave me half of your palace, I would never go with you to eat or drink there.
9. When the Lord spoke to me, he commanded me not to eat or drink or go back on the same road I took.”
10. So the man of God left on another road and didn’t go back on the road he had taken to Bethel.
11. An old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons told him everything the man of God did in Bethel that day and the exact words he had spoken to the king. When they told their father,
12. he said to them, “Which road did he take?” (His sons had seen which road the man of God from Judah had taken.)