7. Then the king said to the man of God, “Please come home and eat with me. I will give you a gift.”
8. But the man of God answered the king, “I will not go home with you! Even if you gave me half of your kingdom, I would not go! I will not eat or drink anything in this place.
9. The Lord commanded me not to eat or drink anything. He also commanded me not to return on the same road by which I came.”
10. So he traveled on a different road. He did not return on the same road by which he had come to Bethel.
11. Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God had done there that day. They told their father what he had said to King Jeroboam.
12. The father asked, “Which road did he use when he left?” So his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.
13. The prophet told his sons to put a saddle on his donkey. So they saddled the donkey, and he left.
14. He went after the man of God. He found the man sitting under an oak tree. The prophet asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”The man answered, “Yes, I am.”
15. So the prophet said, “Please come home and eat with me.”
16. But the man of God answered, “I can’t go home with you. I can’t eat or drink with you in this place.
17. The Lord said to me, ‘You must not eat or drink anything there. And you must not return on the same road by which you came.’”