5. The altar split open and the ashes fell from the altar to the ground, in fulfillment of the sign the prophet had announced with the Lord’s authority.
6. The king pled with the prophet, “Seek the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored.” So the prophet sought the Lord’s favor and the king’s hand was restored to its former condition.
7. The king then said to the prophet, “Come home with me and have something to eat. I’d like to give a present.”
8. But the prophet said to the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I could not go with you and eat and drink in this place.
9. For the Lord gave me strict orders, ‘Do not eat or drink there and do not go home the way you came.’”
10. So he started back on another road; he did not travel back on the same road he had taken to Bethel.
11. Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. When his sons came home, they told their father everything the prophet had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king.
12. Their father asked them, “Which road did he take?” His sons showed him the road the prophet from Judah had taken.
13. He then told his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” When they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it