Chapter 9.
HOW JADON THE PROPHET WAS PERSUADED BY ANOTHER LYING PROPHET
AND RETURNED [TO BETHEL,] AND WAS AFTERWARDS SLAIN BY A LION.
AS ALSO WHAT
WORDS THE WICKED PROPHET MADE USE OF TO PERSUADE THE KING, AND THEREBY
ALIENATED HIS MIND FROM GOD.
FJAJ 8.70
1. NOW there was a certain wicked man in that city, who was a false
prophet, whom Jeroboam had in great esteem, but was deceived by him and
his flattering words
This man was bedrid, by reason or the infirmities
of old age: however, he was informed by his sons concerning the prophet
that was come from Jerusalem, and concerning the signs done by him; and
how, when Jeroboam's right hand had been enfeebled, at the prophet's prayer
he had it revived again
Whereupon he was afraid that this stranger and
prophet should be in better esteem with the king than himself, and obtain
greater honor from him: and he gave orders to his sons to saddle his ass
presently, and make all ready that he might go out
Accordingly they made
haste to do what they were commanded, and he got upon the ass and followed
after the prophet.; and when he had overtaken him, as he was resting himself
under a very large oak tree that was thick and shady, he at first saluted
him, but presently he complained of him, because he had not come into his
house, and partaken of his hospitality
And when the other said that God
had forbidden him to taste of any one's provision in that city, he replied,
that "for certain God had not forbidden that I should set food before
thee, for I am a prophet as thou art, and worship God in the same manner
that thou dost; and I am now come as sent by him, in order to bring thee
into my house, and make thee my guest." Now Jadon gave credit to this
lying prophet, and returned back with him
But when they were at dinner,
and merry together, God appeared to Jadon, and said that he should suffer
punishment for transgressing his commands, - and he told him what that
punishment should be for he said that he should meet with a lion as he
was going on his way, by which lion he should be torn in pieces, and be
deprived of burial in the sepulchers of his fathers; which things came
to pass, as I suppose, according to the will of God, that so Jeroboam might
not give heed to the words of Jadon as of one that had been convicted of
lying
However, as Jadon was again going to Jerusalem, a lion assaulted
him, and pulled him off the beast he rode on, and slew him; yet did he
not at all hurt the ass, but sat by him, and kept him, as also the prophet's
body
This continued till some travelers that saw it came and told it in
the city to the false prophet, who sent his sons, and brought the body
unto the city, and made a funeral for him at great expense
He also charged
his sons to bury himself with him and said that all which he had foretold
against that city, and the altar, and priests, and false prophets, would
prove true; and that if he were buried with him, he should receive no injurious
treatment after his death, the bones not being then to be distinguished
asunder
But now, when he had performed those funeral rites to the prophet,
and had given that charge to his sons, as he was a wicked and an impious
man, he goes to Jeroboam, and says to him, "And wherefore is it now
that thou art disturbed at the words of this silly fellow?" And when
the king had related to him what had happened about the altar, and about
his own hand, and gave him the names of divine man, and an excellent
prophet, he endeavored by a wicked trick to weaken that his opinion;
and by using plausible words concerning what had happened, he aimed to
injure the truth that was in them; for he attempted to persuade him that
his hand was enfeebled by the labor it had undergone in supporting the
sacrifices, and that upon its resting awhile it returned to its former
nature again; and that as to the altar, it was but new, and had borne abundance
of sacrifices, and those large ones too, and was accordingly broken to
pieces, and fallen down by the weight of what had been laid upon it
He
also informed him of the death of him that had foretold those things, and
how he perished; [whence he concluded that] he had not any thing in him
of a prophet, nor spake any thing like one
When he had thus spoken, he
persuaded the king, and entirely alienated his mind from God, and from
doing works that were righteous and holy, and encouraged him to go on in
his impious practices (26)
How much a larger and better copy Josephus had in this remarkable history
of the true prophet of Judea, and his concern with Jeroboam, and with the
false prophet of Bethel, than our other copies have, is evident at first
sight. The prophet's very name, Jadon, or, as the Constitutions call him,
Adonias, is wanting in our other copies; and it is there, with no little
absurdity, said that God revealed Jadon the true prophet's death, not to
himself as here, hut to the false prophet. Whether the particular account
of the arguments made use of, after all, by the false prophet against his
own belief and his own conscience, in order to persuade Jeroboam to persevere
in his idolatry and wickedness, than which more plausible could not be
invented, was intimated in Josephus's copy, or in some other ancient book,
cannot now be determined; our other copies say not one word of it.
and accordingly he was to that degree injurious to God, and so great a
transgressor, that he sought for nothing else every day but how he might
be guilty of some new instances of wickedness, and such as should be more
detestable than what he had been so insolent as to do before
And so much
shall at present suffice to have said concerning Jeroboam.FJAJ 8.71