Then he said unto him, "Come home with me, and eat bread."

And he said, "I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place: for it was said to me by the word of the Lord, 'Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou camest.'"

And he said unto him, "I also am a prophet as thou art; and an angel spoke unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'"

But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water. And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came unto the prophet that brought him back: and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, "Thus saith the Lord, 'Forasmuch as thou hast been disobedient unto the mouth of the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which, the Lord thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place of the which he said to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy body shall not come unto the sepulcher of thy fathers.'"

[{359}]

[{360}]

THE RUINS OF SAMARIA
From a photograph belonging to the Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass., and used by special permission

"To-day amid the peaceful beauty of the scene--the secluded vale covered with cornfields through which the winding streams flash and glisten into the hazy distance, and the gentle hill rises to the olives waving over its summit--it is possible to appreciate Isaiah's name for Samaria, the crown of the pride of Ephraim, the flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley. There by the entrance of the gate Ahab drew his sentence of death from the prophet of Jehovah; and there they washed his blood from his chariot, when they had brought him back to his burial. There Jezebel slew the prophets of Jehovah and Jehu the priests of Baal."

[{361}]