Then he said to him, 'I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, "Bring him back with you into your house that he may eat bread and drink water."' But he lied to him — The old prophet now perpetrates a deception that the narrator explicitly identifies: "But he lied to him" (וַיְכַזְּבוֹ, vayechazbo). He claims prophetic status equal to the young man's and invokes an angelic word that directly contradicts the young prophet's divine commission. The phrase מַלְאַךְ דִּבֶּר אֵלַי בִּדְבַר־יְהוָה (malach dibber elai bidvar-YHWH, an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD) exploits the young prophet's reverence for divine speech, weaponizing prophetic language to deceive.

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