1 Kings 13:32

“ For the saying which he cried by the word of YHWH against the altar in Beth-el, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come about.”.

And he confirmed that now he knew that the man of God was a genuine prophet of YHWH and that his word spoken against the altar would surely come about. The death of the man of God had underlined his message even more than what had happened previously, and had brought home its genuineness. Indeed that man of God continues to preach to us today, for that is why you are reading these lines. Through his death he bore a message which will speak to men of the need for obedience to God while mankind goes on existing. His death had not been in vain.

The phrase ‘the cities of Samaria' is presumably an updating so as to identify the area in mind by using a geographical term recognisable to the author's readers. The actual identifying phrase used by the old prophet may well by that time have been considered to be geographically obscure (we do not, of course, know what it was). ‘Samaria' as applied to the whole of Israel arose much later. We should note, on the other hand, that the name Samaria was not a totally new name, for it was known in the area before the city of Samaria was built, presumably signifying ‘belonging to, or connected with, the family of Shemer', a powerful family in the area (1 Kings 16:24). Its use here, however, appears to be synonymous with ‘Israel', but we do not know by what name the area that would be called ‘Israel' and ‘Samaria' was previously known. Nor possibly did the prophetic author's readers.