Malbim: Hashem's two commands were ambiguous. (a) "Do not return on the path you went" - does this forbid to go to any place that he stepped on the way, e.g. to return from the tree under which he sat to Beis Kel? If so, if he forgot something, on the way there or on his return, he must choose another path to go to retrieve it, and not the path he already went. (b) Or, it forbids only to return from Beis Kel to Yehudah on the same path that he took from Yehudah to Beis Kel. However, on the way there or the way back, he may backtrack. (c) The Isur to eat there - is it for his entire life, even if he left and returned? (d) Or, is it only when he is there to prophesize, but if he left and returned, he may eat? The false Navi came to resolve both of them leniently. He may return to [the elder's] house ¹ , and also eat; once he left, the Isur ceased.