1 Kings 13:24

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

²³And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him. ²⁴As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.²⁵And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived. ²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard this, he said, "It is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, and it has mauled him and killed him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken to him." ²⁷Then the old prophet instructed his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled it, ²⁸and he went and found the body lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body or mauled the donkey. ²⁹So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. ³⁰Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they lamented over him, "Oh, my brother!" ³¹After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, "When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones, ³²for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

a lion: 1 Kings 20:36, 2 Kings 2:24, Proverbs 22:13, Proverbs 26:13, Amos 5:19, 1 Corinthians 11:31, 1 Corinthians 11:32, 1 Peter 4:17, 1 Peter 4:18

Reciprocal: Genesis 37:20 - Some Genesis 37:33 - evil beast Exodus 4:24 - sought Numbers 22:33 - surely 1 Kings 12:31 - an house 2 Kings 17:25 - the Lord sent Proverbs 11:31 - General Isaiah 38:13 - as a lion

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him,.... Perhaps not far from Bethel; and this lion might come out of the same wood the she bears did, that devoured the children that mocked the prophet, as Bishop Patrick conjectures, 2 Kings 2:23

and his carcass was cast in the way; in the high road, where it seems the lion seized him, and he fell:

and the ass stood by it; disregarded and unhurt by the lion, though the prophet was pulled off of the back of him:

the lion also stood by the carcass: not offering to tear it in pieces and devour it, but rather, as if he was the guard of it, to keep off all others from meddling with it; these circumstances are very surprising, and show the thing to be of God; for when the lion had done what he had a commission to do, which was to kill the prophet, he was to do no more.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 24. A lion met him - and slew him — By permitting himself to be seduced by the old prophet, when he should have acted only on the expressly declared counsel of God, he committed the sin unto death; that is, such a sin as God will punish with the death of the body, while he extends mercy to the soul. See my notes on 1 John 5:16-17.

From the instance here related, we see, as in various other cases, that often judgment begins at the house of God. The true prophet, for receiving that as a revelation from God which was opposed to the revelation which himself had received, and which was confirmed by so many miracles, is slain by a lion, and his body deprived of the burial of his fathers; while the wicked king, and the old fallen prophet, are both permitted to live! If this was severity to the man of God, it was mercy to the others, neither of whom was prepared to meet his judge. Here we may well say, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?"