1 Kings 13:24

24 As 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.

1 Kings 13:24 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 13:24

And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him,
&c.] 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 2 Kings 2:24 ) 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.

1 Kings 13:24 In-Context

22 but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place where He told you not to do so, your body shall never reach the tomb of your fathers.’”

23 And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.

24 As 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.

25 And 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.

26 When 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.”