1 Kings 13:24

24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the ass stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.

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 have come back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread, and drink no water"; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"

23 And after he had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the ass for the prophet whom he had brought back.

24 And as he went away a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his body was thrown in the road, and the ass stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.

25 And behold, men passed by, and saw the body thrown in the road, and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

26 And when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, "It is the man of God, who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and slain him, according to the word which the LORD spoke to him."