1 Kings 13:25

13:23-34 God is displeased at the sins of his own people; and no man shall be protected in disobedience, by his office, his nearness to God, or any services he has done for him. God warns all whom he employs, strictly to observe their orders. We cannot judge of men by their sufferings, nor of sins by present punishments; with some, the flesh is destroyed, that the spirit may be saved; with others, the flesh is pampered, that the soul may ripen for hell. Jeroboam returned not from his evil way. He promised himself that the calves would secure the crown to his family, but they lost it, and sunk his family. Those betray themselves who think to support themselves by any sin whatever. Let us dread prospering in sinful ways; pray to be kept from every delusion and temptation, and to be enabled to walk with self-denying perseverance in the way of God's commands.

And, behold, men passed by,.... Travellers on the road; nor did the lion offer to seize on them, nor desert the carcass upon their approach: and saw the carcass cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcass; as before described: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt; which was Bethel, by which means he came to have knowledge of it.

1 Kings 13:25-26 . They came and told it in the city — As a wonderful thing that the lion should neither fall upon his prey, nor hurt them who passed by, but suffer them to go on quietly, Who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord — Which was the true reason why he was so severely punished, in order that other prophets might not, upon any pretence or excuse, neglect punctually to attend to, and observe all the divine injunctions; for, had they not been deterred from neglecting and disregarding them, the authority of prophecy would have been soon lessened, and consequently the people have sooner or more readily fallen into idolatry. Which hath torn and slain him, according to the word of the Lord — God had not expressly said that a lion should tear him; but, that he should suffer a violent death in some way, was implied in the threatening that his carcass should not come into the sepulchre of his fathers.

25 . told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt ] As Bethel has been already mentioned it is not easy to see why this circumlocution is made use of. Perhaps the idea is that the news was carried in all directions by the passers by and so came among other places to that where he dwelt whom it specially concerned.

24. a lion met him by the way, and slew him—There was a wood near Beth-el infested with lions (2Ki 2:24). This sad catastrophe was a severe but necessary judgment of God, to attest the truth of the message with which the prophet had been charged. All the circumstances of this tragic occurrence (the undevoured carcass, the untouched ass, the passengers unmolested by the lion, though standing there) were calculated to produce an irresistible impression that the hand of God was in it.

Verse 25. - And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt. [This was precisely what God had designed. By this means, the very disobedience and death of the man of God became a part of the protest against the new rites. "For if the partaking of food against the commandment of God, though the result not of indulgence, but of deceit, brought so great a punishment upon a righteous man, what sort of chastisements would befall those who had left God their Maker and were worshipping senseless images" (Theodoret.)] 1 Kings 13:25

Verse 25. - But [Heb. Only ] there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord [as in ver. 20], whom Jezebel his wife stirred up [or as Marg., incited , instigated and urged to sin. Cf. Deuteronomy 13:7 Hebrews 1 Job 36:18 ]. 1 Kings 21:25

After he had eaten he saddled the ass for him, i.e., for the prophet whom he had fetched back, and the latter (the prophet from Judah) departed upon it. On the road a lion met him and slew him; "and his corpse was cast in the road, but the ass stood by it, and the lion stood by the corpse." The lion, contrary to its nature, had neither consumed the prophet whom it had slain, nor torn in pieces and devoured the ass upon which he rode, but had remained standing by the corpse and by the ass, that the slaying of the prophet might not be regarded as a misfortune that had befallen him by accident, but that the hand of the Lord might be manifest therein, so that passers-by saw this marvel and related it in Bethel.

Izri, 1 Chronicles 25:11, stands for Zeri, 1 Chronicles 25:3; Jesharelah, 1 Chronicles 25:14, for Asarelah, 1 Chronicles 25:2; Azarel, 1 Chronicles 25:18, for Uzziel, 1 Chronicles 25:4 (like the king's names Uzziah and Azariah, 1 Chronicles 3:12, and 2 Chronicles 26:1); Shubael, 1 Chronicles 25:20, for Shebuel, 1 Chronicles 25:4 (cf. 1 Chronicles 23:16 with 1 Chronicles 24:20); Jeremoth, 1 Chronicles 25:22, for Jerimoth, 1 Chronicles 25:4; Eliyathah, 1 Chronicles 25:27, for Eliathah, 1 Chronicles 25:4. Besides these, the fuller forms Nethanyahu (1 Chronicles 25:12), Hashabyahu (1 Chronicles 25:3), Hananyahu (1 Chronicles 25:23), are used instead of the shorter Nethaniah, etc. (1 Chronicles 25:2, 1 Chronicles 25:19, 1 Chronicles 25:4). Of the 24 names which are here enumerated, besides those of Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman, only Mattithiah recurs (1 Chronicles 15:18, 1 Chronicles 15:21) in the description of the solemnities connected with the bringing in of the ark; "but we are not justified in seeking there the names of our twenty-four classes" (Berth.).