Teks -- 1 Kings 13:24 (NET)

13:24 As the prophet from Judah was traveling, a lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His corpse was lying on the road, and the donkey and the lion just stood there beside it.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: 1Ki 13:24 - Slew him

But why doth God punish a good man so severely for so small an offence? His sin was not small, for it was a gross disobedience to a positive command. And it cannot seem strange if God should bring his deserved death upon him in this manner, for the accomplishment of his own glorious designs, to vindicate his own justice from the imputation of partiality; to assure the truth of his predictions, and thereby provoke Jeroboam and his idolatrous followers to repentance; and to justify himself in all his dreadful judgments which he intended to inflict upon Jeroboam's house, and the whole kingdom of Israel.

JFB: 1Ki 13:24 - 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.

Clarke: 1Ki 13:24 - A lion met him - and slew him

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 1Jo 5:16 (note), 1Jo 5:17 (note)

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?"

TSK: 1Ki 13:24 - a lion

a lion : 1Ki 20:36; 2Ki 2:24; Pro 22:13, Pro 26:13; Amo 5:19; 1Co 11:31, 1Co 11:32; 1Pe 4:17, 1Pe 4:18

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: 1Ki 13:24 - A lion met him // Answ // Object // His carcass was cast in the way // The lion also stood by the carcass

A lion met him for there were many lions in Judea, and this was brought hither by God’ s special providence.

Why doth God punish a good man so severely for so small an offence?

Answ First, His sin was not small, for it was a gross disobedience to a positive command.

Object. But he supposed, and was told by another prophet, that God had repealed his command, and so was deceived.

Answ First, He had no sufficient discharge from the former command; for he neither was assured that the old man was a prophet, nor that the message he delivered was from God; but had reason to suspect the contrary, or at least to inquire the mind of God in this doubtful point, which he grossly neglected to do, and willingly believed the message, because it suited with his own inclination and necessity. Add to this, that he being a prophet was obliged to the greater exactness in obedience to all God’ s precepts; and therefore this sin was much greater in him than in another, because hereby God was dishonoured, and the authority and success of his message blasted, and Jeroboam and the idolatrous Israelites hardened in their wicked courses, for the prevention whereof it was necessary that God should exercise severity towards him.

Answ Secondly, As his sin was not so small, so his punishment was not so great, as may be imagined. For as to his outward man, his bodily death (which was a debt that he owed to God and nature) in this way was not so painful and terrible as many other kinds of death; and as to his soul, God, by giving him a gracious admonition both of his sin and danger, 1Ki 13:21,22 , awakened him to true repentance, which doubtless he practised, and so was prepared for his death, and by this sudden death freed from all the miseries of an evil time and world, and speedily let into eternal glory.

Answ Thirdly, As the world and all men in it were made for God’ s glory, and all their lives and deaths ought to be laid out in his service; so it cannot seem strange nor harsh if God should bring his deserved death upon him in this manner, for the accomplishment of his own glorious designs, as to vindicate his own honour and justice from the imputation of partiality; to assure the truth of his predictions, and thereby provoke Jeroboam and his idolatrous followers to repentance; to justify himself in all his dreadful judgments which he intended to inflict upon Jeroboam’ s house, and the whole kingdom of Israel, for their cursed apostacy; and to warn all succeeding sinners not rashly to venture upon small sins, and especially to take heed of greater sins, for which they might expect far sorer punishments.

His carcass was cast in the way his life and soul being gone, his dead body falls to the ground, and lies there.

The lion also stood by the carcass: See Poole "1Ki 13:28".

Haydock: 1Ki 13:24 - Killed him // Body

Killed him. Thus the Lord often punishes his servants here, that he may spare them hereafter. For the generality of divines[theologians] are of opinion, that the sin of this prophet, considered with all its circumstances, was not mortal. (Challoner) ---

He had received a positive order, and ought to have tried spirits, whether they were from God, 1 John iv. 1., and Galatians vi. 18. Every prophecy which contradicts the word of God, comes from an evil principle. (Calmet) ---

The prophet might suppose, however, that some cause had intervened, which authorized him to eat with this his brother, (ver. 30.) whom he probably revered as a true prophet. Many of God's commands are conditional. (Haydock) ---

Serenus observes, that God often inflicts death for the smallest faults. (Cassian vii. 26.) (St. Gregory, Dial. iv. 24.) ---

St. Augustine (cura, c. 7.) doubts not of the prophet's salvation. ---

Body, without even hurting the ass, ver. 28. (Haydock) ---

God protected the relics of his servant, by stationing the lion for a guard. (Procopius) (Menochius) ---

How impenetrable are the counsels of God! He suffers Jeroboam, and the prophet who had seduced his servant, to live; while he punishes the latter for a fault which he had committed undesignedly. But he thus purified him from guilt, (Calmet) while he reserved Jeroboam for more lasting torments in another world. (Haydock) ---

Nothing could prove more forcibly the existence of future rewards and punishments. (Calmet) ---

Not only the deceiver, but he also who is deceived, so as to transgress God's orders, must be punished. (Worthington)

Gill: 1Ki 13:24 - And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him // and his carcass was cast in the way // and the ass stood by it // the lion also stood by the carcass

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, 2Ki 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.