* the lion had.
   All here was supernatural.  The lion, though he had killed the
   man, yet, contrary to his nature, did not devour him, nor tear
   the ass, nor meddle with the travellers that passed by; while
   the ass stood quietly by, not fearing the lion, nor betaking
   himself to flight:  both stood as guardians of the fallen
   prophet, till this extraordinary intelligence was carried into
   the city which rendered the miracle the more illustrious and
   plainly shewed that this event did not happen by chance.  This
   concatenation of miracles marked the death of the man of God
   as a Divine rebuke for his disobedience in eating bread at
   idolatrous Beth-el; and here we see, as in various other
   cases, that "often judgment begins at the house of God."  The
   true prophet, for suffering himself to be seduced by the old
   prophet, and 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 fallen prophet are both permitted to live.

  17:4,6  Le 10:2,5  Job 38:11  Ps 148:7,8  Jer 5:22,23 
  Da 3:22,27,28  6:22-24  Ac 16:26  Heb 11:33,34 
 * torn.  Heb. broken.