What Does 1 Kings 13:28 Mean in the King James?
And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The lion stands beside the man it has killed, but its violence stops before consuming the body or harming the donkey.
THE MEANING
A man lies dead on the road, with the lion and donkey still beside him. The lion neither eats the body nor tears the donkey. Death is fully present, and the violence does not spread further in this scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The scene undoes the assumption that a predator’s violence must continue without limit: the man is dead, yet the lion neither eats him nor attacks the donkey.
THE ROOT
נְבֵלָה
nevelah
GROWS FROM
נבל
n-b-l
To wither or fade; the same consonants also carry the sense of becoming senseless or vile.
“carcase” in this verse is nevelah. English gives נְבֵלָה (nevelah, carcass) only the sense of a dead body, while its root family also names withering and folly. Here the body is fallen into death, but the lion remains present without eating it.
ALSO GROWS
nabel: Wither or fade.
נָבֵל
This branch shares the root’s image of something losing its strength and vitality, giving the corpse’s stillness a sense of life gone slack.
naval: A fool; a senseless or vile person.
נָבָל
This branch shows the root’s other shade: what has become diminished or degraded. The verse keeps that word-family near a body reduced to a carcass.
עֹמְדִים
ʿomdîm
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand, remain, or take a position.
The Hebrew uses one plural verb for both the donkey and the lion: they are עֹמְדִים (ʿomdîm, standing) beside the body. The shared posture makes the scene a still tableau; the following clauses specify exactly where the lion’s action stops.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: To stand, remain, or take one’s position.
עָמַד
The verb emphasizes the animals’ continued presence beside the corpse, rather than a moment of flight or pursuit.
maʿămād: A standing place, station, or position.
מַעֲמָד
This noun carries the root’s sense of a held position, echoing the strange steadiness of predator and prey beside the dead man.
THE PATTERN
Destructive power can be present while its reach is sharply bounded.
My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt.And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.THE THREAD
And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.Both verses use נְבֵלָה (nevelah, carcass) for the dead man’s body. Verse 13:24 places the lion and donkey beside it; verse 13:28 makes the restraint explicit by saying the lion does not eat the body or tear the donkey.
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