³³ The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let it live.”

²⁴ Then as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body.^{(A) 25} People passed by and saw the body thrown in the road, with the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the town where the old prophet lived.^(B)

²⁶ 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 killed him according to the word that the Lord spoke to him.”^{(C) 27} Then he said to his sons, “Saddle a donkey for me.” So they saddled one, ²⁸ and he went and found the body thrown in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey.

³³ So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. ³⁴ All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth will swallow us, too!” ³⁵ And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.^(A)

³⁷ the men who brought an unfavorable report about the land died by a plague before the Lord.