And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
After a time he returned to take her - probably after the lapse of a year, the usual interval between the ceremonies of betrothal and marriage. It was spent by the bride elect with her parents in preparation for the nuptials; and at the proper time the bridegroom returned to take her home.
A swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. Aristotle and other eminent naturalists affirm that bees will not alight upon a dead carcass, nor taste the flesh. Nor is there in the fact mentioned by the sacred historian anything at variance with this statement of Aristotle. In such a climate the myriads of insects and the ravages of birds of prey, together with the influence of the solar rays, would in a few months put the carcass in a state inviting to such cleanly animals as bees. And the phrase, "after a time," which introduces the relation of this incident, shows that the hiving of the bees in the carcass of the lion was long posterior to the death of the animal, when it had been completely divested of all putrid effluvia, and reduced to a mere skeleton.