26 and he doth very abominably to go after the idols, according to all that the Amorite did whom Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel.'
`Because that Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations -- he hath done evil above all that the Amorites have done who `are' before him, and causeth also Judah to sin by his idols;
and the fourth generation doth turn back hither, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.'
and the land is defiled, and I charge its iniquity upon it, and the land vomiteth out its inhabitants: and ye -- ye have kept My statutes and My judgments, and do not `any' of all these abominations, the native and the sojourner who is sojourning in your midst, (for all these abominations have the men of the land done who `are' before you, and the land is defiled), and the land doth not vomit you out in your defiling it, as it hath vomited out the nation which `is' before you; for any one who doth `any' of all these abominations -- even the persons who are doing `so', have been cut off from the midst of their people; and ye have kept My charge, so as not to do `any' of the abominable statutes which have been done before you, and ye do not defile yourselves with them; I `am' Jehovah your God.'
And mix themselves among nations, and learn their works, And serve their idols, And they are to them for a snare. And they sacrifice their sons And their daughters to destroyers, And they shed innocent blood -- Blood of their sons and of their daughters, Whom they have sacrificed to idols of Canaan, And the land is profaned with blood. And they are defiled with their works, And commit whoredom in their habitual doings.
and to fearful, and unstedfast, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the liars, their part `is' in the lake that is burning with fire and brimstone, which is a second death.'
The afflicted and needy he hath oppressed, Plunder he hath taken violently away, A pledge he doth not return, And unto the idols he hath lifted up his eyes, Abomination he hath done!
And -- in their ways thou hast not walked, And according to their abominations done, As a little thing it hath been loathed, And thou dost more corruptly than they in all thy ways.
And I have recompensed a first -- A second time -- their iniquity and their sin, Because of their polluting My land, With the carcase of their detestable things, Yea, their abominable things have filled Mine inheritance.
Who are dwelling among sepulchres, And lodge in reserved places, Who are eating flesh of the sow, And a piece of abominable things -- their vessels.
`And ye have kept all My statutes, and all My judgments, and have done them, and the land vomiteth you not out whither I am bringing you in to dwell in it; and ye walk not in the statutes of the nation which I am sending away from before you, for all these they have done, and I am wearied with them;
that Thou hast commanded by the hands of thy servants the prophets, saying, The land into which ye are going to possess it, `is' a land of impurity, by the impurity of the people of the lands, by their abominations with which they have filled it -- from mouth unto mouth -- by their uncleanness; and now, your daughters ye do not give to their sons, and their daughters ye do not take to your sons, and ye do not seek their peace, and their good -- unto the age, so that ye are strong, and have eaten the good of the land, and given possession to your sons unto the age. `And after all that hath come upon us for our evil works, and for our great guilt (for Thou, O our God, hast kept back of the rod from our iniquities, and hast given to us an escape like this), do we turn back to break Thy commands, and to join ourselves in marriage with the people of these abominations? art not Thou angry against us -- even to consumption -- till there is no remnant and escaped part?
Also, all the heads of the priests, and the people, having multiplied to commit a trespass according to all the abominations of the nations, and they defile the house of Jehovah that He hath sanctified in Jerusalem.
and he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, like the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel,
And at Asa's hearing these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he hath strengthened himself, and doth cause the abominations to pass away out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities that he hath captured from the hill-country of Ephraim, and reneweth the altar of Jehovah that `is' before the porch of Jehovah,
and serve the idols, of which Jehovah said to them, `Ye do not do this thing;'
and he walketh in the way of the kings of Israel, and also his son he hath caused to pass over into fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah dispossessed from the presence of the sons of Israel,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on 1 Kings 21
Commentary on 1 Kings 21 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
After these events Ahab was seized with such a desire for a vineyard which was situated near his palace at Jezreel, that when Naboth, the owner of the vineyard, refused to part with his paternal inheritance, he became thoroughly dejected, until his wife Jezebel paved the way for the forcible seizure of the desired possession by the shameful execution of Naboth (1 Kings 21:1-15). But when Ahab was preparing to take possession of the vineyard, Elijah came to meet him with the announcement, that both he and his wife would be visited by the Lord with a bloody death for this murder and robbery, and that his idolatry would be punished with the extermination of all his house (1 Kings 21:16-26). Ahab was so affected by this, that he humbled himself before God; whereupon the Lord told Elijah, that the threatened judgment should not burst upon his house till after Ahab's death (1 Kings 21:27-29).
1 Kings 21:1-2
Ahab wanted to obtain possession of the vineyard of Naboth, which was in Jezreel ( אשׁר refers to כּרם ), near the palace of the king, either in exchange for another vineyard or for money, that he might make a vegetable garden of it. From the fact that Ahab is called the king of Samaria we may infer that Jezreel, the present Zerin (see at Joshua 19:18), was only a summer residence of the king.
1 Kings 21:3
Naboth refused to part with the vineyard, because it was the inheritance of his fathers, that is to say, on religious grounds ( חלילה כּי מיהוה ), because the sale of a paternal inheritance was forbidden in the law (Leviticus 25:23-28; Numbers 36:7.). He was therefore not merely at liberty as a personal right to refuse the king's proposal, but bound by the commandment of God.
1 Kings 21:4
Instead of respecting this tender feeling of shrinking from the transgression of the law and desisting from his coveting, Ahab went home, i.e., to Samaria (cf. 1 Kings 21:8), sullen and morose ( סר וזעף as in 1 Kings 20:43), lay down upon his bed, turned his face (viz., to the wall; cf. 2 Kings 20:2) - “after the manner of sorrowful persons, who shrink from and refuse all conversation, and even the sight of others” (Seb. Schmidt) - and did not eat. This childish mode of giving expression to his displeasure at Naboth's refusal to comply with his wish, shows very clearly that Ahab was a man sold under sin (1 Kings 21:20), who only wanted the requisite energy to display the wickedness of his heart in vigorous action.
1 Kings 21:5-7
When Jezebel learned the cause of Ahab's ill-humour, she said to him, “Thou, dost thou now exercise royal authority over Israel.” אתּה is placed first for the sake of emphasis, and the sentence is to be taken as an ironical question, as it has been by the lxx. “I (if thou hast not courage enough to act) will procure thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
1 Kings 21:8-10
The shameless woman then wrote a letter in the name of Ahab, sealed it below with the royal seal, which probably bore the king's signature and was stamped upon the writing instead of signing the name, as is done at the present day among Arabs, Turks, and Persians (vid., Paulsen, Reg. der Morgenl . p. 295ff.), to give it the character of a royal command (cf. Esther 8:13; Daniel 6:17), and sent this letter (the Chethîb הסּפרים is correct, and the Keri has arisen from a misunderstanding) to the elders and nobles of his town (i.e., the members of the magistracy, Deuteronomy 16:18), who lived near Naboth, and therefore had an opportunity to watch his mode of life, and appeared to be the most suitable persons to institute the charge that was to be brought against him. The letter ran thus: “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people, and set two worthless men opposite to him, that they may give evidence against him: Thou hast blasphemed God and king; and lead him out and stone him, that he may die.” Jezebel ordered the fasting for a sign, as though some public crime or heavy load of guilt rested upon the city, for which it was necessary that it should humble itself before God (1 Samuel 7:6). The intention was, that at the very outset the appearance of justice should be given to the legal process about to be instituted in the eyes of all the citizens, and the stamp of veracity impressed upon the crime of which Naboth was to be accused. העם בראשׁ ... הושׁיבוּ , “ seat him at the head of the people,” i.e., bring him to the court of justice as a defendant before all the people. The expression may be explained from the fact, that a sitting of the elders was appointed for judicial business, in which Naboth and the witnesses who were to accuse him of blasphemy took part seated . To preserve the appearance of justice, two witnesses were appointed, according to the law in Deuteronomy 17:6-7; Deuteronomy 19:15; Numbers 35:30; but worthless men, as at the trial of Jesus (Matthew 26:60). אלהים בּרך , to bless God, i.e., to bid Him farewell, to dismiss Him, as in Job 2:9, equivalent to blaspheming God. God and king are mentioned together, like God and prince in Exodus 22:27, to make it possible to accuse Naboth of transgressing this law, and to put him to death as a blasphemer of God, according to Deuteronomy 13:11 and Deuteronomy 17:5, where the punishment of stoning is awarded to idolatry as a practical denial of God. Blaspheming the king is not to be taken as a second crime to be added to the blasphemy of God; but blaspheming the king, as the visible representative of God, was eo ipso also blaspheming God.
1 Kings 21:11-13
The elders of Jezreel executed this command without delay; a striking proof both of deep moral corruption and of slavish fear of the tyranny of the ruthless queen.
1 Kings 21:14-15
When the report of Naboth's execution was brought to her, she called upon Ahab to take possession of his vineyard ( רשׁ = רשׁ , Deuteronomy 2:24). As Naboth's sons were put to death at the same time, according to 2 Kings 9:26, the king was able to confiscate his property; not, indeed, on any rule laid down in the Mosaic law, but according to a principle involved in the very idea of high treason. Since, for example, in the case of blasphemy the property of the criminal was forfeited to the Lord as cherem (Deuteronomy 13:16), the property of traitors was regarded as forfeited to the king.
But when Ahab went down to Jezreel to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, Elijah came to meet him by the command of God, with the word of the Lord, “Hast thou murdered and also taken possession?” The question served to sharpen his conscience, since Ahab was obliged to admit the fact. בּשׁמרון אשׁר means “who lives at Samaria,” for when Elijah came to meet him, Ahab was in Jezreel, Elijah then said to him still further: “Thus saith the Lord: In the place where the dogs have licked the blood of Naboth, will they also lick thine, yea, thy blood.” אתּה גּם serves as an emphatic repetition of the suffix (cf. Ges. § 121, 3). This threat was only so far fulfilled upon Ahab, from the compassion of God, and in consequence of his humbling himself under the divine judgment (1 Kings 21:27-29), that dogs licked his blood at Samaria when the carriage was washed in which he had died (1 Kings 22:38); but it was literally fulfilled in the case of his son Joram, whose corpse was cast into Naboth's piece of ground (2 Kings 9:25-26).
Ahab answered, “Hast thou found me (met with me), O mine enemy?” (not, hast thou ever found me thine enemy? - Vulg., Luth.) i.e., dost thou come to meet me again, mine enemy? He calls Elijah his enemy, to take the sting from the prophet's threat as an utterance caused by personal enmity. But Elijah fearlessly replied, “I have found (thee), because thou sellest thyself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.” He then announced to him, in 1 Kings 21:21, 1 Kings 21:22, the extermination of his house, and to Jezebel, as the principal sinner, the most ignominious end (1 Kings 21:23). הרע לעשׂות חתמכּר to sell one's self to do evil, i.e., to give one's self to evil so as to have no will of one's own, to make one's self the slave of evil (cf. 1 Kings 21:25, 2 Kings 17:17). The consequence of this is πεπρᾶσθαι ὑπὸ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν (Romans 7:14), sin exercising unlimited power over the man who gives himself up to it as a slave. For 1 Kings 21:21, 1 Kings 21:22, see 1 Kings 14:10-11; 1 Kings 15:29-30; 1 Kings 16:3, 1 Kings 16:12-13. The threat concerning Jezebel (1 Kings 21:23) was literally fulfilled, according to 2 Kings 9:30. חל , written defectively for חיל , as in 2 Samuel 20:15, is properly the open space by the town-wall, pomoerium . Instead of בּחל we have בּחלק in the repetition of this threat in 2 Kings 9:10, 2 Kings 9:36-37, and consequently Thenius and others propose to alter the חל here. But there is no necessity for this, as בּחלק , on the portion, i.e., the town-land, of Jezreel (not, in the field at Jezreel), is only a more general epithet denoting the locality, and חל is proved to be the original word by the lxx.
1 Kings 21:25, 1 Kings 21:26 contain a reflection on the part of the historian concerning Ahab's ungodly conduct, whereby he brought such an ignominious end upon himself and his house. וגו היה לא רק , “only there has not been (one) like Ahab,” i.e., there was no one else like Ahab, “who sold himself,” etc. הסתּה for הסיתה , from סוּת , to entice, to seduce or lead astray (cf. Ewald, § 114, a ., and Ges. § 72, Anm. 6). ויּתעב , and he acted abominably. Amorites : for Canaanites, as in Genesis 15:16, etc.
This terrible threat made such an impression upon Ahab, that he felt deep remorse, and for a time at least was sincerely penitent. Rending the clothes, putting on the mourning garment of hair ( שׂק ), and fasting, are frequently mentioned as external signs of humiliation before God or of deep mourning on account of sin. יהלּך אט , he walked about lightly (slowly), like one in deep trouble. This repentance was neither hypocritical, nor purely external; but it was sincere even if it was not lasting and produced no real conversion. For the Lord Himself acknowledge it to be humiliation before Him (1 Kings 21:29), and said to Elijah, that because of it He would not bring the threatened calamity upon Ahab's house in his own lifetime, but only in the days of his son. אבי for אביא , as in 1 Kings 21:21.