1 พงศ์กษัตริย์ 21:16 วิจารณ์

Ahab is still the unhappy subject of the sacred history; from the great affairs of his camp and kingdom this chapter leads us into his garden, and gives us an account of some ill things (and ill indeed they proved to him) relating to his domestic affairs. I. Ahab is sick for Naboth's vineyard (Kg1 21:1-4). II. Naboth dies by Jezebel's plot, that the vineyard may escheat to Ahab (Kg1 21:5-14). III. Ahab goes to take possession (Kg1 21:15-16). IV. Elijah meets him, and denounces the judgments of God against him for his injustice (Kg1 21:17-24). V. Upon his humiliation a reprieve is granted (Kg1 21:25-29).

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 21 In this chapter we have an account of Ahab's design to have Naboth's vineyard, for which he offered him another, or the value of that, but Naboth refusing to part with it, Ahab fell sick, Kg1 21:1, the reason of which being found out by Jezebel, she devised means to get Naboth put to death under the colour of justice for blasphemy, Kg1 21:5, and then bid Ahab go and take possession of the vineyard, where he was met by Elijah, who denounced the judgments of God upon him, and Jezebel, and all his family, for his injustice, Kg1 21:15, but he humbling himself, the evil threatened was deferred to the days of his son, Kg1 21:27.

And Ahab said to Elijah, hast thou found me, O mine enemy?.... So he reckoned him, because he dealt faithfully with him, and reproved him for his sins, and denounced the judgments of God upon him for them: and he answered, I have found thee; as a thief, a robber and plunderer, in another's vineyard; he had found out his sin in murdering Naboth, and unjustly possessing his vineyard, which was revealed to him by the Lord; and now was come as his enemy, as he called him, as being against him, his adversary, not that he hated his person, but his ways and works: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord; had given up himself wholly to his lusts, was abandoned to them, and as much under the power of them as a man is that has sold himself to another to be his slave; and which he served openly, publicly in the sight of the omniscient God, and in defiance of him. Abarbinel gives another sense of the word we render "sold thyself", that he "made himself strange", as if he was ignorant, and did not know what Jezebel had done; whereas he knew fully the whole truth of the matter, and that Naboth was killed through her contrivance, and by her management purposely; and so he did evil in the sight of that God that knows all things, pretending he was ignorant when he was not, and this Elijah found out by divine revelation; so the word is used in Gen 42:6, but the former sense is best, as appears from Kg1 21:25.

Ahab covets the vineyard of Naboth, and wishes to have it either by purchase or exchange, Kg1 21:1, Kg1 21:2. Naboth refuses to alienate it on any account, because it was his inheritance from his fathers, Kg1 21:3. Ahab becomes disconsolate, takes to his bed, and refuses to eat, Kg1 21:4. Jezebel, finding out the cause, promises to give him the vineyard, Kg1 21:5-7. She writes to the nobles of Jezreel to proclaim a fast, to accuse Naboth of blasphemy, carry him out, and stone him to death; which is accordingly done, Kg1 21:8-14. She then tells Ahab to go and take possession of the vineyard; he goes, and is met by Elijah, who denounces on him the heaviest judgments, Kg1 21:15-24. Ahab's abominable character, Kg1 21:25, Kg1 21:26. He humbles himself; and God promises not to bring the threatened public calamities in his days, but in the days of his son, Kg1 21:27-29.

NABOTH REFUSES AHAB HIS VINEYARD. (Kg1 21:1-4) Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel--Ahab was desirous, from its contiguity to the palace, to possess it for a vegetable garden. He proposed to Naboth to give him a better in exchange, or to obtain it by purchase; but the owner declined to part with it. In persisting in his refusal, Naboth was not actuated by any feelings of disloyalty or disrespect to the king, but solely from a conscientious regard to the divine law, which, for important reasons, had prohibited the sale of a paternal inheritance [Lev 25:23; Num 36:7]; or if, through extreme poverty or debt, an assignation of it to another was unavoidable, the conveyance was made on the condition of its being redeemable at any time [Lev 25:25-27]; at all events, of its reverting at the jubilee to the owner [Lev 25:28]. In short, it could not be alienated from the family, and it was on this ground that Naboth (Kg1 21:3) refused to comply with the king's demand. It was not, therefore, any rudeness or disrespect that made Ahab heavy and displeased, but his sulky and pettish demeanor betrays a spirit of selfishness that could not brook to be disappointed of a favorite object, and that would have pushed him into lawless tyranny had he possessed any natural force of character.

Ahab rose up to go down--from Samaria to Jezreel.

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 (Kg1 21:27-29), that dogs licked his blood at Samaria when the carriage was washed in which he had died (Kg1 22:38); but it was literally fulfilled in the case of his son Joram, whose corpse was cast into Naboth's piece of ground (Kg2 9:25-26).