1 Kings 21:16

21:5-16 When, instead of a help meet, a man has an agent for Satan, in the form of an artful, unprincipled, yet beloved wife, fatal effects may be expected. Never were more wicked orders given by any prince, than those Jezebel sent to the rulers of Jezreel. Naboth must be murdered under colour of religion. There is no wickedness so vile, so horrid, but religion has sometimes been made a cover for it. Also, it must be done under colour of justice, and with the formalities of legal process. Let us, from this sad story, be amazed at the wickedness of the wicked, and the power of Satan in the children of disobedience. Let us commit the keeping of our lives and comforts to God, for innocence will not always be our security; and let us rejoice in the knowledge that all will be set to rights in the great day.

And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead,.... Of which he was informed by Jezebel: that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it; if it was in Jezreel, that was sixteen miles from Samaria, and lay lower than that, in a valley, and therefore he is said to go down to it; and which he did very likely in great state and pomp, many of his nobles and captains accompanying him, as we read that Jehu and Bidkar did ride after him at this time, 2 Kings 9:25.

(16) When Ahab heard. —It is characteristic of Ahab that he takes care to ask no question about Naboth’s death, desirous “to be innocent of the knowledge,” and yet tacitly to “applaud the deed.” The guilt is Jezebel’s; the fruit, his own. In the LXX. there is here a curious and striking insertion: “he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth,” representing Ahab as struck with momentary horror, and then, after thus salving his conscience, still resolving to carry out his desire for the coveted vineyard. The picture is equally true to nature, especially to such a nature as his. But the insertion has little authority, and is probably a mistaken interpolation from 1Kings 21:27 .

16 . when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead ] Here the LXX. adds ‘he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloth’. This clause must be entirely out of place. Josephus gives us a detail far more in harmony with Ahab’s character. He says ( Ant. viii. 13, 8) ‘And Ahab was pleased with what had been done, and sprang up from his bed, and went to see Naboth’s vineyard’. There was certainly no time lost by him. His entry on the possession seems to have been made the very next day after Naboth’s death. We learn afterwards ( 2 Kings 9:26 ) that Jehu and Bidkar rode with Ahab at the time, and so appalling was the curse which Elijah pronounced on the wretched king that it was imprinted on Jehu’s memory and he could quote it many years afterwards, apparently in its very words.

Jezebel writeth letters against Naboth; he is condemned of blasphemy, and stoned, 1 Kings 21:5-14. Ahab possesseth the vineyard, 1 Kings 21:15,16. Elijah denounceth judgment against Ahab and Jezebel, 1 Kings 21:17-26. He repenting, God deferreth the judgment, 1 Kings 21:27-29. In Jezreel; where one of Ahab’s palaces was, as the other was in Samaria.

Verse 16. - And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab arose up [According to the LXX., his first act was to rend his clothes and put on sackcloth. Afterwards "he rose up," etc.] to go down [The "Great Plain, on the margin of which Jezreel stands, is at a much lower level than Samaria, which is in the mountain district of Ephraim"] to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. ["Behind him - probably in the back part of his chariot - ride his two pages, Jehu and Bidkar ( 2 Kings 9:26 )," Stanley. But the expression "riding in pairs after Ahab" (A.V. "rode together after") does not make it certain that they were in the same chariot. Indeed, they may have been on horseback. This was apparently ( 2 Kings 9:26 ) on the day after the murder.] 1 Kings 21:16

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 ).