But as for Elijah himself, he once more vanished into the solitude of his own life, and we do not hear of him again till four years later, when he sent to Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, the message of his doom.
[743] Zech. xiii. 4.
[744] On this defection and imposture of prophets, see Jer. xxiii. 21-40. Isa. xxx. 9, 10; Ezek. xiii. 7-9; Micah ii. 11; Deut. xviii. 20.
[745] Jer. xxii. 17.
[746] _De Gubernat. Dei._, viii.; Ambrose, _Ep._, xli.; Cassian, _De Instit. Monastic. passim_. See chap. xvi. of my _Lives of the Fathers_ (St. Jerome), and Zöckler, _Gesch. der Askese_, for many authorities.
[747] See my _Lives of the Fathers_, vol. i. (St. Martin of Tours).
[748] See Jer. xxiii. 20-40.
[749] The Alex. LXX. throughout calls Naboth "an Israelite," not "a Jezreelite."
[750] Both the Hebrew text of 1 Kings xxi. 1 and Josephus (_Antt._, XIII. xv. 6) locate the vineyard of Naboth at Jezreel. The LXX., however, place it apparently near the threshing-floor of Ahab in Samaria (παρὰ τῇ ἅλῳ Ἀχαὰβ βασίλεως Σαμαρείας), which is the same as the "void place" of 1 Kings xxii. 10. At both cities Ahab's palace was on the city wall, and on either supposition Naboth's vineyard was close by the palace.
[751] Lev. xxv. 23, "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine." Numb. xxxvi. 7; Ezek. xlvi. 18.
[752] 2 Sam. xxiv. 24; 1 Kings xvi. 24.
[753] The word rendered "sad" is rendered "mutinous" by Thenius.
[754] LXX., 1 Kings xxi. 7, Σὺ νῦν οὓτως ποιεῖς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ισραήλ;
[755] The signet was carved with the king's name. Rawlinson aptly compares Lady Macbeth's "Infirm of purpose give me the daggers!"
[756] Josephus calls it an ἐκκλησία. "Set Naboth on high" (Heb.) "at the head of the people"; LXX., ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ λαοῦ; Vulg., _inter primos populi_.
[757] The charge was that "he cursed God and the king." LXX. (by euphemism), εὐλόγησε; Vulg., _Benedixit_. The Hebrew word has both meanings (comp. Exod. xxii. 28, where some would render _Elohim_ not "God," but "the judges." See marg. of R.V.). Stoning was the punishment of blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 16), and took place outside the city (Acts vii. 58).
[758] 2 Kings ix. 26.
[759] 2 Sam. xvi. 4.
[760] In 1 Kings xxi. 16 the LXX. curiously says, that "when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead he rent his garments, and clothed himself in sackcloth; and after this he also arose," etc. This mourning for the _means_ but acceptance of the _fact_ would not be in disaccord with Ahab's moral weakness.
[761] 2 Kings ix. 25, 36.