1 Kings 21:20
Ver. 20. 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 inGe 42:6, but the former sense is best, as appears from1Ki 21:25. 1 Kings 21:21Ver. 21. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee,.... Upon his own person, by cutting him off with a violent death, though his family was so numerous, having no less than seventy sons:and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left Israel; See Gill on "1Ki 14:10". 1 Kings 21:22Ver. 22. And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah,.... Two of his predecessors, whose families were utterly destroyed, 1Ki 15:29,for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin: not only by his worship of the calves, but of the idols of the Zidonians, particularly Baal, and also of the Amorites, 1Ki 21:26. 1 Kings 21:23Ver. 23. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord,.... To Elijah, and by him:saying, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel or in the inheritance or portion of Jezreel, as the Targum; Jarchi interprets it, the valley of Jezreel; the fulfilment of this see in 2Ki 9:30. 1 Kings 21:24Ver. 24. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat, and him that dieth in the field the fowls of the air shall eat. That is, they shall have no burial, see 1Ki 14:11 hitherto are the words of the Lord by Elijah; next follow the remarks of the historian. 1 Kings 21:25Ver. 25. But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord,.... Not of any of his predecessors, even those whose families had been destroyed, as his would be, 1Ki 21:21.See Gill on "1Ki 21:20".whom Jezebel his wife stirred up; to idolatry, revenge, and murder, and to whose will he was a slave, and is one instance of his being a captive to sin, and giving up himself to the power of it. 1 Kings 21:26Ver. 26. And he did very abominably in following idols,.... Which were abominable to the Lord; "dunghill gods", as the Tigurine version:according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel; meaning the seven nations that formerly inhabited Canaan, but were driven out for their sins, to make way for the children of Israel, of which the Amorites were one, and here put for all the rest. 1 Kings 21:27Ver. 27 And it came to pass when Ahab heard these words,.... Delivered in 1Ki 21:21,that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon, his flesh, tore off his clothes, and stripped himself of all, even of his very shirt, and put sackcloth on his bare flesh, a coarse cloth made of hair, and such as sacks are made with:and fasted, how long it is not said:and lay in sackcloth; in the night on his bed, would have no linen on him day nor night:and went softly: step by step, as persons mourning, grieving, and pensive, do; the Targum renders it "barefoot", and so Jarchi. 1 Kings 21:28Ver. 28. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite,.... After he was gone from Ahab, and Ahab had been some time in this humble posture; the Targum calls it the word of prophecy, and so it was, as the next verse shows: saying: as follows. 1 Kings 21:29Ver. 29. Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?.... Which yet was but an external humiliation, to be seen only with bodily eyes, as were all his actions and postures, before observed. Some Jewish writers {i} think his repentance was true and perfect, and his conversion thorough and real: they tell us {k}, that he was in fasting and prayer morning and evening before the Lord, and was studying in the law all his days, and returned not to his evil works any more, and his repentance was accepted: but the contrary appears manifest; we never read that he reproved Jezebel for the murder of Naboth, nor restored the vineyard to his family, which he would have done had he been a true penitent; nor did he leave his idols; we quickly hear of his consulting with the four hundred prophets of the groves, and expressing his hatred of a true prophet of the Lord, 1Ki 22:6, his humiliation arose from dread of punishment, and not from the true fear of God; however, it was such as was never seen in any of his wicked predecessors, and is taken notice of by the Lord. Luther {l} from these words concluded, and was persuaded, that he was saved:because he humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house; this was not a pardon, only a reprieve; the sentence pronounced on him and his family was not taken off, nor countermanded, only the execution of it prolonged; it is promised that the destruction of his family should not be in his lifetime, but after his death, in his son's days, otherwise he himself died a violent death, and the dogs licked his blood, as were foretold; however, this may be an encouragement to those who are truly humbled for their sins, and really repent of them, that they shall receive forgiveness at the hand of God, since he showed so much regard to an outward humiliation and repentance.{i} Bereshit Rabba in Abarbinel in loc. {k} Pirke Eliezer, c. 43. {l} Mensal. Colloqu. c. 32. p. 360.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.