The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 501

bound to e.coomplish his will. Whether fications, and especially of the dit,;h or " the practice of men selling themselves mon.t before them. Cf. 2 Sam. xx. 15. Tho into ale.very " (Rawlinson) existed in the.t LXX. render by 1rpor£iX'"JUI or 1repin,xoc;, age me.y perhaps be doubted. We he.ve the the Vulgate by antemurale. "There is always ea.me thought in 2 Kings xvii. 17, e.nd Rom. in Oriental towns a space outside the walls vii. 14] to work evil 1n the sight of the which lies uncultivated and which is na.tu. Lord. [We ce.n readily ge.ther from these rally used for the deposit of refuse of every words why the doom we.a denounced age.inst kind. Here the dogs prowl, and the kites Ahe.b, who he.d but a secondary she.re in and vultures find many a fee.at" (Rawlin- the crime, rather the.n age.inst Jezebel, its son). In 2 Sam. xxi. 12 we find the bodies ree.l perpetrator. It we.a because Ahab was of Saul and Jonathan impaled in the open the representative of God, God's minister of space (A. V. "street") of Bethshean. This justice, &o. If he he.d not himseli devised heap of refuse-for such the place soon be- the death of Ne.both; if be he.d, which is comes-is called in the Arabian Nights "the possible, remained in ignorance of the mee.ns mounds" (Stanley)] of Jezreel. [Retribution by which Jezebel proposed to procure him should overtake her near the scene of her the vineyard, he he.d nevertheless readily latest crime (2 Kings ix. 36). Ily this the and gladly acquiesced in her inie.mous just judgment of God would be made the crime after its e.ccomplishment, and we.s more conspicuous. then reaping its fruits. And beoe.use he Ver. 24.-Bim that dieth of Ahab 1n the we.s the king, the judge, who, instead of city the dogs shall eat; and him that d!eth punishing the evil-doer, se.notioned and 1n the 11.elds shall the fowls of the a1r eat. approved the deed, and who crowned e. reign [See on eh. xiv. 11; xvi. 4. Stanley, for- of idolatries and abominations with this getting that the phre.se is e.lmost a formula, shameful murder, the prophetic sentence is thinks that "the le.rge vultures which in directed prime.rily a.go.inst him.] Ee.stem climes e.re e.lwn.ys wheeling aloft Ver. 21.-Behold, I will bring evil upon under the clee.r blue sky doubtless suggested thee, and will take away thy posterity the expression to the prophet." " The hori- [Heb. extenninate after thee. See note on zon we.a de.rkened with the visions of eh. xiv. 10. Ahab knew well the meaning vultures glutting on the ce.rcases of tho of these words. Ho had before him the dee.d, and the packs of savage dogs feedin~ examples of Bae.she. e.nd Zimri], and will on their reme.ins,or lapping up their blood."] cut oft" from Ahab [Heh. to .J.hab] him that Ver. 25.-But [Heb. Only] there was none piaseth against the wall, and him that 1s llke unto Ahab, which did sell him.sell to Bhutup and left in Israel [see onch. xiv. 10]. work wickedness 1n the Bight of the Lord Ver. 22. -And will make thine house llke [as in ver. 20], whom Jezebel his wife the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat stirred up [or e.s Me.rg., incited, instig11tetl [of. eh. xv. 29] , and llke the house of and urged to sin. CI. Deut. xiii. 7 Heb. ; Bae.aha the son of Ahijah [eh. xvi. 3, 11], Job xxxvi. 18]. Ver. 26.-And he did very abom.inll.bly 1n for [';,!$ used in the sense of ,~. as else- following idols [Heh. to go after the idols. where] the provocation wherewith thou For the last word see on eh. xv. 12], accord- hast provoked me to anger [eh. xiv. 9; ing to all things as did the Amoriteli. [Heb. xvi. 7, &c.] , and made Israel to sin. the Amorite-the word is alwe.ys singular- Ver. 23.-And of Jezebel [Heh.to Jezebel. here put as a ncmen generale for the seven LXX. rp '1Et<i/31X. But we cannot be sure nations of Canne.n. Cf. Gen. xv. 16; 2 that she e.lso received a message of doom Kings xxi. 11 ; Exek. xvi. 3 ; Amos ii. 9, 10. Strictly the term Amorite, i.e., IIighlander, from Elijiw., as ? like ,~ after verbs of is in contrast with Co.ne.nnite, i.e., dwellers spenkin!t sometimes he.a the meaning of, in the lowlands; see Num. xiii. 29; JoAh. conce"!ing. Cf. <3:en. xx. 13; Pse.. iii. 3; v. 1. But the word ie used intcrchangenbly ?udg. 1x. 54; 2 Kings xix. 32. Moreover, with Ce.ne.anite (of. Deut. i. 44 with Num. if the denunciation had been direct it :xiv. 45, and Judg. i. 10 with Gou. xiii. 8), would he.ve run, "The dogs she.11 eat tli:ie," Hittites (Judg. i. 10 with Gen. xxiii. 2, 3, &c. See e.lso ver. 27] also spake the Lord 10), Hivites (Gen. xlviii. 22 with Gen. xxxiv. [Probn.bly at the same. time. Certainly by 2), and Jebusites (Josh. x. 5, G, with Josh. the ea.me prophet (2 Kings ix. 36). Elijah's xvii. 63, &o.) The ethnical and geogmphi- words to Ahab e.ppear to be only partie.lly col ideas of the Jews were never very pre- recorded (ib., ver. 26)], saytng, The dogs cise. The idolatries of the seven ne.tions lhall eat Jezebel [see on oh. xiv. 11] by the he.d lingered, ns we might expect, amongst wall c',i:, same word .as )IIJ,'.ie used of the the Zidonians, whonce they were re-intro- duced into the kingdom of Same.ria-one 1trength aud defences of a towu, ,c. ita forti- fruit of disobedience to the oomma.nd of  THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ou. XXI, 1-29.