1 Kings 21:19

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(19) Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?—The stern, indignant brevity of the accusation, at once shaming the subterfuge by which Ahab shifts his guilt to Jezebel, and unmasking the real object of the whole crime, leaves the king speechless as to defence, unable to stay the sentence which at once follows. The marked particularity and emphasis of that sentence, “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine,” preclude all explanations, which would seek its fulfilment in the fate of Jehoram (2Kings 9:25); nor can such explanations be justified by reference to 1Kings 21:29, for it is not this part of the sentence which is deferred by Ahab’s repentance. (See Note on 1Kings 22:38.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:17-29 Blessed Paul complains that he was sold under sin, Ro 7:14, as a poor captive against his will; but Ahab was willing, he sold himself to sin; of choice, and as his own act and deed, he loved the dominion of sin. Jezebel his wife stirred him up to do wickedly. Ahab is reproved, and his sin set before his eyes, by Elijah. That man's condition is very miserable, who has made the word of God his enemy; and very desperate, who reckons the ministers of that word his enemies, because they tell him the truth. Ahab put on the garb and guise of a penitent, yet his heart was unhumbled and unchanged. Ahab's repentance was only what might be seen of men; it was outward only. Let this encourage all that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe the holy gospel, that if a pretending partial penitent shall go to his house reprieved, doubtless, a sincere believing penitent shall go to his house justified.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? - These words rebuke especially Ahab's indecent haste. He went to Jezreel the very day after Naboth's execution 2 Kings 9:26.

The prophecy following had a double fulfillment. The main fulfillment was by the casting of the dead body of Jehoram into Naboth's plot of ground at Jezreel, where, like Naboth's, it was left for the dogs to eat 2 Kings 9:25. This spot, which was just outside the city wall, and close to a gate 2 Kings 9:31, was probably the actual scene of Naboth's execution. Here did dogs lick Ahab's blood, that is, his son's blood, the execution of the full retaliatory sentence having been deferred to the days of his son, formally and explicitly, on Ahab's repentance 1 Kings 21:29. But, besides this, there was a secondary fulfillment of the prophecy, when, not at Jezreel but at Samaria (marginal reference), the actual blood of Ahab himself, was licked by dogs, only in a way that implied no disgrace. These two fulfillments are complementary to each other.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. In the place where dogs licked, &c.—a righteous retribution of Providence. The prediction was accomplished, not in Jezreel, but in Samaria; and not on Ahab personally, in consequence of his repentance (1Ki 21:29), but on his son (2Ki 9:25). The words "in the place where" might be rendered "in like manner as."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? Thou hast murdered an innocent and righteous man; and instead of repenting for it, thou hast added another piece of injustice and violence to it, and art going confidently and cheerfully to reap the fruit of thy wickedness. He ascribes Jezebel’s fact to Ahab, because Jezebel did it by his connivance, and consent, and authority, and for the satisfaction of his inordinate appetite.

Quest. How was this prophecy fulfilled, when Ahab’s blood was not licked in Jezreel, which was in the tribe of Issachar, but in the pool of Samaria, 1 Kings 22:38, which was in the tribe of Ephraim?

Answ. First, This was done, though not in the same individual place, yet in the same general place, i.e. in the territory of Samaria, within which Jezreel was; and in a place of the same nature, a public and common place; for such was both the place of Naboth’s execution, and the pool of Samaria. Secondly, This was particularly accomplished in his son Joram, as is affirmed, 2 Kings 9:25,26; whose blood is not improperly called Ahab’s blood, because children are said to be born of their parents’ blood. See John 1:13 Acts 17:26.

Object. These words,

thy blood, even thine, show that it is meant of Ahab’s person.

Answ. True, the threatening was so directed and designed at first; but afterwards, upon his humiliation, the punishment was transferred from him to his son, as is expressed, 1 Kings 21:29.

Object. This is said to be fulfilled in Ahab’s person, 1 Kings 22:38.

Answ. Either that may be referred to some other prediction or commination not elsewhere mentioned; or rather, it intimates that it was in part and in some sort fulfilled in him, though not so severely and opprobriously, nor with such characters of the curse, as it was in his son; whence he there mentions only the thing, without any regard unto the place here designed. But it may further be observed, that although upon Ahab’s humiliation the curse here threatened might seem to be wholly translated from his person to his posterity; yet upon Ahab’s return to sin, in the next chapter, he brings back the curse upon himself, and so it is no wonder if it be in some sort fulfilled in him also. Thirdly, The Hebrew word, rendered in

the place where, may be, and is by some learned men, otherwise rendered; either thus instead of this that; that being frequently said to be done in another’s place which was only done in his stead; or, like as; or, because that. So it doth not design the place, but the cause and reason of this judgment. And in this sense the same word is used Zechariah 2:1.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed, and also taken possession?.... Killed in order to possess, and now taken possession upon the murder; some versions, as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic, read without an interrogation, "thou hast killed and hath taken possession", so Joseph Kimchi and Ben Melech; charging him with the murder of Naboth, and the unjust possession of his vineyard; the murder is ascribed to him, because his covetousness was the cause of it; and it was done by the contrivance of his wife; and it is highly probable Ahab knew more of it, and connived at it, and consented to it, than what is recorded, and however, by taking possession upon it, he abetted the fact:

and thou shalt speak unto him, saying, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine; which was fulfilled in his sons, who were his flesh and blood, 2 Kings 9:26, for the punishment was respited in his days, and transferred to his sons, see 1 Kings 21:29, though dogs did lick his blood, even his blood also, according to this prophecy, though not in the same place, see 1 Kings 22:38, wherefore some take these words not to be expressive of the place where, but of the cause or reason for which this should be done, and read the words, "inasmuch", or "because dogs have licked" (h), &c.

(h) "pro eo quod", Junius & Tremellius; "propierea quod", Grotius; so some in Vatablus.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, {g} Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, {h} In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.

(g) Do you think to have an advantage by murdering an innocent?

(h) This was fulfilled in Joram his son 2Ki 9:25,26.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19. Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?] The guilt of all that had been done is at once laid at Ahab’s door. He had neither known nor cared to know (as it seems) what Jezebel’s plans were and only thought of the end which they accomplished. He was willing by taking possession to reap the advantage, as he thought it; God lays on him the first penalty.

and thou shalt speak unto him, saying] The LXX. omits these words. See above on 1 Kings 21:15.

In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth] From the history of Ahab’s death, in 1 Kings 22:38, it appears that his blood was thus licked by the dogs, not at Jezreel, but near Samaria. The best explanation of this is that the word ‘place’ does not here mean ‘precise locality’. Naboth’s blood was shed outside the gate of Jezreel, and the pool of Samaria, from the description in the next chapter, and from what we know of the conduits and reservoirs of Eastern cities, was apparently outside the gate of that city. Thus there was a similarity between the two cases. We must also bear in mind that the sentence on Ahab was modified and its exact fulfilment deferred. When Jehoram was killed (2 Kings 9:25) a much more definite phrase is used for the place where his body was cast out. There it is, ‘in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite’.

Instead of ‘dogs’ simply, the LXX. (Vat.) has ‘the swine and the dogs’ and (Alex.) ‘the dogs and the swine’. It is not easy to decide how the swine came to be mentioned in the Greek Versions, but as neither text makes any mention of them in the second part of this clause, the words must be taken as the insertion of some one who desired to give a touch of greater horror to the picture.

The Vat. LXX. adds to the close of this verse ‘and the harlots shall wash in thy blood’, and in 1 Kings 22:38 both Alex. and Vat. have the statement that this was done. Moreover the true rendering in that place, of the words which in A.V. read, ‘and they washed his armour’, is ‘Now the harlots washed themselves there’. See notes on 1 Kings 22:38.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 19. - And thou shalt speak unto him;. saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed [הֲרָצַחְתָּ, a rare and expressive word. We might render, slaughtered], and also [this word suggests that Jezebel's programme, which he had accepted, was fast being accomplished. But in the very hour of its completion it should be interrupted] taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord [For the repetition, see on 1 Kings 20:13, 14], In the place where dogs [LXX. αἱ ῦες καὶ οἱ κύνες] licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood [according to the lex talionis, as in 1 Kings 20:42], even thine. [Heb. even thou. The LXX. adds, "And the harlots shall bathe in thy blood." For the construction see Gesen., Gram. § 119. 3; and cf. Genesis 27:34; Proverbs 23:15; Psalm 9:7. Thenius contends that there is a contradiction between this ver. and 1 Kings 22:38 (together with 2 Kings 9:25) which is absolutely insuperable. But as Bahr observes, "How thoughtless our author must have been if in two consecutive chapters - i.e., on the same leaf, as it were - he had inadvertently inserted direct contradictions." And the following considerations will show that the discrepancy is only apparent.

(1) The sentence here pronounced against Ahab was, on his repentance, stayed in its execution. God said distinctly, "I will not bring the evil in his days," and as distinctly added that He would "bring the evil in his son's days, upon his house" (ver. 29). And

(2) with the prophecy, as thus modified, the facts exactly record. The body of Jehoram was "cast into the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite" (2 Kings l.c.). And if it be objected

(3) that our historian sees in the death of Ahab in Samaria (ch. 20. l.c.) a fulfilment of this prophecy, the answer is that that death was a partial fulfilment of Elijah's words. The repentance of Ahab, having secured him immunity from this sentence, his subsequent folly and sin (cf. 1 Kings 22:27) nevertheless brought down upon him a judgment of God strikingly similar, as we might expect it would be, to that originally denounced against him, which was now reserved for his son. In ether words, the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter in the person of his son, but it had a secondary fulfilment in its spirit on himself]. 1 Kings 21:19

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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).