{"commentary":{"id":"adam-clarke","name":"Adam Clarke Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Clarke","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Adam Clarke Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"92e28c9363c876d215e296f2fe04abb3ab7e34a2aacebdf06bd62ae79c6e3dba","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":57,"totalNumberOfChapters":854,"totalNumberOfVerses":13318,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"1KI","commentaryId":"adam-clarke","name":"1 Kings","commonName":"1 Kings","introduction":"Preface to the First Book of the KingsOtherwise Called the Third Book of the Kings In the most correct and ancient editions of the Hebrew Bible, the two books of Kings make but one, with sometimes a little break, the first book beginning with 1 Samuel 22:40. Some of the ancient fathers seem to have begun the First Book of Kings at the death of David, Kg1 2:12. The more modern copies of the Hebrew Bible have the same division as ours; but in the time of the Masoretes they certainly made but one book; as both, like the books of Samuel, are included under one enumeration of sections, verses, etc., in the Masora. The titles to these books have been various, though it appears from Origen that they had their name from their first words, והמלך דוד vehammelech David, \"and King David;\" as Genesis had its name from בראשית bereshith, \"in the beginning.\" The Septuagint simply term it βασιλειων, of reigns, or kingdoms; of which it calls Samuel the first and second, and these two the third and fourth. The Vulgate has Liber Regum tertius; secundum Hebraeos, Liber Malachim: \"The Third Book of Kings; but, according to the Hebrews, the First Book of Malachim.\" The Syriac has, \"Here follows the Book of the Kings who flourished among this ancient people; and in this is also exhibited the history of the prophets who flourished in their times.\" The Arabic has the following title: \"In the name of the most merciful and compassionate God; the Book of Solomon, the son of David the prophet, whose benedictions be upon us. - Amen.\" The author of these books is unknown: that they are a compilation out of public and private records, as the books of Samuel are, there is little doubt; but by whom this compilation was made nowhere appears. Some have attributed it to Isaiah and to Jeremiah, because there are several chapters in both these prophets which are similar to some found in the first and second books of Kings; compare 2 Kings 18, 19, and 20, with Isaiah 36, 37, 38, and Isa 39:1-8; and Kg2 24:18; Kg2 25:1, etc., with Jer 52:1, etc. But rather than allow those prophets to be the authors or compilers of these books, some very learned men have judged that the chapters in question have been taken from the books of Kings in after times, and inserted in those prophets. It is worthy of remark that the fifty-second chapter found in Jeremiah is marked so as to intimate that it is not the composition of that prophet; for at the end of Jeremiah 51 we find these words, Thus far are the words of Jeremiah; intimating that the following chapter is not his. But the most common opinion is, that Ezra was the author, or rather the compiler of the history found in these books. Allowing only the existence of ancient documents from which it was compiled, it appears, 1. That it is the work of one person; as is sufficiently evident from the uniformity of the style, and the connection of events. 2. That this person had ancient documents from which he compiled, and which he often only abridged, is evident from his own words, The rest of the acts of such and such a prince, are they not written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, or of Israel, which occur frequently. 3. These books were written during or after the Babylonish captivity, as at the end of the second book that event is particularly described. The author states also, Kg2 17:23, that Israel was, in his time, in captivity in Assyria, according to the declaration of God by his prophets. 4. That the writer was not contemporary with the facts which he relates, is evident from the reflections he makes on the facts that he found in the memoirs which he consulted. See 2 Kings 17:6-24. 5. There is every reason to believe that the author was a priest or a prophet; he studies less to describe acts of heroism, successful battles, conquests, political address, etc., than what regards the temple, religion, religious ceremonies, festivals, the worship of God, the piety of princes, the fidelity of the prophets, the punishment of crimes, the manifestation of God's anger against the wicked, and his kindness to the righteous. He appears everywhere strongly attached to the house of David; he treats of the kings of Israel only accidentally; his principal object seems to be the kingdom of Judah, and the matters which concern it. Now, all this agrees well with the supposition that Ezra was the compiler of these books. He was not only a priest, a zealous servant of God, and a reformer of the corruptions which had crept into the Divine worship, but is universally allowed by the Jews to have been the collector and compiler of the whole sacred code, and author of the arrangement of the different books which constitute the Old Testament. If some things be found in these books of Kings which do not agree to his time, they may be easily accounted for on his often taking the facts as he found them in the documents which he consults, without any kind of alteration; and this is so far a proof of his great sincerity and scrupulous exactness. The First Book of Kings contains the history of one hundred and nineteen years, from A.M. 2989 to A.M. 3108. It contains a great variety of interesting particulars, the chief of which are the following: The death of David; the reign of Solomon; the building and dedication of the temple; the building of Solomon's palace; an account of his great wisdom; his magnificence, and his fall; the division of Israel and Judah under Rehoboam; the idolatry of the ten tribes over whom Jeroboam became king. It states how Judah, Benjamin, and Levi attached themselves to the house of David; how Rehoboam was attacked by Shishak, king of Egypt, who pillaged the temple; how Baasha destroyed the house of Jeroboam, and seized on the government of Israel; how Jehu predicted the ruin of Baasha; how Ahab married the impious Jezebel, and persecuted the prophets of the Lord. It relates the acts of Elijah; the destruction of the prophets of Baal; the cruel death of Naboth; the death of Ahab; the good reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah; and the wicked reign of Ahaziah, king of Israel, etc. See Calmet's preface to the first and second books of Kings.","order":11,"numberOfChapters":22,"sha256":"e65df6d0d922c664a7c9ed979b70ca78012b8bcb98db54f8af6834da13af830e","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/1KI/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"1KI","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":22,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/1KI/22.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"1KI","chapter":22},"totalNumberOfVerses":423},"chapter":{"number":21,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":1,"content":["After these things - This and the twentieth chapter are transposed in the Septuagint; this preceding the account of the Syrian war with Ben-hadad. Josephus gives the history in the same order. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Give me thy vineyard - The request of Ahab seems at first view fair and honorable. Naboth's vineyard was nigh to the palace of Ahab, and he wished to add it to his own for a kitchen garden, or perhaps a grass-plat, גן ירק gan yarak; and he offers to give him either a better vineyard for it, or to give him its worth in money. Naboth rejects the proposal with horror: The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee. No man could finally alienate any part of the parental inheritance; it might be sold or mortgaged till the jubilee, but at that time it must revert to its original owner, if not redeemed before; for this God had particularly enjoined Lev 25:14-17, Lev 25:25-28 : therefore Naboth properly said, Kg1 21:3, The Lord forbid it me, to give the inheritance of my fathers. Ahab most evidently wished him to alienate it finally, and this is what God's law had expressly forbidden; therefore he could not, consistently with his duty to God, indulge Ahab; and it was high iniquity in Ahab to tempt him to do it; and to covet it showed the depravity of Ahab's soul. But we see farther that, despotic as those kings were, they dared not seize on the inheritance of any man. This would have been a flagrant breach of the law and constitution of the country; and this indeed would have been inconsistent with the character which they sustained, viz., the Lord's vicegerents. The Jewish kings had no authority either to alter the old laws, or to make new ones. \"The Hindoos,\" says Mr. Ward, \"are as strongly attached to their homesteads as the Jews were. Though the heads of the family be employed in a distant part of the country, and though the homesteads may be almost in ruins, they cling still to the family inheritance with a fondness bordering on superstition. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["He laid him down upon his bed - Poor soul! he was lord over ten-twelfths of the land, and became miserable because he could not get a poor man's vineyard added to all that he possessed! It is a true saying, \"That soul in which God dwells not, has no happiness: and he who has God has a satisfying portion.\" Every privation and cross makes an unholy soul unhappy; and privations and crosses it must ever meet with, therefore: - \n\"Where'er it goes is hell;\nitself is hell!\" \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? - Naboth, not Ahab, is king. If he have authority to refuse, and thou have no power to take, he is the greater man of the two. This is the vital language of despotism and tyranny. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["She wrote letters in Ahab's name - She counterfeited his authority by his own consent; and he lent his signet to stamp that authority. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Proclaim a fast - Intimate that there is some great calamity coming upon the nation, because of some evil tolerated in it.\nSet Naboth on high - Bring him to a public trial. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Set two men - For life could not be attainted but on the evidence of two witnesses at least.\nSons of Belial - Men who will not scruple to tell lies and take a false oath.\nThou didst blaspheme God and the king - Thou art an atheist and a rebel. Thou hast spoken words injurious to the perfections and nature of God; and thou hast spoken words against the crown and dignity of the king. The words literally are, Naboth hath Blessed Clod and the king; or, as Parkhurst contends, \"Thou hast blessed the false gods and Molech,\" ברכת אלהים ומלך And though Jezebel was herself an abominable idolatress; yet, as the law of Moses still continued in force, she seems to have been wicked enough to have destroyed Naboth, upon the false accusation of blessing the heathen Aleim and Molech, which subjected him to death by Deu 12:6; Deu 17:2-7. The first meaning appears the most simple.\nMany think that the word ברך barach signifies both to bless and curse; and so it is interpreted in most Lexicons: it is passing strange that out of the same word proceedeth blessing and cursing; and to give such opposite and self-destructive meanings to any word is very dangerous. Parkhurst denies that it ever has the meaning of cursing, and examines all the texts where it is said to occur with this meaning; and shows that blessing, not cursing, is to be understood in all those places: see him under ברך, sec. vi. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["And stoned him with stones - As they pretended to find him guilty of treason against God and the king, it is likely they destroyed the whole of his family; and then the king seized on his grounds as confiscated, or as escheated to the king, without any heir at law. That his family was destroyed appears strongly intimated, Kg2 9:26; Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, And the Blood of His Sons, saith the Lord. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Arise, take possession - By what rites or in what forms this was done, we do not know. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Go down to meet Ahab - This was the next day after the murder, as we learn from the above quotation, Kg2 9:26. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["In the place where dogs licked, etc. - It is in vain to look for a literal fulfillment of this prediction. Thus it would have been fulfilled, but the humiliation of Ahab induced the merciful God to say, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in the days of his son, Kg1 21:29. Now dogs did lick the blood of Ahab; but it was at the pool of Samaria, where his chariot and his armor were washed, after he had received his death wound at Ramoth-gilead; but some think this was the place where Naboth was stoned: see Kg1 22:38. And how literally the prediction concerning his son was fulfilled, see Kg2 9:25, where we find that the body of Jehoram his son, just then slain by an arrow that had passed through his heart, was thrown into the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; and there, doubtless, the dogs licked his blood, if they did not even devour his body. There is a similar idea of the propriety of punishment overtaking the culprit in the place where he had committed the crime, expressed by Orestes to Aegisthus, Soph. Elect. 1495.\n- Χωρει δ' ενθαπερ κατεκτανες\nΠατερα τον αμον, ὡς εν ταυτῳ θανῃς.\n- Go where thou slew'st my father,\nThat in the self-same place thou too may'st die. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Thou hast sold thyself to work evil - See a similar form of speech, Rom 7:14 (note). Thou hast totally abandoned thyself to the service of sin. Satan is become thy absolute master, and thou his undivided slave. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["The dogs shall eat Jezebel - This was most literally fulfilled; see Kg2 9:36. The carcasses of poor Hindoos, and of persons who have received public punishment, are thrown into the rivers, and floating to the side, are devoured by dogs, vultures, and crows. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["Did sell himself to work wickedness - He hired himself to the devil for this very purpose, that he might work wickedness. This was to be his employment, and at this he labored.\nIn the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up - A good wife is from the Lord; a bad wife is from the devil: Jezebel was of this kind; and she has had many successors. \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["He rent his clothes - He was penetrated with sorrow, and that evidently unfeigned.\nPut sackcloth upon his flesh - He humbled himself before God and man.\nAnd fasted - He afflicted his body for his soul's benefit.\nLay in sackcloth - Gave the fullest proof that his repentance was real.\nAnd went softly - Walked barefooted; so the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Vulgate has demisso capite, \"with his head hanging down.\" Houbigant translates went groaning. Jarchi says that the word אט at, used here, signifies to be unshod. This is its most likely sense. All these things prove that Ahab's repentance was genuine; and God's approbation of it puts it out of doubt. The slow and measured pace which always accompanies deep and reflective sorrow is also alluded to by Aeschylus, where the Chorus are thus shortly addressed on the defeat of Xerxes. - Aesch. Pers. 1073.\nΓοασθ' ἁβροβαται\n\"With light and noiseless step lament.\" \n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself - He did abase himself; he did truly repent him of his sins, and it was such a repentance as was genuine in the sight of God: He humbleth himself Before Me.\nThe penitent heart ever meets the merciful eye of God; repentance is highly esteemed by the Father of compassion, even where it is comparatively shallow and short-lived. Any measure of godly sorrow has a proportionate measure of God's regard; where it is deep and lasting, the heart of God is set upon it. He that mourns shall be comforted; thus hath God spoken, and though repentance for our past sins can purchase no favor, yet without it God will not grant us his salvation.\n\n"]}],"introduction":"Ahab covets the vineyard of Naboth, and wishes to have it either by purchase or exchange, Kg1 21:1, Kg1 21:2. Naboth refuses to alienate it on any account, because it was his inheritance from his fathers, Kg1 21:3. Ahab becomes disconsolate, takes to his bed, and refuses to eat, Kg1 21:4. Jezebel, finding out the cause, promises to give him the vineyard, Kg1 21:5-7. She writes to the nobles of Jezreel to proclaim a fast, to accuse Naboth of blasphemy, carry him out, and stone him to death; which is accordingly done, Kg1 21:8-14. She then tells Ahab to go and take possession of the vineyard; he goes, and is met by Elijah, who denounces on him the heaviest judgments, Kg1 21:15-24. Ahab's abominable character, Kg1 21:25, Kg1 21:26. He humbles himself; and God promises not to bring the threatened public calamities in his days, but in the days of his son, Kg1 21:27-29. \n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/1KI/21.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"1KI","chapter":21},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/1KI/22.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"1KI","chapter":22},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/adam-clarke/1KI/20.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"adam-clarke","book":"1KI","chapter":20},"numberOfVerses":16}