1st Kings Chapter 21 verse 19 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 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].

Ellicott's Commentary

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.)