And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, mine enemy? And he said, I have found [thee]; because thou hast sold thyself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard the king has just seized. Ahab's greeting shows what he thinks the trouble is: a man. The prophet's reply names the real problem — a king who had handed himself over to evil.
Ahab's question sees only the man in front of him. One writer looks past the prophet to the One who sent him:
So far everyone involved, except Naboth, had left God out of their calculations, and it seemed as if sin had won. Naboth had been stoned, and Ahab was now free to take possession. He went down, and his feet at last stood in Naboth's vineyard. But just as he was about to lay his hand on the possession he had coveted, Elijah the Tishbite confronted him... Miserable king! His view is still limited to the earth, so he could only say, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" It was the Lord who had found him, and who sent His servant to pronounce judgment on Ahab, his house, and on the wicked Jezebel.
Ahab went to the vineyard to enjoy his prize. God sent Elijah to meet him there:
Ahab goes down. Is he going to be happy now? This is the moment for him, now that his goal is reached, to have the good time Jezebel had promised him. He has hardly begun to take possession when Elijah meets him. God had sent the prophet to the new estate he had come to look over. His enjoyment, his happiness, disappear. Satan always lures us on. Then he betrays us, drags us into the mire, and leaves us standing before God.
Ahab never picked up a stone. Yet the charge lands on him:
Notice that although Jezebel arranged Naboth's death, the Lord holds Ahab responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority. He was willing to profit from her wrongdoing, so the Lord charges him with the murder. The guilt went home to Ahab, to the craving of his own heart. He had let it draw him on to covet his neighbour's property... Who can hide himself or his sins from the all-searching eye of God?
This is not the first time Ahab has blamed Elijah for his own ruin. Earlier he called him the man who troubles Israel; now the accusation narrows:
Ahab took correction the way most wicked men do. He looked on the fearless messenger of God as an enemy. "Have you found me, O my enemy?" he asks. "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" he had asked the faithful prophet on an earlier occasion. This time he cannot tie the nation into his guilt with him. So he admits that the prophet's ministry is personal, and calls the prophet his enemy — not the nation's.
Ahab had already chosen his friend, and that choice decided who his enemy was:
Ahab says to Elijah: "Have you found me, O my enemy?" Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; he finds God to be his enemy.
"Sold yourself" is slave-market language, and the New Testament picks it up:
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" cries out, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word here for "sold" is piprasko. Used of a person, it means "to sell into slavery." The Greek Old Testament uses it figuratively for selling oneself to sin: of Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25... So Paul may have had these in mind when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not only the apostle Paul's experience. It is the condition of us all, though we may only discover it when the light of the gospel shines on our fallen state.
The sentence comes in three parts, and Ahab's reaction is a surprise:
Ahab then had to listen to as terrible a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It came in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer... (2) His whole family must perish, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family; God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs... Ahab was a hardened sinner, yet the words overwhelmed him as he listened. He tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his body, and went about quietly... The God of all grace responded to Ahab's humbling of himself, and postponed most of the sentence.
- Sold. The verb is slave-market language. Ahab did not drift into evil; he handed himself over to it. Romans uses the same word for the condition we are all in.
- Found. Sin arranges privacy, but there is no hiding place. Ahab thought a prophet had tracked him down; it was God.
- Charged. He let someone else do the murder and kept the profit, so the guilt went home to the craving in his own heart.
- Enemy. Ahab called God's servant his enemy, but he had already chosen Satan as his friend — and so he found God to be his enemy.
- Spared. Even a hardened sinner bows, and God postpones most of the sentence — grace reaches further than we expect.
Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male, and him that is shut up and left in Israel;
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard the king has just taken over, and the message he brings reaches past Ahab to every male in his family. It raises hard questions: why Ahab and not Jezebel, why the whole household, and why the delay?
One writer explains why the sentence names Ahab and not only his wife.
Notice that although Jezebel had brought about Naboth's death, Ahab is held responsible for the crime. Because he allowed another to act under his authority, and was willing to profit from her wrongdoing, the Lord charges him with the murder. So the guilt of the act was tracked home to Ahab, to the desire of his own heart, which he had let draw him on to covet his neighbour's property.
To sell yourself is to hand over ownership of your life. One writer shows what that ownership looked like in Ahab's own choices.
He could have enjoyed himself among Jezebel's idolatrous prophets, if the horrors of famine had not driven him out. Then he did not search out the cause of the famine in real self-judgement and humility. He did not seek pardon and restoration from God. Instead he went out in unrepentant selfishness to look for grass. He had sold himself to do wickedness; he had become the slave of Jezebel.
One commentator sets out the three parts of the sentence, and the fit between the crime and the penalty.
Ahab then had to listen to as terrible a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Those two names carried a history. What happened to Baasha's house shows what Ahab now faced.
His murderer Zimri at once began to massacre "all the house of Baasha." He spared none, "neither his relatives nor his friends." It was complete extermination, exactly as God had determined it should be.
The account pauses right after the sentence to explain itself.
The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the completion of a long guilty course. There was none like Ahab. He sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, with Jezebel his wife stirring him up. He even matched the Amorites in his wicked excesses — those whom the Lord drove out before the children of Israel. In this way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
God answered a movement in the king's heart by moving the date of the judgment, not by cancelling it.
Sent by God to meet the king, Elijah goes ahead of him into the vineyard which Ahab went down to take possession of. The king's heart bows before the word of the Lord. God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. Here is fresh proof of the patience of a God who is always ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
Delayed, but not dropped. Years later the words came true on the very ground where Naboth died.
For this deed the Lord, through His prophet, pronounces judgment on Ahab and his house. Blow after blow, He makes a full end of them. The blood of Ahab, the blood of Joram his son, and the blood of Jezebel are shed in the plot of Jezreel. Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, is called out to finish this judgment. He is to be the avenger of blood, and to cleanse the land that the blood had polluted.
- Charged. Jezebel brought about Naboth's death, but the Lord charged Ahab: he let her act under his authority and was ready to profit from it.
- Sold. The ground of the sentence is not one murder but a whole life handed over. Ahab had become the slave of the woman who stirred him up.
- Threefold. The judgment falls on the man, on his whole family line, and on Jezebel; he had wiped out Naboth's family, and God would wipe out his.
- Delayed. The king's heart bowed before the word, and God pushed the blow into his son's days — proof that He responds to any movement of the heart towards Him.
- Fulfilled. Postponement was not pardon: blow after blow, in the same plot of ground at Jezreel, God carried out the word to the letter.
and I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he has just stolen. The sentence does not stop at the king: it reaches his whole family. God names two earlier royal houses as the measure of what is coming, and He gives two reasons. Ahab had provoked Him, and Ahab had dragged the nation into sin.
One writer sets out the three parts of Ahab's sentence. He also shows how the punishment matched the crime.
Ahab then had to listen to as fearful a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster on you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Ahab did not have to guess what the comparison meant. Within living memory, a man named Zimri had wiped out Baasha's whole line.
His murderer Zimri at once began to massacre "all the house of Baasha." He spared none, "neither of his relatives nor of his friends." It was complete extermination, just as God had ordained it should be.
What Jeroboam did at the start of his reign explains the phrase. He wanted to stop his people travelling to Jerusalem to worship, so he built them a religion of his own.
Judging by human wisdom and forgetting the fear of Jehovah, he made two golden calves. His aim was to break the strong links of a worship held in common, so that they would no longer tie his subjects to Judah and Jerusalem. He had to set up a new priesthood. He invented everything to do with worship out of his own heart. Israel's sin became an established rule. The phrase "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" became the sad title of their first king.
Baasha's house had already fallen under such a sentence. One writer names what lay behind it.
The record adds an extra verse to emphasize that God judged Baasha and his family because of his idolatries and his murder of the house of Jeroboam. God, who looks on the heart, sees him only as an assassin serving his own ambition, killing king Nadab and the whole house of Jeroboam.
Jezebel arranged Naboth's death, not Ahab. One writer explains why God still charges the murder to the king.
Though Jezebel had procured the death of Naboth, Ahab is held responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was willing to profit by her wrongdoing, so the Lord charges him with the murder. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of the sentence; but even this foul crime was only the completion of a long guilty course. There was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He even matched the Amorites in his wicked excesses — those whom the Lord drove out before the children of Israel. In this way the Lord, for our instruction, will condescend to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
Ahab's heart bowed at what he heard, and God answered that. He did not cancel the sentence on the house; He moved it back a generation.
The king's heart bows before the word of Jehovah, and the judgment is put off until the days of his son. This is a new proof of God's longsuffering. He is ever ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
The sentence did not fall for years. One writer measures the gap.
At last, after more than fifteen years' delay, the blood of Naboth, crying, like Abel's, for vengeance from the ground, was about to be repaid. God, when judging men, is never in haste. He allowed Jezebel to outlive, not only her husband, but his two successors.
- The pattern. God wiped out two earlier royal houses, Jeroboam's and Baasha's. He tells Ahab his own house will go the same way.
- The phrase. "Made Israel to sin" became Jeroboam's lasting title. He invented a worship out of his own heart to keep people away from Jerusalem.
- The provocation. The same two charges sank Baasha: his idolatries and his murder. Ahab repeats both, and takes Naboth's vineyard on top.
- The pause. Ahab's heart bowed, and God delayed the blow to his son's days. He responds to any turning of the heart toward Him.
- The payment. Fifteen years later the blood of Naboth was repaid. God is never in a hurry when He judges.
And of Jezebel also spoke Jehovah saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jizreel.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he stole from Naboth, and God's sentence falls on the whole house. One line of it belongs to Queen Jezebel alone — so why is she named, and what becomes of a judgment that waits years to fall?
This is not just about a murder. It is about the inheritance God gave to every Israelite, and Elijah is the man He sends to say so.
In 1 Kings 21:17 and following, Elijah meets Ahab at Naboth's vineyard. Without fear he denounces him, and declares the judgment of God against him and against Jezebel also. The blessed God uses him to say how grievous it is in His sight when anyone — and even more a prominent person — deprives any of His people of their divine portion and inheritance. Such an act will draw down the severest judgment.
God's sentence has three parts. The words about Jezebel come last, after the king himself and his family.
Ahab then had to listen to as fearful a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Ahab was the king, but not the stronger of the two. That explains his ruin; it does not excuse it.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! … When Elijah announced God's sentence on him after the murder of Naboth, we read that he "tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly." This was excellent, and the LORD so far relented towards him that the judgment was at least deferred. No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness; still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all. "There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited." But he should never have married the woman!
God put Jezebel's judgment off for years, as He had put off Ahab's. The delay changes nothing about the outcome.
The joy he longed for gives way to that horrible curse, which sounds again and again through this sad history of Israel. … And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel." The judgment foretold waits for her (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.
Years later Jehu ordered her buried as royalty. The order failed, and that failure proved the word spoken here.
The will of man has little to do with the accomplishment of the word of God. Jehu, now at the height of his power, softens a little towards this wicked woman Jezebel. He even says, "See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." But what had God said? The prophet had said, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her." … They went to bury her. Their purpose was to obey him. In vain. They found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
The name does not die with her. The last book of the Bible picks it up again and applies it to something wider than one queen.
Jezebel! One of the most sinister figures in the Word of God! This wicked woman did incalculable damage among God's chosen earthly people in the days of Elijah's testimony. That is not all. The Holy Spirit also uses her name in Revelation 2:20 as the symbol of a frightful system of evil, and that system has forced its way into a more sacred circle than Israel ever was.
The same writer traces her end to the end of the system that carries her name:
Ahab's Jezebel had a gruesome end. That which has reproduced her outrages, and practised them in the name of "the holy one, the true one," will have a fearful end also. Meanwhile God wants all who love His truth to stand in firm separation from everything that even hints at Jezebel and Babylon.
- Cause. Ahab robbed Naboth of the inheritance God gave him. God brings the severest judgment on anyone who strips His people of their divine portion.
- Named. Ahab sold himself, but Jezebel incited him. Weakness excuses no one, and the stronger partner gets a sentence of her own.
- Delayed. Ahab humbled himself, so God deferred the blow — for him and for her. A delay never means the word has failed.
- Fulfilled. Jehu ordered her buried as a king's daughter. Almost nothing was left to bury: man's will cannot undo God's word.
- Repeated. The name reappears in Revelation as a symbol. Its end is just as certain, so stand clear of everything like her.
Him that dieth of Ahab in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he has just seized. The prophet's closing words reach past the king to every male in his family: dogs in the city, birds in the open country. Two questions follow. Why was the penalty so severe, and would God's word really come true?
The verse splits Ahab's family by where they die. What matters is what happens to the body next.
As to Ahab's family, he is told that the dogs would eat any of those who died in the city and the birds would eat any who died in the field (v.24). None of them would be allowed the dignity of a burial. What a message for a king of Israel to receive!
This was not a fresh form of words invented for Ahab. The same sentence had fallen twice before on ruling families in Israel.
That horrible curse takes the place of the joy he longed for. The curse sounds again and again all through this sad history of Israel. This was the judgment of Jeroboam, and the judgment of Baasha, in the very same words (v. 24; compare 1 Kings 14:11; 1 Kings 16:4). And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jezreel" (v. 23). Her own judgment waits until later (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.
The story stops right after the sentence. One writer reads that pause as God explaining why.
Sentence on Ahab had already gone out (v. 19). Now Elijah speaks the doom of his house (vv. 21, 22, 24), and the special judgment of Jezebel. Right after describing the stroke of justice about to fall on Ahab, his house, and Jezebel, the Spirit of God breaks off the story with a short aside (vv. 25, 26). There He gives a brief summary of the grounds for the sentence. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the finish of a long guilty course… In such a way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
The same writer explains why the sentence fell on the king, and why it was so harsh.
Notice this. Jezebel had arranged the death of Naboth, yet God holds Ahab responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was glad to profit by her wrongdoing. So the Lord charges him with the murder. In this way the guilt tracks home to Ahab. It tracks to the desire of his own heart, which he had let draw him on to covet his neighbour's property. This is why the sentence Elijah was sent to pronounce was so severe. Innocent blood had been shed without cause. God looked on it, and required it from the guilty king.
Dogs appear in the sentence because dogs had already appeared in the crime. One writer treats this as a pattern running through Scripture.
A favourite sin must be put away, or in the end it will bring grief and shame. The punishment is often of the same kind as the wrongdoing that caused it. Scripture gives many examples. Jacob deceived his father when the old man could not see. Later, in the darkness, the crafty father of Leah deceived Jacob… In the place where the dogs licked the blood of the murdered Naboth, the dogs licked the blood of Ahab, his murderer. As we sow, so we reap, and we see this general principle of God's government.
Ahab humbled himself, and God took notice. One writer marks carefully what that changed and what it did not.
Who can measure the depths of the patience and mercy of the Lord! … Ahab's humbling was only passing, yet for that reason God put off the judgment on Ahab's house until his son's days. (We are here in the sphere of God's government on earth.) The personal judgment on Ahab himself and on Jezebel He carried out to the letter. So there was a day of grace even for Ahab.
Years later Jehu stood over the bodies of Ahab's sons and pointed back to this prophecy.
"Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what He said by His servant Elijah." So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel… So the word of the Lord was most fully accomplished.
- Word spoken. The same sentence had already fallen on Jeroboam and on Baasha. Ahab's house joins a list; it does not get a new penalty.
- Word justified. God pauses the story to give His grounds. Jezebel arranged the murder, but Ahab's own desire drove it, and the crime crowned a long guilty course.
- Word matched. Where dogs licked Naboth's blood, dogs would lick Ahab's; the punishment takes the shape of the sin.
- Word delayed. Ahab humbled himself, and God noticed: the blow on his house waited until his son's days.
- Word fulfilled. Nothing of it fell to the ground. Delay was mercy; it was never cancellation.
(Surely there was none like to Ahab, who did sell himself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, Jezebel his wife urging him on.
This verse steps out of the story to give God's own verdict on Ahab. It comes just after Elijah announced the sentence for Naboth's murder. Two things stand out: Ahab sold himself, and his wife pushed him into it.
Here the seller and the goods are the same man. One writer traces the word through the Greek Old Testament and into Paul's cry in Romans 7.
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" exclaims, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word used here for "sold" is piprasko. Used of a person, it means "to sell into slavery." The Greek Old Testament uses it as a picture of selling oneself to sin: of Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25, and in 2 Kings 17:17. So Paul may have had these in mind when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not the experience of the apostle Paul only. It is the condition of us all, though we may discover it only when the light of the gospel shines upon our fallen state.
The story pauses here to sum up the man himself. One writer weighs that summary and explains the Hebrew behind "incited".
His moral character, as given in the parenthetical passage of 1 Kings 21:25-26, is a terribly dark one… "whom Jezebel his wife stirred up" (urged on, in Hebrew). In his extreme wickedness he was a true brother — or friend — of his father Omri.
Ahab's idolatry did not stop at Baal. He also craved a piece of land next door, and one writer gives that craving its real name.
Fresh circumstances show us the king's moral condition. Covetousness overruns his heart, an eager greed for something God had not given him. Now this is idolatry just as much as the worship of Baal is (Colossians 3:5). Ahab, dominated by the enemy, has simply passed from one form of idolatry to another.
Naming his wife does not shift the guilt off Ahab — the verse says he sold himself. Yet God records her part too. One writer weighs her influence against Ahab's own guilt.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! 1 Kings 21:27 suggests that his whole life might have run differently if his wife had been an Abigail instead of Jezebel… No man's weak character excuses his wickedness. Still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all… But he should never have married the woman!
Ahab met Elijah in the vineyard he had just taken, and called him an enemy. One writer shows whose friend Ahab had really become.
Ahab says to Elijah: "Have you found me, O my enemy?" Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; he finds God to be his enemy. In the very place where he expected satisfaction, he finds nothing he had hoped for. Instead God stands before him, represented by His prophet, and says: "Have you killed and also taken possession?" Others had done the killing; God holds Ahab accountable.
The verdict is crushing, yet the chapter does not end there. One writer traces what happened in Ahab after Elijah spoke.
The words of the prophet rang in his soul like a funeral bell. They reached at least his natural conscience, and produced a passing repentance (v. 27). Who can fathom the depths of the patience and mercy of the Lord!… And because of this, though it was only a passing humiliation, God put off the judgment on Ahab's house until his son's days. So there was a day of grace even for Ahab.
- Sold. The word pictures a man selling himself into slavery. It is the same word behind "sold under sin" — a state one writer applies to every one of us.
- Seller. Ahab set his own price: a neighbour's vineyard. Greed for what God had not given him was idolatry just as much as Baal worship.
- Stirrer. Jezebel urged him on, and God records it. But influence is never an excuse — the verse says he sold himself.
- Snared. He called the prophet his enemy after making Satan his friend. God met him in the very place he had schemed to enjoy.
- Spared. Even this king repented for a moment, and God took note. He put off the judgment on Ahab's house. There was a day of grace even for Ahab.
And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.)
Ahab's story pauses here for a verdict. One line sums up his whole reign. The measure is not other kings of Israel but the Amorites — the people God had already driven out of that same land for the same sin.
Verses 25 and 26 interrupt the story on purpose. One commentator explains why the break comes at this point.
Right after describing the stroke of justice about to fall on Ahab, his house, and Jezebel, the Spirit of God breaks off the story with a short parenthesis (verses 25, 26). It gives a brief summary of the grounds for the sentence. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the completion of a long guilty course. There was none like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He even matched the Amorites in his wicked excesses — and the Lord had cast those nations out before the children of Israel. In this way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
Going after idols left Ahab serving another master. One writer traces the bargain: Jezebel offered him what God would not give, and then took his authority.
When a man has sold his soul to Satan, as Ahab had, Satan does not fail to make him all sorts of promises. He is the tempter. What God does not want to give you, I'll give you. Leave it to me; I shall give you the vineyard. Ahab leaves it to her, because he sees that he will get what he wants. Jezebel says she "will give him," but meanwhile she takes his authority, his royal right: "She wrote a letter in Ahab's name, and sealed it with his seal." Ahab has turned into her slave.
The verse before names the person who pushed him. That does not clear Ahab. One writer traces the trouble back to a decision he made long before the vineyard.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! 1 Kings 21:27 suggests that his whole course might have been different if his wife had been an Abigail instead of Jezebel… No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness. Still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all… But he should never have married the woman!
Why compare a king of Israel to the Amorites? One writer cites this verse when he explains why God emptied Canaan of its nations.
He had told Abraham years before, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Gen. 15:16). But now the time had come when it was complete. Idolatry and demon worship had risen to such a height that there was no hope of recovery (1 Kings 21:26).
God warned Israel that the land itself reacts to these sins. Being His own people would make the offence heavier, not lighter.
Israel must not make themselves unclean in any of these things, as all the nations of Canaan did — the nations He cast out before them. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land became unclean, and so He brought judgment on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. Israel must beware… lest the land should vomit them out, as it had the nations that lived there before Israel. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and more offensive in His own people than in anyone else.
Even a man described this way was not beyond God's reach. One writer notes what happened to the sentence once Ahab bowed before God's word.
The king's heart bows before the word of Jehovah, and God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. Here is new proof of the patience of a God who is always ready to accept and answer any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
- Sold. Ahab's evil was not a slip but a sale. He sold himself, and ended up a slave to Jezebel.
- Stirred. Jezebel stirred him up, and God takes account of it. Still, weakness of character never excuses wickedness.
- Standard. God measured him against the Amorites, whose idolatry had reached the point of no recovery.
- Sentence. The land had already vomited out nations for these sins. Israel copying them was guiltier, not safer.
- Space. Even to the worst of kings God gave room — judgment postponed the moment Ahab bowed.
And it came to pass when Ahab heard these words, that he rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
Elijah has just told Ahab God's sentence for the murder of Naboth, and the king answers with sackcloth and fasting. Is this real repentance, and what does God do with a sorrow that may be only skin-deep?
Every detail in the verse paints mourning. Older translations say Ahab "went softly" where the ESV has "went about dejectedly." One writer takes that slow walk as the step of a man in a house of grief:
What does Ahab do? He humbles himself. He goes about afflicted, mourning, and fasting (vv. 27-29). He lies down in the sackcloth he has put on his flesh. He "went softly," as one does in a funeral home. Where is his pride and his merry heart, and even his sadness of the wrong kind and his bad temper? Nothing remains but endless mourning as he faces a fate he cannot escape.
What startles the reader is not Ahab's sackcloth but God's answer to it. Even Elijah may have thought less of it than God did:
God knows the end from the beginning. What is most striking in this story is that He was not indifferent to Ahab's humbling of himself. That humbling was only brief and shallow, but God, as far as is righteous, took account of it. Elijah was, perhaps, not inclined to think much of it... How much the grace of God surpasses our thoughts!
The same readiness shows in what God then did with the sentence:
The king's heart bows before the word of the Lord, and God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. Here is new proof of His patience. He is always ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
It is easy to read God's answer as full forgiveness. One writer draws a sharp line:
This had nothing to do with the saving of his soul. As far as this history tells us, he died in his sins. But God forgave him as to that particular judgment on the earth.
The judgment itself was not cancelled. It would fall on Ahab's house in his son's days.
So how deep did this sorrow go? One writer draws the line between the look of repentance and the real thing:
There may be a semblance of repentance which is not, after all, a real work of the Spirit of God. Fear of coming judgment often moves the natural man to dress himself in sackcloth and ashes for a season. But if the conscience is not reached, and if there is no repentance towards God, all such feelings soon pass away. They are like the morning dew when the sun rises. God is never deceived.
Worse, mercy can harden instead of soften:
Nature can take warnings and steer its course to escape the worst of judgment, without being softened into true repentance at all... An Ahab might walk softly for many years and put off the evil day of reckoning about his murder of Naboth. But Ahab with all his soft walking was Ahab still, unrepentant and hardened. The very goodness of God in sparing him did not melt him to repentance. It only encouraged him to go on in his turning away from God.
Commentators differ on the value of Ahab's act. Another writer weighs it more kindly, and blames much on Ahab's marriage:
This verse suggests that his whole course might have been different if his wife had been an Abigail instead of Jezebel... This was excellent, and the Lord so far relented towards him that He at least put the judgment off. No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness. Still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all.
- Sentence. Elijah's word shook Ahab into sorrow. He tore his clothes, fasted, and walked like a mourner.
- Notice. God did not overlook it. He takes account of the smallest turn of a man's heart towards Himself.
- Mercy. God put off the judgment. It would fall on Ahab's house in his son's days instead.
- Limit. This forgiveness touched God's rule over the earth, not the saving of Ahab's soul. So far as the record shows, he died in his sins.
- Warning. Fear of judgment can dress a man in sackcloth for a season. But where the conscience is untouched, the feeling fades and the spared time only hardens.
And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.
Elijah had already brought Ahab God's sentence on him and on his family. Then the king tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. This verse is God's reply. It raises two questions. How real was Ahab's humbling? And what did God agree to hold back?
Look first at what Ahab did, and then at what God made of it.
What does Ahab do? He humbles himself. He goes about afflicted, mourning, and fasting (vv. 27-29). He lies down in the sackcloth he has put on his body. He "went softly," as one does in a funeral home. Where is his pride and his merry heart, and even his sadness of the wrong kind and his frustration? Nothing remains but unbounded mourning in the face of his inevitable fate. Is this conversion? The next chapter will give us the answer, but in the meantime, what a merciful God is our God! If He uncovers the evil, He also notices the slightest return of a soul to what is good. He takes account of the least sign of repentance… Not one bit of His Word will fall to the ground. But the judgment will wait until the days of his heir.
The chapter that follows settles the question Ahab's sackcloth raised. His sorrow lasted as long as the fright did.
Unexpectedly, this man bowed before the announcement of divine judgment… Would this good action be followed up? Would there be an attitude that showed repentance? Sadly, we have to note that there was not. In chapter 22 it was he again who hated and persecuted the prophet of Jehovah. God made him die by an arrow fired at random, which pierced him through a weak point in his armour. The fear of judgment seemed for a moment to have brought about the conversion of this man. But Satan managed to trap his prey and erase the effect of the Word of God. He died rejected by God.
Even so, God did not treat that shallow sorrow as nothing.
God lets human wickedness run its full course before the judgment falls… If He sees even an Ahab putting on sackcloth and walking softly before Him, He holds back from judgment. With Ahab it was mere fear, of course — nothing that God could really accept. Yet it was enough to turn aside, for the moment, the wrath that was ready to fall.
The concession is limited. It touches the family, not the man. It moves the timing, not the sentence.
How it ended proves that this was not genuine repentance towards God. Yet nothing could more strikingly reveal the tender grace of the heart of God than the notice He took of these signs of Ahab's sorrow. "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?" He said to Elijah. Then He revealed to the prophet that because Ahab had humbled himself, the sentence on his house would be postponed until after Ahab's death — until his son's days. That was not the sentence on Ahab or Jezebel, but the sentence on the king's house and descendants. What could prove more conclusively the longing of God's heart over the wickedest of men? or that He does not desire the death of a sinner?
The delay says nothing about where Ahab stood before God for eternity.
When God had pronounced a terrible judgment on Ahab for his wickedness, Ahab humbled himself. God then said to Elijah, who had carried the message to him, "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?…" This had nothing to do with the saving of his soul. As far as this history tells us, he died in his sins. But God forgave him as far as that particular judgment on the earth was concerned.
A postponed sentence is still a sentence. The blow fell later, on the family named.
Still, Ahab humbled himself. As a result the judgment waits. The word of the Lord meets his trembling heart as he humbled himself and walked softly. The blow was only to fall in the days of his sons. Ahab reigns; his next son reigns too. On Jehoram it falls. The word of the Lord never fails.
- Sentence. God pronounced a terrible judgment on Ahab for his wickedness. Elijah carried the message to him.
- Sackcloth. Ahab tore his clothes, fasted and went softly. It was real distress, but fear produced it, not repentance. He later persecuted the same prophet and died in his sins.
- Seen. God pointed the change out to Elijah. He notices the slightest turn of a soul towards good, even when that turn is not real repentance.
- Stayed. God moved the disaster on Ahab's house and descendants past his own lifetime. The sentences on Ahab and Jezebel stood. His soul was not in view: this was forgiveness about a judgment on the earth.
- Settled. The delay was not a cancellation. The blow fell on his son, and the word of the Lord never fails.