[710]Comp. 1 Sam. vii. 12.[711]For it is indirectly mentioned that "his father" had taken cities from Omri.[712]LXX., Exod. iii. 16.[713]Comp. Josh. ix. 18; Judg. xi. 11.[714]1 Kings xx. 10. Elohim here, doubtless, means the false gods of Benhadad. Vat. LXX., ὁ θεός; but Chaldee, "the terrors."[715]"Fanfaronnade, qui veut dire; je réduirai cette bicoque en poussière; j'ai avee moi plus de monde qu'il ne faudra pour l'emporter tout entière" (Reuss). Comp. Herod., viii. 226, where Dieneces answers the braggart vaunt of the Medes.[716]Reuss renders it, "Ceignant n'est pas encore gaignant." The proverb resembles in different aspects the precept of Solon, τέρμα ὁρᾶν βιότοιο, and "Praise a fair day at night"; and the Italian, "Capo ha cosa fatta"; and the Latin, "Ne triumphum canas ante victoriam"; and the French, "Il ne faut pas vendre le peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué."[717]A.V., "pavilions"; but the word (sukkoth) implies that they were temporary booths rather than tents. They resembled the birchwood pavilions made for the Turkish pachas in campaigns (Keil).[718]A.V., "Set yourselves in array." LXX., οἰκοδομήσατε χάρακα; Vulg.,circumdate civitatem.[719]Now in the British Museum.[720]1 Kings xx. 14 (נַעָרִים).[721]Jarchi—more Rabbinico—says that these were the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal.[722]1 Kings xx. 20, LXX., καὶ ἐδευτέρωσεν ἒκαστος τὸν παῤ αὐτοῦ.[723]Or, "pell-mell." The Hebrew in 1 Kings xx. 20 is, עַל־סוּס וּפָרָשִׁים, "on a horse with (some) horsemen." Klostermann would supply הוּא. Jonathan takes וּפָרָשִׁים as a dual—"and two riders with him"; LXX., ἐφ' ἵππων ἱππέων; Vulg.,in equo cum equitibus suis; Luther, "sammt Rossen und Reitern."[724]See 2 Sam. xi. 1. The custom of all countries in the ancient world was to devote the summer months only to campaigns. There were few or no standing armies, and the citizen-conscripts had to look after their farms, or the nation would have starved. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians introduced a gradual revolution in these respects.[725]1 Kings xx. 24. LXX., σατράπας.[726]R.V., "and were victualled," not, as in A.V., "and were all present." Alex. LXX., διοικήθησαν; Vulg.,acceptis cibariis.[727]Why two? No explanation is given. It has been conjectured that Judah had sent a separate contingent to help them in their distress.[728]Some have supposed that an earthquake occurred, and Canon Rawlinson mentions (Speaker's Commentary) that the earthquake of Lisbon is said to have destroyed sixty thousand persons in five minutes.[729]חֶדֶר בְּחֶדֶר. Comp. for similar phrases, (Heb.) Lev. xxv. 53; Deut. xv. 20; 1 Kings xxii. 25; 2 Chron. xxviii. 26. Klostermann, with one of his amazing conjectures, reads "by the spring Harod in Harod"! LXX., εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ κοιτῶνος, εἰς τὸ ταμεῖον; Vulg.,in cubiculum quod erat intra cubiculum. Josephus makes it a cellar (εἰς ὑπόγαιον οἶκον ἐκρύβη), "like the modernserdaubsin which the inhabitants of many Eastern cities live in the summer" (Rawlinson).[730]The accidental sigh of the engineer was sufficient to prevent the colossal Egyptian statue of a Pharaoh from being moved to its destination. Even Rome shared the immemorial superstition.[731]Suet.,Claud.[732]xx. 33, יֲנִחֲשׁוּ, from נַחַשׁ, "an augury"; LXX., ἀνελέξαντο τὸν λόγον (οἰωνίσαντο); Vulg.,quod acceperunt viri pro omine.[733]Layard,Nineveh, 317-19.[734]The compact is vainly dignified with the name of a בְרִית, or "covenant."[735]חֻצֹות. Compare theLombardStreets, and theJewriesin London and Paris.[736]Clericus says, rightly: "Factum Ahabi, quamvis clementiæ speciem præ se ferret, non erat veræ clementiæ, quæ non est erga latrones exercenda; qui si dimittantur multo magis nocebunt."[737]The object and necessity of this for his purpose is by no means apparent. Perhaps it was to figure the wound which Ahab had by his conduct wilfully inflicted on himself or on Israel.[738]Verse 38. This, and not "with ashes upon his face," is the meaning of the Hebrew אֲפֵר. LXX., τελαμών, "a headband"; Vulg.,aspersione pulveris; and so, too, Peshito, Aquila, and Symmachus.[739]1 Kings xx. 39. שַׂר in the sense of סַר, according to Ewald's reading.[740]About £350. Evidently, therefore, the captive is supposed to be a very important person.[741]אִישׁ חֵרְמִי.[742]סַר וְזָעֵף; Vulg.,indignans, et frendens, a phrase only used of Ahab (xxi. 4-5). Josephus (Antt., XIII. xv. 5) says that Ahab imprisoned and punished the prophet, whom, with the Rabbis, he identifies with Micaiah.[743]Zech. xiii. 4.[744]On this defection and imposture of prophets, see Jer. xxiii. 21-40. Isa. xxx. 9, 10; Ezek. xiii. 7-9; Micah ii. 11; Deut. xviii. 20.[745]Jer. xxii. 17.[746]De Gubernat. Dei., viii.; Ambrose,Ep., xli.; Cassian,De Instit. Monastic. passim. See chap. xvi. of myLives of the Fathers(St. Jerome), and Zöckler,Gesch. der Askese, for many authorities.[747]See myLives of the Fathers, vol. i. (St. Martin of Tours).[748]See Jer. xxiii. 20-40.[749]The Alex. LXX. throughout calls Naboth "an Israelite," not "a Jezreelite."[750]Both the Hebrew text of 1 Kings xxi. 1 and Josephus (Antt., XIII. xv. 6) locate the vineyard of Naboth at Jezreel. The LXX., however, place it apparently near the threshing-floor of Ahab in Samaria (παρὰ τῇ ἅλῳ Ἀχαὰβ βασίλεως Σαμαρείας), which is the same as the "void place" of 1 Kings xxii. 10. At both cities Ahab's palace was on the city wall, and on either supposition Naboth's vineyard was close by the palace.[751]Lev. xxv. 23, "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine." Numb. xxxvi. 7; Ezek. xlvi. 18.[752]2 Sam. xxiv. 24; 1 Kings xvi. 24.[753]The word rendered "sad" is rendered "mutinous" by Thenius.[754]LXX., 1 Kings xxi. 7, Σὺ νῦν οὓτως ποιεῖς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ισραήλ·[755]The signet was carved with the king's name. Rawlinson aptly compares Lady Macbeth's "Infirm of purpose give me the daggers!"[756]Josephus calls it an ἐκκλησία. "Set Naboth on high" (Heb.) "at the head of the people"; LXX., ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ λαοῦ; Vulg.,inter primos populi.[757]The charge was that "he cursed God and the king." LXX. (by euphemism), εὐλόγησε; Vulg.,Benedixit. The Hebrew word has both meanings (comp. Exod. xxii. 28, where some would renderElohimnot "God," but "the judges." See marg. of R.V.). Stoning was the punishment of blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 16), and took place outside the city (Acts vii. 58).[758]2 Kings ix. 26.[759]2 Sam. xvi. 4.[760]In 1 Kings xxi. 16 the LXX. curiously says, that "when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead he rent his garments, and clothed himself in sackcloth; and after this he also arose," etc. This mourning for themeansbut acceptance of thefactwould not be in disaccord with Ahab's moral weakness.[761]2 Kings ix. 25, 36.[762]LXX.[763]2 Kings ix. 36. LXX., ἐν τῷ προτειχίσματι. The חֵל of an Eastern city is the desert space outside the walls where the "pariah dogs prowl on the mounds."[764]אַט, LXX., κλαίων; Josephus, Chaldee, and Peshito, "shoeless."[765]1 Kings xxi. 27. καὶ περιεβάλετο σάκκον ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ἐπάταξε Ναβουθαί.[766]Psalm cix. 17, 18.[767]2 Chron. xviii. 2.[768]2 Kings iii. 7.[769]1 Kings xxii. 10 (Peshito).[770]The LXX. has, "The Lord shall deliver into thy handseven the king of Syria." At first they all said, "Adonaishall deliver it"; but afterwards, perhaps stung by the doubts of Jehoshaphat, or encouraged by the audacity of Zedekiah, they said, "Jehovahshall deliver it."[771]Deut. xxxiii. 17. "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people altogether to the ends of the earth."[772]The LXX., omitting "besides," implies Jehoshaphat's opinion that these were not true prophets of Jehovah. So, too, the Vulg., "Non est hicpropheta Domini quispiam?"[773]Compare Agamemnon's bitter complaint of Calchas.[774]1 Kings xxii. 9. LXX., εὐνοῦχον ἔνα. And this is probably the meaning of סָרִיס, not "officer," as in A.V.[775]For he had seventy sons, besides daughters (2 Kings x. 7)[776]The words implied that the king would fall, though the army would escape (1 Kings xxii. 17, בְּשָׁלוֹם). Comp. Numb. xxvii. 16, 17 "Let the Lord ... set a man over the congregation, ... who may lead them out and in; that thecongregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd."[777]Theodoret explains it as anthropomorphism, and condescension to human modes of speech (προσωποποιΐα τίς ἐστι διδάσκουσα τὴν θείαν συγχώρησιν).[778]1 Kings xxii. 21. It is "the," not "a" spirit,i.e., the unclean spirit of deception (τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης, 1 John iv. 6). Comp. Zech. xiii. 2, "Also I will causethe prophets and the unclean spiritto pass out of the land." St. Paul says in 2 Thess. ii. 11: "God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie."[779]The worst of insults (Job xvi. 10; Lam. iii. 30).[780]The words (verse 28) "And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you," are believed by Nöldeke, Klostermann, and others to be an interpolation from Micah i. 2, by some one who confused Micaiah with Micah. They are omitted in the LXX.[781]We have no reason to accuse Ahab of any bad or selfish motives here. No doubt Micaiah's prophecy of his approaching death had made him anxious. If the LXX. reading, "but put thou onmyrobes," were right, the case would be different.[782]We see in this order a trace of the single combats which mark the Homeric battles.[783]2 Chron. xviii. 31: "And the Lord helped him, and God moved them from him."[784]So Jarchi. Josephus calls him Aman.[785]1 Kings xxii. 34. "At a venture"; marg., "in his simplicity"; comp. 2 Sam. xv. 11.[786]What the French callle défaut de la cuirasse(Keil). Luther has,zwischen den Panzer und Hengel.[787]Josephus,Antt., VIII. xv. 6.[788]Köster thinks that there may be reference to the fact that the name "dog" was given to the unchaste.[789]Amos iii. 15; Psalm xlv. 8; Hom.,Od., iv. 72.[790]It is supposed that Mohammed alludes to Elijah in the Qur'an,Suraxxi. 85: "And Ishmael, and Idris, andDhu'l Kifl("he of the portion")—all these were of the patient; and we made them enter into our mercy; verily they were among the righteous" (Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 53).[791]See W. Robertson Smith,Journ. of Philology, x. 20.[792]See Reuss,Hist. d'Israel, i. 101-103.
[710]Comp. 1 Sam. vii. 12.
[711]For it is indirectly mentioned that "his father" had taken cities from Omri.
[712]LXX., Exod. iii. 16.
[713]Comp. Josh. ix. 18; Judg. xi. 11.
[714]1 Kings xx. 10. Elohim here, doubtless, means the false gods of Benhadad. Vat. LXX., ὁ θεός; but Chaldee, "the terrors."
[715]"Fanfaronnade, qui veut dire; je réduirai cette bicoque en poussière; j'ai avee moi plus de monde qu'il ne faudra pour l'emporter tout entière" (Reuss). Comp. Herod., viii. 226, where Dieneces answers the braggart vaunt of the Medes.
[716]Reuss renders it, "Ceignant n'est pas encore gaignant." The proverb resembles in different aspects the precept of Solon, τέρμα ὁρᾶν βιότοιο, and "Praise a fair day at night"; and the Italian, "Capo ha cosa fatta"; and the Latin, "Ne triumphum canas ante victoriam"; and the French, "Il ne faut pas vendre le peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué."
[717]A.V., "pavilions"; but the word (sukkoth) implies that they were temporary booths rather than tents. They resembled the birchwood pavilions made for the Turkish pachas in campaigns (Keil).
[718]A.V., "Set yourselves in array." LXX., οἰκοδομήσατε χάρακα; Vulg.,circumdate civitatem.
[719]Now in the British Museum.
[720]1 Kings xx. 14 (נַעָרִים).
[721]Jarchi—more Rabbinico—says that these were the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
[722]1 Kings xx. 20, LXX., καὶ ἐδευτέρωσεν ἒκαστος τὸν παῤ αὐτοῦ.
[723]Or, "pell-mell." The Hebrew in 1 Kings xx. 20 is, עַל־סוּס וּפָרָשִׁים, "on a horse with (some) horsemen." Klostermann would supply הוּא. Jonathan takes וּפָרָשִׁים as a dual—"and two riders with him"; LXX., ἐφ' ἵππων ἱππέων; Vulg.,in equo cum equitibus suis; Luther, "sammt Rossen und Reitern."
[724]See 2 Sam. xi. 1. The custom of all countries in the ancient world was to devote the summer months only to campaigns. There were few or no standing armies, and the citizen-conscripts had to look after their farms, or the nation would have starved. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians introduced a gradual revolution in these respects.
[725]1 Kings xx. 24. LXX., σατράπας.
[726]R.V., "and were victualled," not, as in A.V., "and were all present." Alex. LXX., διοικήθησαν; Vulg.,acceptis cibariis.
[727]Why two? No explanation is given. It has been conjectured that Judah had sent a separate contingent to help them in their distress.
[728]Some have supposed that an earthquake occurred, and Canon Rawlinson mentions (Speaker's Commentary) that the earthquake of Lisbon is said to have destroyed sixty thousand persons in five minutes.
[729]חֶדֶר בְּחֶדֶר. Comp. for similar phrases, (Heb.) Lev. xxv. 53; Deut. xv. 20; 1 Kings xxii. 25; 2 Chron. xxviii. 26. Klostermann, with one of his amazing conjectures, reads "by the spring Harod in Harod"! LXX., εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ κοιτῶνος, εἰς τὸ ταμεῖον; Vulg.,in cubiculum quod erat intra cubiculum. Josephus makes it a cellar (εἰς ὑπόγαιον οἶκον ἐκρύβη), "like the modernserdaubsin which the inhabitants of many Eastern cities live in the summer" (Rawlinson).
[730]The accidental sigh of the engineer was sufficient to prevent the colossal Egyptian statue of a Pharaoh from being moved to its destination. Even Rome shared the immemorial superstition.
[731]Suet.,Claud.
[732]xx. 33, יֲנִחֲשׁוּ, from נַחַשׁ, "an augury"; LXX., ἀνελέξαντο τὸν λόγον (οἰωνίσαντο); Vulg.,quod acceperunt viri pro omine.
[733]Layard,Nineveh, 317-19.
[734]The compact is vainly dignified with the name of a בְרִית, or "covenant."
[735]חֻצֹות. Compare theLombardStreets, and theJewriesin London and Paris.
[736]Clericus says, rightly: "Factum Ahabi, quamvis clementiæ speciem præ se ferret, non erat veræ clementiæ, quæ non est erga latrones exercenda; qui si dimittantur multo magis nocebunt."
[737]The object and necessity of this for his purpose is by no means apparent. Perhaps it was to figure the wound which Ahab had by his conduct wilfully inflicted on himself or on Israel.
[738]Verse 38. This, and not "with ashes upon his face," is the meaning of the Hebrew אֲפֵר. LXX., τελαμών, "a headband"; Vulg.,aspersione pulveris; and so, too, Peshito, Aquila, and Symmachus.
[739]1 Kings xx. 39. שַׂר in the sense of סַר, according to Ewald's reading.
[740]About £350. Evidently, therefore, the captive is supposed to be a very important person.
[741]אִישׁ חֵרְמִי.
[742]סַר וְזָעֵף; Vulg.,indignans, et frendens, a phrase only used of Ahab (xxi. 4-5). Josephus (Antt., XIII. xv. 5) says that Ahab imprisoned and punished the prophet, whom, with the Rabbis, he identifies with Micaiah.
[743]Zech. xiii. 4.
[744]On this defection and imposture of prophets, see Jer. xxiii. 21-40. Isa. xxx. 9, 10; Ezek. xiii. 7-9; Micah ii. 11; Deut. xviii. 20.
[745]Jer. xxii. 17.
[746]De Gubernat. Dei., viii.; Ambrose,Ep., xli.; Cassian,De Instit. Monastic. passim. See chap. xvi. of myLives of the Fathers(St. Jerome), and Zöckler,Gesch. der Askese, for many authorities.
[747]See myLives of the Fathers, vol. i. (St. Martin of Tours).
[748]See Jer. xxiii. 20-40.
[749]The Alex. LXX. throughout calls Naboth "an Israelite," not "a Jezreelite."
[750]Both the Hebrew text of 1 Kings xxi. 1 and Josephus (Antt., XIII. xv. 6) locate the vineyard of Naboth at Jezreel. The LXX., however, place it apparently near the threshing-floor of Ahab in Samaria (παρὰ τῇ ἅλῳ Ἀχαὰβ βασίλεως Σαμαρείας), which is the same as the "void place" of 1 Kings xxii. 10. At both cities Ahab's palace was on the city wall, and on either supposition Naboth's vineyard was close by the palace.
[751]Lev. xxv. 23, "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine." Numb. xxxvi. 7; Ezek. xlvi. 18.
[752]2 Sam. xxiv. 24; 1 Kings xvi. 24.
[753]The word rendered "sad" is rendered "mutinous" by Thenius.
[754]LXX., 1 Kings xxi. 7, Σὺ νῦν οὓτως ποιεῖς βασιλέα ἐπὶ Ισραήλ·
[755]The signet was carved with the king's name. Rawlinson aptly compares Lady Macbeth's "Infirm of purpose give me the daggers!"
[756]Josephus calls it an ἐκκλησία. "Set Naboth on high" (Heb.) "at the head of the people"; LXX., ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ λαοῦ; Vulg.,inter primos populi.
[757]The charge was that "he cursed God and the king." LXX. (by euphemism), εὐλόγησε; Vulg.,Benedixit. The Hebrew word has both meanings (comp. Exod. xxii. 28, where some would renderElohimnot "God," but "the judges." See marg. of R.V.). Stoning was the punishment of blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 16), and took place outside the city (Acts vii. 58).
[758]2 Kings ix. 26.
[759]2 Sam. xvi. 4.
[760]In 1 Kings xxi. 16 the LXX. curiously says, that "when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead he rent his garments, and clothed himself in sackcloth; and after this he also arose," etc. This mourning for themeansbut acceptance of thefactwould not be in disaccord with Ahab's moral weakness.
[761]2 Kings ix. 25, 36.
[762]LXX.
[763]2 Kings ix. 36. LXX., ἐν τῷ προτειχίσματι. The חֵל of an Eastern city is the desert space outside the walls where the "pariah dogs prowl on the mounds."
[764]אַט, LXX., κλαίων; Josephus, Chaldee, and Peshito, "shoeless."
[765]1 Kings xxi. 27. καὶ περιεβάλετο σάκκον ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ἐπάταξε Ναβουθαί.
[766]Psalm cix. 17, 18.
[767]2 Chron. xviii. 2.
[768]2 Kings iii. 7.
[769]1 Kings xxii. 10 (Peshito).
[770]The LXX. has, "The Lord shall deliver into thy handseven the king of Syria." At first they all said, "Adonaishall deliver it"; but afterwards, perhaps stung by the doubts of Jehoshaphat, or encouraged by the audacity of Zedekiah, they said, "Jehovahshall deliver it."
[771]Deut. xxxiii. 17. "His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people altogether to the ends of the earth."
[772]The LXX., omitting "besides," implies Jehoshaphat's opinion that these were not true prophets of Jehovah. So, too, the Vulg., "Non est hicpropheta Domini quispiam?"
[773]Compare Agamemnon's bitter complaint of Calchas.
[774]1 Kings xxii. 9. LXX., εὐνοῦχον ἔνα. And this is probably the meaning of סָרִיס, not "officer," as in A.V.
[775]For he had seventy sons, besides daughters (2 Kings x. 7)
[776]The words implied that the king would fall, though the army would escape (1 Kings xxii. 17, בְּשָׁלוֹם). Comp. Numb. xxvii. 16, 17 "Let the Lord ... set a man over the congregation, ... who may lead them out and in; that thecongregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd."
[777]Theodoret explains it as anthropomorphism, and condescension to human modes of speech (προσωποποιΐα τίς ἐστι διδάσκουσα τὴν θείαν συγχώρησιν).
[778]1 Kings xxii. 21. It is "the," not "a" spirit,i.e., the unclean spirit of deception (τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης, 1 John iv. 6). Comp. Zech. xiii. 2, "Also I will causethe prophets and the unclean spiritto pass out of the land." St. Paul says in 2 Thess. ii. 11: "God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie."
[779]The worst of insults (Job xvi. 10; Lam. iii. 30).
[780]The words (verse 28) "And he said, Hearken, O people, every one of you," are believed by Nöldeke, Klostermann, and others to be an interpolation from Micah i. 2, by some one who confused Micaiah with Micah. They are omitted in the LXX.
[781]We have no reason to accuse Ahab of any bad or selfish motives here. No doubt Micaiah's prophecy of his approaching death had made him anxious. If the LXX. reading, "but put thou onmyrobes," were right, the case would be different.
[782]We see in this order a trace of the single combats which mark the Homeric battles.
[783]2 Chron. xviii. 31: "And the Lord helped him, and God moved them from him."
[784]So Jarchi. Josephus calls him Aman.
[785]1 Kings xxii. 34. "At a venture"; marg., "in his simplicity"; comp. 2 Sam. xv. 11.
[786]What the French callle défaut de la cuirasse(Keil). Luther has,zwischen den Panzer und Hengel.
[787]Josephus,Antt., VIII. xv. 6.
[788]Köster thinks that there may be reference to the fact that the name "dog" was given to the unchaste.
[789]Amos iii. 15; Psalm xlv. 8; Hom.,Od., iv. 72.
[790]It is supposed that Mohammed alludes to Elijah in the Qur'an,Suraxxi. 85: "And Ishmael, and Idris, andDhu'l Kifl("he of the portion")—all these were of the patient; and we made them enter into our mercy; verily they were among the righteous" (Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 53).
[791]See W. Robertson Smith,Journ. of Philology, x. 20.
[792]See Reuss,Hist. d'Israel, i. 101-103.