Глава 21

1–6. Ahab tries to purchase Naboth's vineyard, but is rejected by him. 7–13. Jezebel accuses Naboth of blasphemy and lese majeste; trial and execution of Naboth. 14–17. Ahab takes possession of Naboth's vineyard. 18–29. The denunciation of Ahab by the prophet Elijah, the repentance of Ahab and the mitigation of the Divine sentence. 1 Kings 21:1. And it came to pass after these things: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel near the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 1 Kings 21:2. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard; I will have a vegetable garden from it, for it is close to my house; and in its place I will give you a better vineyard than this, or, if you wish, I will give you the amount of silver it is worth. 1 Kings 21:3. But Naboth said to Ahab: The Lord forbid me, that I may give you the inheritance of my fathers! 1 Kings 21:4. And Ahab came home troubled and distressed at the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, saying, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And [in a troubled spirit] he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and did not eat bread. 1 Kings 21:5. And his wife Jezebel came in to him and said to him, “Why is your spirit troubled, that you do not even eat bread?” 1 Kings 21:6. He said to her: When I began to speak to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him: “Give me your vineyard for money, or, if you want, I will give you another vineyard in its place,” then he said: “I will not give you my vineyard [the inheritance of my fathers].” The incident with Naboth paints a vivid but unattractive picture of material and legal relations in the kingdom of Israel. In the face of Ahab, who is seeking to acquire the vineyard of the peaceful citizen Naboth, which is not necessary for him, but only close to the estate of his Jezreel Palace, the prophetic word of Samuel about the future despotism of the Jewish kings is fulfilled in all its strength (1 Samuel 8:11-16): proud of his two-fold victory over the Syrians, Ahab is preoccupied with expanding his gardens in his summer residence (cf. 1 Kings 18:46; 2 Kings 9:30) Jezreel (according to G. Grotius, “post victos tostes ad delicias comparandas animum adjicit”), without hesitation in choosing the means to achieve this; the corrupt conscience of the elders and judges under the king favors the manifestation of palace intrigue and tyranny. Naboth's refusal to sell his family plot to Ahab (v. 3) shows in the first a true honorer of Jehovah and a zealot of his law, who forbade the Israelites from alienating the inherited land into other hands, and even due to extreme poverty, the sold land had to be returned to the original owner without redemption (Lev.25:23–28; Num.36:7–9); the sale of the family plot could have seemed to Naboth an insult to the memory of the ancestors, who, according to ancient Jewish custom, could have been buried on the plot itself. Here, therefore, there can be no talk of Naboth’s stubbornness or willfulness; here we were talking about the law that ensured the very existence of the theocracy, which was also obligatory for kings (Ezek. 46:18). Feeling, perhaps, the rightness of Naboth, who was not seduced by Ahab’s tempting promises to reward him for his concession to the king of the vineyard, Ahab does not dare to act with violence and only gives in to melancholy (v. 4): in sadness he “lay down on his bed and turned his face away (to the wall, as (2 Kings 20:2) and Vulg.: avertit faciem suam ad parietem. LXX instead of Hebrew savav, “turned”, read sakah - “covered”: συγκάλυψε τὸ πρόσωπον αύτοῦ; glav.: “covered his face”), and did not eat bread.” But if for Ahab there were still obstacles to boundless arbitrariness and violence - in the form of the law of God that he was vaguely aware of and public opinion that he recognized, then for his wife Jezebel there could be no obstacles to achieving the goals of personal good: she, as a stubborn pagan, did not want to know the law of God, unless to disguise her base claims in the name of the law (v. 10), and public opinion, according to her concepts of the absolutism of royal power (v. 7), there is also an insignificant value that she, the queen, can create and use at her own discretion. The further story (vv. 7–13) fully confirms that her activities fully corresponded to Jezebel’s beliefs and words. “Ahab was frivolous and despicable, and it was not difficult to turn him here and there; why the wicked wife plunged him into the ditch of wickedness” (Blessed Theodoret, question 62). 1 Kings 21:7. And Jezebel his wife said to him, “What kind of kingdom would there be in Israel if you did this?” get up, eat bread and be calm; I will bring you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. 1 Kings 21:8. And she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent these letters to the elders and nobles in his city, who dwelt with Naboth. 1 Kings 21:9. In her letters she wrote this: declare a fast and place Naboth in first place among the people; 1 Kings 21:10. and put two worthless people against him, who would testify against him and say: “You blasphemed God and the king”; and then bring him out and stone him so that he will die. Having reproached Ahab for his weakness in the use of royal power (v. 7), Jezebel takes this power into his own hands, acting in Ahab's name. These actions reveal Jezebel’s greatest cunning and her ability to achieve dark goals through plausible means. Due to the fact that (as I. Flavius ​​says, Jude. Ancient. VIII, 13, 8) Naboth was probably of a noble family, Jezebel considers it necessary to have formal legal proceedings against him, arranged from the outside in a completely legal manner. She writes (verse 8) letters to the elders and noble fellow citizens of Naboth in Jezreel (the royal court was then obviously in Samaria), sealing these letters with the royal seal of Ahab (probably a royal ring with the king’s name carved on it, cf. Esther 8:10; Dan. 6:17); Thus, Naboth’s fellow citizens, the local city court of Jezreel (cf. Deut. 16:18), and not the royal court, had to judge Naboth, in order to eliminate the court’s suspicions of bias. The latter purpose, that is, to remove any suspicion of partiality from the court, was served by the command of Jezebel (v. 9), so that in the coming meeting of the court Naboth would be placed in first place among the people, so that then the people's indignation against Naboth would be revealed with greater force when his alleged crime was revealed. Wanting to give Naboth's imaginary crime an anti-social character that threatens the well-being of the entire people, Jezebel orders (v. 9) to appoint a public fast in Jezreel, as during grave national disasters (Joel 1:12,14), after disastrous defeats (Judg. 20:26; 1 Sam. 31:13), after grave sins, during repentance (1 Sam. 7:6 ; Joel.2:12), to avert the coming disaster (2 Chronicles 20:3–5); fasting in this case could be presented by the hypocritical Jezebel both as a means of asking God for help in the matter of judgment (cf. Deut. 9:9,18; Dan. 9:3) and as a cleansing means, as a symbol of atonement regarding the death sentence of the court that was predetermined regarding Naboth. Jezebel's cunning extends to the point that she requires (Article 10) compliance with the formality required by law in criminal offenses (Deut. 17:6,19:15) of the presence of 2 or 3 witnesses to the crime (according to J. Flav., Jezebel requires 3 witnesses, and not 2, as in the biblical text). The very accusation that was to be brought against Naboth could and should, according to the law, inevitably lead to his death penalty, namely: blasphemy against God (Lev.24:14-15) and blasphemy against the king (Exodus 22:28). LXX glory. (v. 10): εύλόγησε Θεὸν καὶ βασιλέα ; slav.: “bless God and the king”: this opposite meaning - to bless and blaspheme - has the Hebrew. verb bars and in (Job.1:5,2:5). According to Blessed Theodoret (question 61), “the vile Jezebel laid down a slander... slanderers entered and filed a complaint against him as a blasphemer. The writer reverently used the word “bless” instead of “blasphemed.” 1 Kings 21:11. And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel commanded them, just as it was written in the letters that she sent to them. 1 Kings 21:12. They declared a fast and placed Naboth at the head of the people; 1 Kings 21:13. and two wicked men came forward and sat opposite him, and these wicked men testified against him before the people, and said, Naboth blasphemed God and the king. And they took him out of the city and stoned him, and he died. Everything happened in exact accordance with Jezebel’s plan and order: the godless queen found in the elder judges worthy executors of her will. Naboth was stoned (v. 13); His sons were killed along with him (2 Kings 9:26) so that Naboth's vineyard could be a free plot. Such plots of persons executed for state crimes, by unwritten law, were considered the property of the crown and were confiscated in favor of the king (2 Kings 16:4); on the contrary, the opinion (Klostermann'a) that Ahab should have taken possession of the vineyard by right of his kinship with Naboth is devoid of credibility. 1 Kings 21:14. And they sent to Jezebel to say: Naboth was stoned and died. 1 Kings 21:15. When Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and died, she said to Ahab: Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which would not be given to you for silver; for Naboth is not alive, he is dead. 1 Kings 21:16. When Ahab heard that Naboth [the Jezreelite] was killed, [he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and then] Ahab rose up to go to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite and take possession of it. As soon as the news of Naboth's execution reached Samaria, Ahab, at the insistence of Jezebel, hurries to take possession of the vineyard. In the accepted text LXX and slav. there is a remark about Ahab: καὶ δέρρηξε τὰ ἱμάτια αυτοῦ καὶ περιεβάιειο σάκκον, “and he tore his robe and put on in sackcloth." These words are not found in many Greek languages. lists in Golmes, in the Complutensian Bible and in the Vulgate: they are in little agreement with the context of Art. 16 and may have been mistakenly transferred here from v. 27. 1 Kings 21:17. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: 1 Kings 21:18. Arise, go to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria, behold, he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he came to take possession of it; 1 Kings 21:19. and say to him: “Thus says the Lord: have you killed and still inherited?” and tell him: “Thus says the Lord: in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood also.” Now, to expose Ahab’s flagrant crime, the prophet Elijah appears once again and, as always, with the speed of lightning. Although the initiative for the crime, the inspiration for the murder of Naboth came from Jezebel, the undoubted knowledge of this case to Ahab (v. 7) and the obvious delight in his blood-earned acquisition (v. 16) made him a participant in the crime of his wife in full (cf. Gen. 3:9). The prophecy about the shameful death of Ahab (v. 19) was fulfilled in all accuracy on his son Jehoram (2 Kings 9:21–26), but essentially on Ahab himself, (1 Kings 22:38): from this last place the accepted text of the LXX and the Slavs bring in (1 Kings 21:19) the words: καὶ αἱ πόρναι λούσονται ἐv τῶ αἵματί σου, “and harlots will be washed in your blood,” in addition, in both places the LXX and the Slavs insert αί ὕες, “pigs.” 1 Kings 21:20. And Ahab said to Elijah: You have found me, my enemy! He said: I have found it, for you have given yourself over to doing evil in the sight of the Lord [and to provoke Him to anger]. 1 Kings 21:21. [Thus says the Lord:] Behold, I will bring trouble upon you, and I will sweep away after you, and I will destroy from Ahab the one who urinates against the wall and the one who is imprisoned and who remains in Israel. 1 Kings 21:22. And I will do to your house as I did to the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and to the house of Baasha the son of Ahiin, for the insult with which you provoked Me and caused Israel to sin. 1 Kings 21:23. The Lord also said about Jezebel: dogs will eat Jezebel outside the wall of Jezreel. 1 Kings 21:24. Whoever dies in Ahab's city will be eaten by dogs, and whoever dies in the field will be pecked by the birds of the air; 1 Kings 21:25. There was never one like Ahab who gave himself up to doing evil in the sight of the Lord, which his wife Jezebel encouraged him to do; 1 Kings 21:26. he acted very vilely, following idols, as did the Amorites, whom the Lord drove out from before the children of Israel. Ahab already knows from experience what the sudden appearance of the prophet Elijah means before him (1 Kings 17:1, 18:17). He exposes the prophet to reproof (v. 20); n. 1 Kings 18:17 the prophet’s personal enmity towards him, but the latter points out that the reason for everything is Ahab’s weak-willed devotion to sin (Hebrew gitmakker: sold (to sin), cf. 2 Kings 17:17; Rom. 7:14; LXX and glory. add: μάτην, “sold in vain”; God’s punishment will befall Ahab and his house, as and the house of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:10–11) and the house of Baasha (1 Kings 16:3–4) - the features of destruction are depicted in the same way in all cases (vv. 21, 22); shameful death threatens especially Jezebel, the main culprit of wickedness in Israel under Ahab; (v. 23); sn. (2 Kings 9:10, 36); wickedness, which consisted in the official introduction of the cult of Baal (vv. 25–26), in which Ahab turned out to be worse than all his predecessors (cf. 1 Kings 16:31–33): they supported the cult of calves, which was displeasing to Jehovah, and Ahab introduced pure paganism. 1 Kings 21:27. Having heard all these words, Ahab [was touched before the Lord, walked and wept,] tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted, and slept in sackcloth, and walked sadly. 1 Kings 21:28. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite [concerning Ahab], and the Lord said: 1 Kings 21:29. Do you see how Ahab humbled himself before Me? Because he humbled himself before Me, I will not bring trouble in his days; in the days of his son I will bring trouble upon his house. The denunciation of the prophet Elijah, this time too, as after the Carmel event (1 Kings 18:45–46), had a strong effect on Ahab. Ahab, apparently, was inclined to accept the impact of the prophet’s preaching, but his weakness of character and submission to the influence of his pagan wife paralyzed the saving effect of the prophet’s personality and preaching: (a complete analogy with Herod, who listened with pleasure to John the Baptist and yet killed him at the slander of the evil Herodias), (Mark 6:20–26): Ahab (according to LXX: glorified: “they were touched by the presence of Lord, and wept as he walked,” an addition that is hardly original, but fully expresses the thought of the text) imposed on himself mourning, usual in sorrow (cf. 1 Kings 20:31-32) and subjected himself to a penitential fast (cf. 2 Kings 12:16,21-23; Isaiah 58:3-11), which is why the Lord, through the prophet Elijah, softened His judgment on Ahab (v. 29): the terrible prophecy will be fulfilled with all its power not on Ahab, but on his son Jehoram (2 Kings 9:24–26). Thus, “the abyss of goodness - the Lord God threatened with final death for murder; and for tears about murder he granted a delay in punishment” (Blessed Theodoret, question 62). “Repentance, of course, is not feigned, but temporary; why it was accompanied by a temporary pardon” (Filaret, p. 246). You might be interested in: