1 Kings 20:38

_THEN SAID HE UNTO HIM, BECAUSE THOU HAST NOT OBEYED THE VOICE OF THE LORD, BEHOLD, AS SOON AS THOU ART DEPARTED FROM ME, A LION SHALL SLAY THEE. AND AS SOON AS HE WAS DEPARTED FROM HIM, A LION FOUND HIM, AND SLEW HIM._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

31-43 This encouragement sinners have to repent and humble themselves before God; Have we not heard, that the God of Israel is a merciful God? Have we not found him so? That is gospel repentance, which flows from an apprehension of the mercy of God, in Christ; there is forgiveness with him. What a change is here! The most haughty in prosperity often are most abject in adversity; an evil spirit will thus affect a man in both these conditions. There are those on whom, like Ahab, success is ill bestowed; they know not how to serve either God or their generation, or even their own true interests with their prosperity: Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness. The prophet designed to reprove Ahab by a parable. If a good prophet were punished for sparing his friend and God's when God said, Smite, of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy, w...

Verse 38. _DISGUISED HIMSELF WITH ASHES UPON HIS FACE._] It does not immediately appear how putting _ashes_ upon his face could disguise him. Instead of אפר _apher, dust, Houbigant_ conjectures that it should be אפד _aphad_, a _fillet_ or _bandage_. It is only the _corner_ of the last letter which makes the difference; for the ד _daleth_ and ר _resh_ are nearly the same, only the _shoulder_ of the former is _square_, the latter _round_. That _bandage_, not _dust_, was the _original_ reading, seems pretty evident from its remains in two of the oldest versions, the _Septuagint_ and the _Chaldee_; the former has Και κατεδησατο εν τελαμωνι τους οφθαλμους αυτου, "And he bound his eyes with a fillet." The latter has וכריך במעפריאעינוהי _ukerich bemaaphira einohi_; "And he covered his eyes with a cloth." The MSS. of _Kennicott_ and _De Rossi_ contain no various reading here; but b...

ASHES - Rather, “a bandage” (and in 1 Kings 20:41). The object of the wound and bandage was double. Partly, it was to prevent Ahab from recognizing the prophet’s face; partly, to induce him to believe that the man had really been engaged in the recent war....

EXPOSITION THE INVASIONS OF ISRAEL BY THE SYRIANS AND THEIR RESULTS.—The insertion of this chapter, which contains an account of two invasions of Israel by the hosts of Syria, and of the utter defeat of the latter, and which therefore constitutes a break in the history of Elijah, which has occupied the historian up to the end of 1 Kings 19:1; and which is resumed with 1 Kings 21:1.—the insertion of this twentieth chapter in this place is apparently due to the compiler of these records, who seems to have adopted this arrangement as the more chronological. It is not absolutely certain, however, that we owe this disposition

SO THE PROPHET DEPARTED, AND WAITED FOR THE KING BY THE WAY,.... As he went from Aphek, the place where the battle had been fought, to Samaria, his royal seat: AND DISGUISED HIMSELF WITH ASHES UPON HIS FACE; the Targum is, he covered his eyes with a vail, or piece of cloth, which he wrapped about his head, as men do when they have got a wound or bruise in such a part, which seems very probable; for had he besmeared his face with ashes, clay, or dust, or any such thing, he could not so easily have got it off, as in 1 Kings 20:41....

4. KING AHAB: HIS WICKED REIGN AND END CHAPTER 20 Ahab's War with the Syrians and His Victory _ 1. The siege and relief of Samaria (1 Kings 20:1)_ 2. The victory at Aphek (1 Kings 20:22) 3. A prophet's symbolical action and his message (1 Kings 20:35) Two expeditions of Ben-hadad (son of the Sun) against Israel are recorded in this chapter. When Ben-hadad forced the war and insulted the King of Israel, Ahab prepared for the battle. Then a prophet came to Ahab, most likely one of those who had been hidden by Obadiah. He brought a message from the Lord. “Thus saith Jehovah, Hast thou seen all this great multitude? behold I will deliver it into thine hand this day; and thou sha

AHAB'S DEATH FORETOLD FOR SPARING BENHADAD. This section reminds us of 1 Samuel 15, Saul's sparing of Agag. It does not appear to be part of the foregoing narrative, but may be of great antiquity. The sin of Ahab, like that of Saul, seems commendable in our eyes, but to the Hebrews it was the most deadly of all the violation of the _herem_ or ban (pp. 99, 114), the sparing of a person devoted to Yahweh (1 Kings 20:42). The sons of the prophets are mentioned here for the first time in the Bible (1 Kings 20:35)....

ASHES, &C.. bandage. inheritance). JEZREEL. In the plain of Esdraelon....

_waited for the king by the way_ He wished to intercept Ahab just as he was coming from his interview with Ben-hadad. A parallel this to the lion meeting the disobedient prophet as soon as he had departed from his fellow. _and disguised himself_ With this action may be compared the assumed mourning garb of the widow of Tekoah (2 Samuel 14:2). _with ashes upon his face_ R.V. WITH HIS HEAD BAND OVER HIS EYES. The A. V. is the rendering of the Vulg. and Syriac, and is the result of taking אֲפֵר in the text as the same אֵפֶר which means -dust", -ashes". The LXX. has the true sense in τελαμών = a bandage, while the Chaldee translates it as -a veil". When the proper meaning is given to the first word, the common rendering -eyes" for the second can be brought in....