1 Kings 21:2

_AND AHAB SPAKE UNTO NABOTH, SAYING, GIVE ME THY VINEYARD, THAT I MAY HAVE IT FOR A GARDEN OF HERBS, BECAUSE IT IS NEAR UNTO MY HOUSE: AND I WILL GIVE THEE FOR IT A BETTER VINEYARD THAN IT; OR, IF IT SEEM GOOD TO THEE, I WILL GIVE THEE THE WORTH OF IT IN MONEY._ That I may have it for a garden of herbs. Whether Ahab thought that the vineyard of a subject might properly enough be converted into a kitchen garden for a king, or he set, as the Hebrews generally did, a high value on the possession of such a garden, at all events one chief reason for his eager desire to possess the vineyard of Naboth was its contiguity to the palace grounds. The herbs cultivated in such a garden as Ahab wished to form, were of course those indigenous to the country and the climate: the culinary vegetables of the Hebrews comprising gourds, cucumbers, melons; onions, leeks, and garlic; rice, anise, and cumin; m...

1-4 Naboth, perhaps, had been pleased that he had a vineyard situated so near the palace, but the situation proved fatal to him; many a man's possessions have been his snare, and his neighbourhood to greatness, of bad consequence. Discontent is a sin that is its own punishment, and makes men torment themselves. It is a sin that is its own parent; it arises not from the condition, but from the mind: as we find Paul contented in a prison, so Ahab was discontented in a palace. He had all the delights of Canaan, that pleasant land, at command; the wealth of a kingdom, the pleasures of a court, and the honours and powers of a throne; yet all avails him nothing without Naboth's vineyard. Wrong desires expose men to continual vexations, and those that are disposed to fret, however well off, may always find something or other to fret at....

Verse 1 Kings 21:2. _GIVE ME THY VINEYARD_] The request of Ahab seems at first view fair and honourable. Naboth's vineyard was nigh to the palace of Ahab, and he wished to add it to his own for a _kitchen_ _garden_, or perhaps a _grass-plat_, גן ירק gan yarak; and he offers to give him either a better vineyard for it, or to give him its worth in money. Naboth rejects the proposal with horror: _The_ _Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my_ _fathers to thee_. No man could _finally alienate_ any part of the parental inheritance; it might be sold or mortgaged till the _jubilee_, but at that time it must revert to its original owner, if not redeemed before; for this God had particularly enjoined Leviticus 25:14-3;...

I WILL GIVE THEE THE WORTH OF IT IN MONEY - literally, “I will give thee silver, the worth of it.” Money, in our sense of the word, that is to say, coins of definite values, did not yet exist. The first coin known to the Jews was the Persian daric, with which they became acquainted during the captivity. (1 Chronicles 29:7 note)....

EXPOSITION THE STORY OF NABOTH. THE DOOM OF AHAB'S HOUSE. HIS PENITENCE.— 1 KINGS 21:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THESE THINGS [These words are omitted in the Vat. LXX; which, as before remarked, transposes 1 Kings 20:1. and 21. See introductory note, 1 Kings 20:1.], THAT NABOTH ["Fruit," "produce" (Gesen). Wordsworth sees in him a type of Christ, cast out of the vineyard ...

AND AHAB SPAKE UNTO NABOTH, SAYING, GIVE ME THY VINEYARD, THAT I MAY HAVE IT FOR A GARDEN OF HERBS,.... For a kitchen garden to produce eatables of the vegetable kind for his household, or for a flower garden; and perhaps for both, as Kimchi observes, it being customary to have such in court yards, or behind the house; perhaps he might take his notion of an herb garden from his neighbours the Syrians, who were very diligent and laborious in cultivating their gardens, as Pliny z; hence "multa Syrorum olera'', the many herbs of the Syrians, became a proverb with the Greeks: BECAUSE IT IS NEAR UNTO MINE HOUSE; lay very convenient for him: AND I WILL GIVE THEE FOR IT A BETTER VINEYARD THAN IT; OR, IF IT SEEMETH GOOD UNTO THEE, I WILL GIVE THEE THE WORTH OF IT IN MONEY; which seems very well spoken, that he would either give him a better in exchange, or purchase it at its full value; he d...

CHAPTER 21NABOTH'S VINEYARD _ 1. Naboth's refusal (1 Kings 21:1)_ 2. Jezebel's wicked deed (1 Kings 21:5) 3. Elijah pronounces divine judgment (1 Kings 21:17) 4. Ahab's wickedness and confession (1 Kings 21:25) 5. The LORD's mercy (1 Kings 21:28) No comment is needed on the story of Naboth's vineyard. Jezebel, the wicked, and Ahab's submission to her was his ruination. On her Satanic suggestion one of the most wicked deeds recorded in Bible history is done. Naboth is murdered to obtain his vi

THE STORY OF NABOTH. This is evidently not a part of the Elijah story of 1 Kings 17-19. There are certain differences of style; _e.g._ Ahab is described as king of Samaria (1); and Elijah does not, as in 1 Kings 17-19, occupy the central place. Nor does the story come in a very suitable place between 1 Kings 20 and 1 Kings 22, which have points in common. In the LXX it occurs before 1 Kings 20. It is probably, though not certainly, an independent narrative about Elijah. Ahab, as is usual. is not represented in the worst possible light; the great offender is Jezebel, who acts not as a Baal worshipper so much as a queen of Israel. Some critics (_e.g._ Burney) connect this passage with 2 Kings 9 f., the story of the destruction of the house of Omri by Jehu, where the mention of the burden laid on Ahab on that occasion demands the recital of thesecircumstances. Naboth refused to sell his vin...

GIVE ME. Compare 1 Samuel 8:14, of which this is. fulfilment....

_that I may have it for a garden of herds_ These events must have taken place during a time of peace, when Ahab had leisure to think about the convenient arrangement of his grounds. And it is most probable they occurred after Ben-hadad's utter defeat, otherwise the victory then granted to Ahab would have been like a condonation of his sin, and not in harmony with the doom pronounced in this chapter (1 Kings 21:19) by Elijah. The desire to have the ground -for a garden of herbs" is twice repeated in this verse by the LXX....