1 Kings 21:27

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN AHAB HEARD THOSE WORDS, THAT HE RENT HIS CLOTHES, AND PUT SACKCLOTH UPON HIS FLESH, AND FASTED, AND LAY IN SACKCLOTH, AND WENT SOFTLY._ Ahab ... rent his clothes ... went softly. He was not obdurate like Jezebel. This terrible announcement made a deep impression on the king's heart, and led for a while to sincere repentance. "Going softly" - i:e., barefoot, and with a pensive manner within doors. He manifested all the external signs, conventional and natural, of the deepest sorrow. He was wretched; and so great is the mercy of God, that, in consequence of his humiliation, the threatened punishment was deferred. But he did not "bring forth fruits meet for repentance," neither abandoning idolatry and re-establishing the true faith, nor restoring the ill-gotten vineyard of Naboth. But the Lord displayed His clemency and long-suffering by giving him an extended op...

17-29 Blessed Paul complains that he was sold under sin, Romans 7:14, as a poor captive against his will; but Ahab was willing, he sold himself to sin; of choice, and as his own act and deed, he loved the dominion of sin. Jezebel his wife stirred him up to do wickedly. Ahab is reproved, and his sin set before his eyes, by Elijah. That man's condition is very miserable, who has made the word of God his enemy; and very desperate, who reckons the ministers of that word his enemies, because they tell him the truth. Ahab put on the garb and guise of a penitent, yet his heart was unhumbled and unchanged. Ahab's repentance was only what might be seen of men; it was outward only. Let this encourage all that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe the holy gospel, that if a pretending partial penitent shall go to his house reprieved, doubtless, a sincere believing penitent shall go to his house jus...

Verse 1 Kings 21:27. _HE RENT HIS CLOTHES_] He was penetrated with sorrow, and that evidently unfeigned. _PUT SACKCLOTH UPON HIS FLESH_] He humbled himself before God and man. _AND FASTED_] He afflicted his body for his soul's benefit. _LAY IN SACKCLOTH_] Gave the fullest proof that his repentance was real. _AND WENT SOFTLY._] _Walked barefooted_; so the _Chaldee, Syriac_, and _Arabic_. The _Vulgate_ has _demisso capite_, "with his head hanging down." _Houbigant_ translates _went groaning_. _Jarchi_ says that the word אט _at_, used here, signifies _to be unshod_. This is its most likely sense. All these things prove that Ahab's repentance was genuine; and God's approbation of it puts it out of doubt. The _slow_ and

The repentance of Ahab resembles that of the Ninevites Jonah 3:5. It has the same outward signs - fasting and sackcloth - and it has much the same inward character. It springs, not from love, nor from hatred of sin, but from fear of the consequences of sin. It is thus, although sincere and real while it lasts, shallow and exceedingly short-lived. God, however, to mark His readiness to receive the sinner who turns to Him, accepted the imperfect offering (as He likewise accepted the penitence of the Ninevites), and allowed it to delay the execution of the sentence 1 Kings 21:29. So the penitence of the Ninevites put off the fall of Nineveh for a century. AND LAY IN SACKCLOTH - In this particular he seems to have gone beyond the usual practice. We do

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 ...

Ver. 27 AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN AHAB HEARD THESE WORDS,.... Delivered in 1 Kings 21:21, THAT HE RENT HIS CLOTHES, AND PUT SACKCLOTH UPON, HIS FLESH, tore off his clothes, and stripped himself of all, even of his very shirt, and put sackcloth on his bare flesh, a coarse cloth made of hair, and such as sacks are made with: AND FASTED, how long it is not said: AND LAY IN SACKCLOTH; in the night on his bed, would have no linen on him day nor night: AND WENT SOFTLY: step by step, as persons mourning, grieving, and pensive, do; the Targum renders it "barefoot", and so Jarchi....

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...

RENT HIS CLOTHES. His repentance was outward, not real. WENT SOFTLY: i.e. humbly....

The LXX. gives for this verse -And when Ahab was pricked (in his heart) on account of this word (coming) from the presence of the Lord, he went and wept, and rent his robe, and girded sackcloth upon his body, and fasted. And he put on sackcloth in the day on which he slew Naboth the Jezreelite, and went [softly]". There is nothing to represent the last word, which is in brackets, and thus the sentence is incomplete. Josephus explains that the king went barefoot. On the mention of the day of Naboth's murder, see above on 1 Kings 21:16....