1 Reis 21

XXI.

The narrative of this chapter, clearly drawn once more from the prophetic record of Elijah’s life and mission, returns to the same vividness of style and lofty spiritual teaching perceptible in 1 Reis 18:19. It describes the turning-point of Ahab’s probation, which, like the great crisis of David’s history, is an act of unrighteous tyranny, so common in Eastern despotism, that it would hardly be recorded by an ordinary historian. So in the prophetic writings moral evils, especially profligacy and bloodshed and oppression of the weak, are denounced at least not less severely, and even more frequently, than religious unfaithfulness. The whole description is strikingly illustrative of Ahab’s character, in its essential weakness and subservience, more fatal in high place of authority than resolute wickedness. It might be painted in the well-known description of Felix by Tacitus, as “swaying the power of a king with the temper of a slave” (jus regium, servili ingenio exercuit).