Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Achab seeks a vineyard from Naboth; he refuses: whereupon Jezebel arranges for him to be stoned as a blasphemer through false witnesses, and hands over his field to Achab. Therefore, at verse 17, God sends Elijah, who announces destruction to Achab and Jezebel, and that dogs will lick their blood in the field of Naboth. Upon hearing this, Achab repents at verse 27; wherefore God transfers the threatened punishment from him to his son.
Vulgate Text: 3 Kings 21:1-29
1. After these words, at that time there was a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite, which was in Jezreel beside the palace of Achab king of Samaria. 2. So Achab spoke to Naboth, saying: Give me your vineyard, that I may make myself a vegetable garden, because it is near and close to my house, and I will give you a better vineyard in exchange for it; or if you think it more convenient, the price in silver of what it is worth. 3. Naboth answered him: May the Lord be gracious to me, that I should not give you the inheritance of my fathers. 4. So Achab came into his house angry and gnashing his teeth at the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, saying: I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And casting himself upon his bed, he turned his face to the wall and did not eat bread. 5. Then Jezebel his wife came in to him and said to him: What is this, why is your soul saddened? And why do you not eat bread? 6. He answered her: I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite; and I said to him: Give me your vineyard for money; or, if you prefer, I will give you a better vineyard in exchange for it. And he said: I will not give you my vineyard. 7. Then Jezebel his wife said to him: You are of great authority, and you govern the kingdom of Israel well. Arise, and eat bread, and be of good cheer; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. 8. So she wrote letters in the name of Achab; and sealed them with his ring, and sent them to the elders and nobles who were in his city and who dwelt with Naboth. 9. The content of the letters was this: Proclaim a fast, and make Naboth sit among the chief of the people, 10. and set two men, sons of Belial, against him, and let them bear false testimony: He has blasphemed God and the king: and lead him out and stone him, and so let him die. 11. So the citizens, the elders and nobles who dwelt with him in the city, did as Jezebel had commanded them, and as it was written in the letters she had sent to them: 12. they proclaimed a fast and made Naboth sit among the chief of the people. 13. And having brought in two men, sons of the devil, they made them sit opposite him; and those men, being diabolical, spoke testimony against him before the multitude: Naboth has blasphemed God and the king; for which reason they led him out of the city and killed him with stones. 14. And they sent to Jezebel, saying: Naboth has been stoned and is dead. 15. When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, she said to Achab: Arise, and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, who would not agree to give it to you for money: for Naboth is no longer alive, but is dead. 16. When Achab heard that Naboth was dead, he arose and went down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it. 17. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: 18. Arise, and go down to meet Achab king of Israel, who is in Samaria: behold, he has gone down to the vineyard of Naboth to take possession of it; 19. and you shall speak to him, saying: Thus says the Lord: You have killed, and moreover you have taken possession. And after this you shall add: Thus says the Lord: In this place, where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, they shall lick your blood also. 20. And Achab said to Elijah: Have you found me your enemy? He said: I have found you so, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. 21. Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and I will cut off your posterity, and I will destroy of Achab every male, and him that is shut up and the last in Israel.
22. And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah: because you have acted so as to provoke Me to anger, and you have made Israel to sin. 23. And of Jezebel also the Lord spoke, saying: Dogs shall eat Jezebel in the field of Jezreel. 24. If Achab dies in the city, dogs shall eat him: and if he dies in the field, the birds of heaven shall eat him. 25. Therefore there was no one like Achab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord: for Jezebel his wife stirred him up, 26. and he became abominable, insofar as he followed the idols which the Amorites had made, whom the Lord consumed from before the children of Israel. 27. So when Achab heard these words, he tore his garments, and covered his flesh with sackcloth, and fasted and slept in sacking, and walked with his head bowed down. 28. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: 29. Have you not seen how Achab has humbled himself before Me? Because therefore he has humbled himself for My sake, I will not bring evil in his days, but in the days of his son I will bring evil upon his house.
Verse 1: Naboth Had a Vineyard
1. NABOTH HAD A VINEYARD. — "Naboth" was here a good man, as is clear from what follows. Hence Naboth in Hebrew means the same as "fruit of prophecy" or "of speech," says Pagninus from Jerome. Achab coveted his vineyard because it was near to him: for the avarice and greed of the rich is insatiable; on which subject St. Ambrose wrote a remarkable treatise on this chapter, On Naboth, or On Nabuthe, in which he sharply rebukes the avaricious and rapacious rich, such as Achab was; hence in chapter 2: "O rich man, he says, you do not know how poor you are, how needy you appear to yourself, who call yourself rich! The more you have, the more you seek; and although you have acquired, you still lack. Avarice is inflamed by gain, not extinguished. Greed has, as it were, certain steps: the more one has climbed, the more it hastens to higher things, whence the fall will be all the heavier for the one about to stumble." And after some further remarks: "Finally, divine Scripture teaches us how wretchedly he is in want, how abjectly he begs. Achab was king in Israel, and Naboth was poor. The former abounded in the riches of his kingdom, the latter possessed a patch of narrow ground: the poor man coveted nothing of the rich man's possessions, the king thought himself in want because his poor neighbor had a vineyard. Who then seems poor to you? He who is content with his own, or he who covets what belongs to another? One certainly seems poor in wealth, the other is poor in spirit."
Verse 2: Give Me Your Vineyard
2. GIVE ME YOUR VINEYARD. — St. Ambrose presses these words remarkably in chapter 2 already cited: "What other voice, he says, is that of one publicly begging alms, except: Give me, that is: Give me, because I am in need? Give me, because I can have no other means of livelihood; give me, because I have no bread for food, no coin for drink, no means for nourishment, no substance for clothing: give me, because the Lord has given you the means to be generous, but has not given them to me; give me; unless you give, I cannot have; give me, because it is written: Give alms. How abject, how vile these words are."
Verse 3: That I May Make Myself a Vegetable Garden
3. THAT I MAY MAKE MYSELF A VEGETABLE GARDEN. — St. Ambrose, in chapter 3, notes the impudence of the avaricious king. "This therefore, he says, was all the madness, this all the fury, that space was sought for cheap vegetables. You do not so much desire to possess something useful, but rather wish to exclude others. You have greater concern for the plunder of the poor than for your own advantages. You consider it an injury to yourselves if a poor man has anything that is deemed worthy of a rich man's possession. You consider as your loss whatever belongs to another."
MAY THE LORD BE GRACIOUS TO ME. — In Hebrew, may the Lord forbid, that is, far be it; the Septuagint has, may it not happen to me from the Lord; the Chaldean has, far be it from me from the Lord.
THAT I SHOULD NOT GIVE YOU THE INHERITANCE OF MY FATHERS — as if to say: The inheritance entrusted to me by my parents must be preserved, not so much as my own, but as their inheritance: for a son owes this remembrance and reverence to his parents, that he should guard their goods and transmit them to posterity. Furthermore, the same St. Ambrose, in chapter 3 already cited: "He considers, he says, the money of the rich man to be, as it were, a kind of contagion; as if to say: Your money be with you unto perdition; but I cannot sell the inheritance of my fathers."
Tropologically, the vineyard is the soul, which is our entire inheritance; therefore beware lest you sell it at the cheap price of pleasure or honor to the devil, to death and to hell. Hence St. Ambrose, in his Exhortation to Virgins, takes the vineyard as virginity, Jezebel as concupiscence, and Naboth as Christ: "The vineyard, he says, is a certain fruit of virginity; marriages are like beds of vegetables, in which jealousy is frequent: and therefore the herbs of the garden quickly fall and wither, unless old age puts an end to them, or continence brings them to perfection. Let not Achab come upon you, who desires to destroy and extinguish your vineyard: nor let Jezebel come upon you, that vain and worldly flux; for this is what the word signifies — vain and empty superfluity — but let Nabuthe come, who comes from the Father, as the interpretation of his very name indicates, who defends the vineyard with His blood and offers death for it. He it is who was stoned for us, who died for us, who was assailed for us with false testimony."
Verse 4: He Did Not Eat Bread
4. AND HE DID NOT EAT BREAD — out of anger and sadness, because Naboth had resisted his greed and had, as it were, treated him with contempt. Hear St. Ambrose, chapter 6: "He did not eat his own bread, because he was seeking another's. For the rich eat another's bread more than their own, who live by plunder, and
bread more than their own, who live by plunder, and sustain their expenditure by rapine. Or certainly he did not eat his own bread, wishing to punish himself with death because something was denied to him." And elegantly, in chapter 6: "The Gentiles, he says, call the wealthy one the ruler of the underworld, the arbiter of death. They call him Dis and the rich one, because the rich man knows nothing but how to inflict death, whose kingdom is of the dead, whose seat is in the underworld. For what is the rich man but a kind of insatiable abyss of riches, an insatiable hunger for gold? The more he has drawn, the more he burns." And after some further remarks: "For sweet is the sleep of a servant, whether he eats little or much; but for the one sated with riches, there is no one who lets him sleep: greed rouses him, the ever-wakeful care of seizing another's property drives him on, envy torments him, delay vexes him, the barren sterility of profits disturbs him, abundance troubles him."
Verse 7: Jezebel His Wife Said to Him
7. THEN JEZEBEL HIS WIFE SAID TO HIM. — To her impious husband, Jezebel was more impious still, to the avaricious one more avaricious, to the cruel one more cruel, to the rapacious one more rapacious, to the covetous one more covetous. Hence St. Ambrose, in chapter 9, teaches that Jezebel is a type of avarice, which promises the rich a possession contrary to justice, which they desire. For she was the torch and instigator of idolatry and of all evils for Achab and for Israel, like some fury of hell, as is clear from verse 25.
Verse 9: Proclaim a Fast
9. PROCLAIM (announce) A FAST — so that you may give the appearance of piety and zeal for God to the crime (namely the unjust killing of Naboth); for Jezebel orders a fast to be proclaimed, so that through it, as through a public penance of the people, the blasphemy of Naboth might be expiated. Which she was arranging to be falsely charged against him. For blasphemy was horrible to the Hebrews; hence, upon hearing it, they would tear their garments and show other signs of public grief and detestation of so unworthy a thing.
Verse 10: He Has Blessed God and the King
10. HE HAS BLESSED (Naboth) GOD AND THE KING. — "Blessed" means cursed. It is a euphemism by antiphrasis: for since blasphemy is so horrible a thing, the Jews did not even dare to name it, but signified it by its opposite, namely by blessing and praise: so St. Jerome, epistle 34 to Julian.
Verse 13: They Killed Him with Stones
13. AND THEY KILLED HIM WITH STONES. — For a blasphemer was to be overwhelmed with stones according to the law of Leviticus 24:16. It is added in 4 Kings 9:26 that the sons of Naboth were also killed, so that their vineyard might pass from them to Achab, as though, the heir being lacking, the king would be the heir.
In a similar way, Eudoxia, wife of the Emperor Arcadius, coveting the vineyard of the widow Callitrope, drove St. Chrysostom, who was pleading the widow's cause, into exile, and through a thousand hardships of journeys, hunger, thirst, soldiers harassing him, etc., drove him to death; so that truly St. Chrysostom is not only a Confessor but also a Martyr, inasmuch as he was unjustly killed for the sake of justice, not by one death but by a hundred.
Allegorically, Naboth was a type of Christ, who by the Scribes and Pharisees coveting His vineyard, that is the Synagogue, was accused of blasphemy through false witnesses because He called Himself the Son of God, and was therefore killed, according to the parable of the vineyard, which Christ Himself put before them on this very matter, Matthew 21:33. For the voice of the Scribes concerning Christ is at verse 38: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance." Hence also dogs, that is the Gentiles (for the Jews despised them as dogs), the Romans, led by Titus and Vespasian, licked the blood of the Jews who killed Christ, in the same place, namely Jerusalem, and at the same time, namely at Passover, when they themselves had killed Christ. So says Angelomus.
Verse 15: Arise and Take Possession
15. ARISE, AND TAKE POSSESSION. — In Hebrew, ירש resch; that is, inherit, namely by title of confiscation; because Naboth was accused of the crime of lese-majesty, both divine and royal, and was therefore condemned. Wherefore his vineyard was assigned by Jezebel to the treasury of King Achab.
Verse 19: You Have Killed and Taken Possession
19. YOU HAVE KILLED, AND MOREOVER YOU HAVE TAKEN POSSESSION. — You have killed Naboth in order to seize and possess his vineyard, and thus you have added unjust possession to unjust murder: therefore by the law of retaliation you likewise shall be killed, and you shall lose both the vineyard and everything else, and shall be deprived of both your possessions and your life.
IN THIS PLACE, WHERE DOGS LICKED THE BLOOD OF NABOTH, THEY SHALL ALSO LICK YOURS. — That this actually happened through the fitting and just vengeance of God is narrated in chapter 22, verse 38. You will ask: There it is said that dogs licked the blood of Achab in Samaria, but dogs licked Naboth's blood in Jezreel, where he was killed. I answer that Jezreel belonged to Samaria, which was the metropolis and capital of the whole kingdom of Israel. Therefore the same place here is to be understood in a general sense, not specifically. So say Abulensis, Lyranus, and Vatablus. The Hebrews respond differently, namely that the arms of Achab stained with his blood were washed in the pool of Jezreel, when they were brought there to the armory: and that then dogs licked his blood that was washed off; but Abulensis refutes this, from the fact that in chapter 22, verse 38, this prophecy is said to have been fulfilled when dogs licked his blood in Samaria, for which Josephus incorrectly substitutes Jezreel. It could also be said that God mitigated and revoked this punishment on account of Achab's repentance, as is suggested in verse 29.
Finally, more clearly and fully Salianus and Sanchez judge that this was fulfilled in Joram the son of Achab: for he was killed in the field of Jezreel. For "blood" often signifies children; for they are begotten from the blood of their parents; hence that saying of Anchises concerning Julius Caesar:
Cast down your weapons, O my blood,
that is, O my son Julius, Aeneid Book VI. The same is proved both from verse 29, where God, mitigating this punishment threatened against Achab on account of his repentance, says He will transfer it from Achab to his son Joram, and from 4 Kings, chapter 9, verses 25 and 26, where after Joram was killed, Jehu ordered his corpse to be cast into the field of Naboth to be licked and devoured by dogs, so that this prophecy of God concerning him might be fulfilled.
Thus Aristobulus, the first king of the Jews from among the Maccabees, killed his brother Antigonus, but by the just judgment of God, tormented by pains, he vomited blood, which was poured out in the same place where he himself had poured out his brother's blood. Hence he himself groaning cried out, says Josephus, Book XIII of Antiquities, chapter 19: "Therefore my impious and wicked crime does not escape God, he said, since I am so quickly called to account for the blood of my kinsman. O shameless body, how long will you retain the soul which the shades of both my mother and my brother demand? Why do you not give it up at once, lest it should be necessary to pour out my blood in portions, and thus offer funeral rites to those oppressed by crime and fratricide?" He had scarcely spoken these words when he breathed his last, having spent only one year in his reign.
Verse 20: You Have Sold Yourself to Do Evil
20. BECAUSE YOU HAVE SOLD YOURSELF TO DO EVIL. — "Sold," as a slave devoted to sin. Hence Cajetan says: "sold" means handed over to sin; for what is sold is handed over to the buyer as to a master, as if to say: You, O Achab, by your own evil will are wholly devoted to sin, as though you were sold or hired for nothing else than sinning. He alludes to servants who hire themselves out for certain tasks and devote themselves entirely to them: for thus Achab had devoted himself not only to idols but also to his Jezebel, so that like a slave he was driven by her to every crime; so says Abulensis. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: You, O Achab, are truly not a king nor an Israelite, that is, free and of noble condition, but a slave of Baal and Jezebel; because you have wholly devoted and enslaved yourself to them, so that you obey them in all things and do whatever they wish. The reason was that Ithobaal, king of Tyre and father of Jezebel, and therefore father-in-law of Achab, was a priest of Astarte, as Josephus says in Book I Against Apion, and by his very name professed the worship of Baal; for this reason he was called Ithobaal, or as our Translator renders it in chapter 16, verse 31, Ethbaal. This father, therefore, most devoted to Baal and Astarte, indeed a consecrated priest, poured his impiety and idolatry into his daughter Jezebel and into her husband Achab; hence Josephus, Book IX, chapter 7: "Baal, he says, was the god of the Tyrians, whom Achab worshipped to please Ithobal, king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, his father-in-law, dedicating a temple to him in Samaria and assigning prophets with the rest of his worship."
Observe here and admire the freedom of Elijah, who rebukes King Achab to his face and charges him with being a slave of sin, and accordingly announces his utter destruction. Thus St. Athanasius, St. Hilary, and Lucifer of Cagliari sharply rebuked the Arian Emperor Constantine and called him Herod, Nero, and Antichrist. I have cited their words at Apocalypse chapter 11, verse 5.
Tropologically, see here how vile, wretched, and unhappy is the sinner, who like Achab for a small pleasure, indeed for a single gold coin, sells himself and his soul to the devil, and like a slave hands it over to his own desire, to become the food of death and the fuel of hell.
Verse 21: I Will Cut Off Your Posterity
21. I WILL CUT OFF YOUR POSTERITY — that is, I will utterly destroy your descendants.
Verse 29: He Tore His Garments
29. HE TORE HIS GARMENTS. — This repentance of Achab seems to have been from fear of punishment, not from love of justice, and therefore servile, imperfect, and forced; hence it does not appear that God pardoned his guilt, but only deferred the punishment and transferred it from him to his son, as is said in verse 29. So say Lyranus, Dionysius, Cajetan, and indeed St. Gregory, Homily 19 on Ezekiel: "In these words, he says, we must consider how the sorrow of bitterness pleases Him in His elect, who fear to lose God, if the repentance of reprobates also pleased Him, who feared to lose the present world; or how voluntary affliction for sins is pleasing to Him in those who please Him, if this temporal repentance was pleasing even in those who displeased Him."
Yet Abulensis, Hugo, Vatablus, Sanchez, Serarius, and indeed St. Chrysostom judge that the repentance of Achab was true and serious at this time, in his epistle to Theodore (of Mopsuestia) who had lapsed, where he says: "Achab, disturbed by the enormity of his crime, repented, and covered with sackcloth wept over his offense, and thus provoked the mercy of the Lord toward himself, so that He absolved him from all his sins. For thus God says to Elijah: Have you seen how Achab was moved to compunction before My face, because he wept in My sight, I will not bring evils in his days."
So also St. Ambrose, in his book On Nabuthe, chapter 17, and Tertullian, Book IV Against Marcion, chapter 10.
This opinion is equally probable, and it is suggested by what God says to Elijah in verse 29: "Have you not seen how Achab has humbled himself?" etc. Nor does it matter that Achab soon returned to his former crimes after his repentance. For he was a most fickle man, says Theodoret, and was wholly driven by his Jezebel. For thus today many truly repent, but soon, when occasion arises, they fall back into their customary sins.
You may reconcile both opinions by saying that Achab's repentance was true attrition, but did not rise to contrition formed by charity. For he was seriously sorry for his sins on account of the disasters threatening him, announced by Elijah; but he was not sorry out of love of God, namely because he had offended Him who is the supreme good. Therefore he escaped the punishment, but did not blot out the guilt, nor was he justified: which opinion seems most true and most in agreement with Holy Scripture. Therefore Calvin erroneously judges that this repentance of Achab was feigned.
29. BECAUSE THEREFORE HE HAS HUMBLED HIMSELF FOR MY SAKE (that is, not so much from love of Me as from dread and fear; hence I also repay him with only temporal pardon and reward, namely), I WILL NOT BRING EVIL IN HIS DAYS, BUT IN THE DAYS OF HIS SON. — Wherefore St. Jerome rightly exclaims in epistle 30 to Oceanus: "O happy repentance, which drew to itself the eyes of God; which by confessing its error changed the raging sentence of God!" He is speaking of the repentance of Achab.