death, Ahab "rose up" to go and take possession of the coveted vineyard, - perhaps t he very day after the judicial

murder (comp. 2 Kings 9:26). But on that day Jehovah had bidden Elijah arise and meet Ahab with the Divine message,

just as the king thought himself in secure possession of the fruit of his crime, as if there were no living God in Israel.

We can picture to ourselves the scene. Ahab has come in his chariot from Samaria, apparently attended by his chief

officers (2 Kings 9:25). Before entering his palace at Jezreel - on the way to it - he has reached the vineyard of Naboth.

He is surveying with satisfaction his new possession, perhaps giving directions how it should be transformed into "a

garden," when of a sudden there stands before him not one of the sons of the prophets, nor an ordinary seer, but the

terrible figure of the Gileadite, with his burning eyes, clad in the rough cloak of black camel's hair, girt about with a

leathern girdle. It must have recalled to Ahab his first apparition in the midst of Samaria, when the prophet had

announced to his startled hearers the three years' drought, and then so suddenly and tracelessly vanished from sight.61

And the last time he met the prophet had been on Mount Carmel; the last glimpse had been when through the blinding

rain he saw the dark figure running before his chariot to the very gate of Jezreel, as if he had come to herald the triumph

of Jehovah, and to bring back a new God-devoted king. That had been a weird sight of the prophet, through the storm;

and it had been a short dim dream of Ahab's to make the scene on Mount Carmel a re ality in Israel. With Jezebel came

back to him the evil spirit of his "madness;" nay, it had even sought, or consented to, the destruction of him who but

yesterday had visibly brought God's fire on the broken altar, and God's rain on the parched land.

And now he stood once more before him - Ahab knew only too well why. It was for briefest but unmistakable message.

Its first sentence swept away all self-deception. It had not been Jezebel but Ahab who had killed. And now he had taken

possession, as if there were not Jehovah in heaven, nor yet the eternal reflection of His Being, and the permanent echo

of His speaking, in right and truth upon earth. Having thus not only wakened the conscience of Ahab, but vindicated

the authority of Him in Whose Name he spoke , the next sentence of Elijah's message announced stern, strict, even

literal retribution. The retort of Ahab we regard as a childish lament to the effect that Elijah, who had always been his

personal enemy, had now at last "found him" 62 in some actual sin , on which he might invoke Divine punishment.

It was an admission, indeed, in that moment of surprise, of his guilt and apprehension of the Divine punishment

announced. But it conjoined with it this - if not in excuse, yet as a counter-charge - that Elijah was his personal enemy,

and had lain in wait for the occasion to call down Divine judgment upon him. It was against this attempt to make it a

merely personal controversy that Elijah's answer was directed (ver. 20). "I have found (not 'thee'), because th ou hast

sold thyself to work evil in the sight of Jehovah." What the prophet had spoken was not the outcome of personal

enmity, nor was what had occurred the result of a sudden temptation or rash mood of the king, but of the whole

direction of life which A hab had deliberately chosen. And in this two elements were closely marked: that he had sold

himself as a slave (Romans 7:14), so that he had no longer freedom of action, but had, as it were, to obey his master's

behests; and that he had so sold himself, consciously or unconsciously, "to do the evil in the sight of Jehovah."

Accordingly, the judgment which Elijah announced was not merely personal to Ahab, as what he said about the dogs

licking his blood; but it also struck his dynasty and doomed it to extermination for this twofold reason: "on account of

the wrath which thou hast caused to go forth,63 and hast made Israel to sin." On the other hand, this general judgment

should not take the place of personal punishment upon the doers of such a crime as the judicial murder64 of Naboth.

The dogs would "eat Jezebel at the wall of Jezreel," while a similar fate would overtake all the posterity of Ahab in the

city (viz., of Samaria) or in the field. These must be regarded as personal judgments denounced on pers onal sins. This

is also indicated by the intercalated remarks of the writer of the narrative (in verses 25, 26).  65 But the actual

punishment might be averted or modified by personal repentance, although not as regarded that pronounced on the

national guilt in which the rule of Ahab had involved Israel.

If evidence of the truth of this narrative - and, as connected with it, of this whole history - were required, what is told in

conclusion would furnish it. For a legendary story would not have represented A hab as repenting and yet not

renouncing his former courses. But this also is true to life. As formerly what he witnessed on Carmel, so now the words

of Elijah went straight to Ahab's heart. He no longer disguised the truth from himself, nor sought to divert his mind by

thoughts of personal animosity on the part of the prophet. It was against Jehovah that he had sinned, and before

Jehovah he humbled himself. As a mourner he rent his clothes; as a penitent he wore sackcloth; as guilty he fasted; and

as one staggering under a heavy load of grief and sin, he walked softly.66