Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 21:20
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Ahab answered, "Hast thou found me (met with me), O mine enemy?" (not, hast thou ever found me thine enemy? - Vulg., Luth.) i.e., dost thou come to meet me again, mine enemy? He calls Elijah his enemy, to take the sting from the prophet's threat as an utterance caused by personal enmity. But Elijah fearlessly replied, "I have found (thee), because thou sellest thyself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord." He then announced to him, in Kg1 21:21, Kg1 21:22, the extermination of his house, and to Jezebel, as the principal sinner, the most ignominious end ( Kg1 21:23). הרע לעשׂות חתמכּר to sell one's self to do evil, i.e., to give one's self to evil so as to have no will of one's own, to make one's self the slave of evil (cf. Kg1 21:25, Kg2 17:17). The consequence of this is πεπρᾶσθαι ὑπὸ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ( Rom 7:14), sin exercising unlimited power over the man who gives himself up to it as a slave. For Kg1 21:21, Kg1 21:22, see Kg1 14:10-11; Kg1 15:29-30; Kg1 16:3, Kg1 16:12-13. The threat concerning Jezebel ( Kg1 21:23) was literally fulfilled, according to Kg2 9:30. חל, written defectively for חיל, as in Sa2 20:15, is properly the open space by the town-wall, pomoerium. Instead of בּחל we have בּחלק in the repetition of this threat in Kg2 9:10, Kg2 9:36-37, and consequently Thenius and others propose to alter the חל here. But there is no necessity for this, as בּחלק, on the portion, i.e., the town-land, of Jezreel (not, in the field at Jezreel), is only a more general epithet denoting the locality, and חל is proved to be the original word by the lxx. 3 Kings (1 Kings) 21:25
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