19 You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "Have you killed and also taken possession?"' You shall speak to him, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours."'"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? - These words rebuke especially Ahab's indecent haste. He went to Jezreel the very day after Naboth's execution 2-Kings 9:26.
The prophecy following had a double fulfillment. The main fulfillment was by the casting of the dead body of Jehoram into Naboth's plot of ground at Jezreel, where, like Naboth's, it was left for the dogs to eat 2-Kings 9:25. This spot, which was just outside the city wall, and close to a gate 2-Kings 9:31, was probably the actual scene of Naboth's execution. Here did dogs lick Ahab's blood, that is, his son's blood, the execution of the full retaliatory sentence having been deferred to the days of his son, formally and explicitly, on Ahab's repentance 1-Kings 21:29. But, besides this, there was a secondary fulfillment of the prophecy, when, not at Jezreel but at Samaria (marginal reference), the actual blood of Ahab himself, was licked by dogs, only in a way that implied no disgrace. These two fulfillments are complementary to each other.
In the place where dogs licked, etc. - It is in vain to look for a literal fulfillment of this prediction. Thus it would have been fulfilled, but the humiliation of Ahab induced the merciful God to say, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in the days of his son, 1-Kings 21:29. Now dogs did lick the blood of Ahab; but it was at the pool of Samaria, where his chariot and his armor were washed, after he had received his death wound at Ramoth-gilead; but some think this was the place where Naboth was stoned: see 1-Kings 22:38. And how literally the prediction concerning his son was fulfilled, see 2-Kings 9:25, where we find that the body of Jehoram his son, just then slain by an arrow that had passed through his heart, was thrown into the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite; and there, doubtless, the dogs licked his blood, if they did not even devour his body. There is a similar idea of the propriety of punishment overtaking the culprit in the place where he had committed the crime, expressed by Orestes to Aegisthus, Soph. Elect. 1495.
- Χωρει δ' ενθαπερ κατεκτανες
Πατερα τον αμον, ὡς εν ταυτῳ θανῃς.
- Go where thou slew'st my father,
That in the self-same place thou too may'st die.
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, (g) Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, (h) In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
(g) Do you think to have an advantage by murdering an innocent?
(h) This was fulfilled in Joram his son (2-Kings 9:25-26).
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed, and also taken possession?.... Killed in order to possess, and now taken possession upon the murder; some versions, as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic, read without an interrogation, "thou hast killed and hath taken possession", so Joseph Kimchi and Ben Melech; charging him with the murder of Naboth, and the unjust possession of his vineyard; the murder is ascribed to him, because his covetousness was the cause of it; and it was done by the contrivance of his wife; and it is highly probable Ahab knew more of it, and connived at it, and consented to it, than what is recorded, and however, by taking possession upon it, he abetted the fact:
and thou shalt speak unto him, saying, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine; which was fulfilled in his sons, who were his flesh and blood, 2-Kings 9:26, for the punishment was respited in his days, and transferred to his sons, see 1-Kings 21:29, though dogs did lick his blood, even his blood also, according to this prophecy, though not in the same place, see 1-Kings 22:38, wherefore some take these words not to be expressive of the place where, but of the cause or reason for which this should be done, and read the words, "inasmuch", or "because dogs have licked" (h), &c.
(h) "pro eo quod", Junius & Tremellius; "propierea quod", Grotius; so some in Vatablus.
In the place where dogs licked, &c.--a righteous retribution of Providence. The prediction was accomplished, not in Jezreel, but in Samaria; and not on Ahab personally, in consequence of his repentance (1-Kings 21:29), but on his son (2-Kings 9:25). The words "in the place where" might be rendered "in like manner as."
Saying - Thou hast murdered an innocent man; and instead of repenting for it, hast added another piece of injustice and violence to it, and art going confidently and chearfully to reap the fruit of thy wickedness. Thy blood - The threatening was so directed at first; but afterwards, upon his humiliation, the punishment was transferred from him to his son, as is expressed, 1-Kings 21:29, yet upon Ahab's returning to sin, in the next chapter, he brings back the curse upon himself, and so it is no wonder if it be in some sort fulfilled in him also.
*More commentary available at chapter level.