Commentaria in III Regum
IN THIS PLACE, WHEREIN THE DOGS HAVE LICKED THE BLOOD OF NABOTH, THEY SHALL LICK THY BLOOD ALSO.—It is related that this really came to pass by a fitting and just vengeance of God, chapter 22, verse 38. You will say: There it is said that the dogs licked the blood of Achab in Samaria, but the dogs licked the blood of Naboth in Jezrahel, where he was slain. I answer that Jezrahel belonged to Samaria, which was the capital and head of the whole kingdom of Israel. The same place is therefore to be understood here in general, not in particular. So Abulensis, Lyranus, Vatablus. The Hebrews answer otherwise, namely that the arms of Achab, stained with his blood, were washed in the pool of Jezrahel when they were carried to the armoury: wherefore then the dogs licked his washed-off blood; but Abulensis refutes this, from the fact that in chapter 22, verse 38, this prophecy is said to be fulfilled when the dogs licked his blood in Samaria, for which Josephus wrongly substitutes Jezrahel. It could also be said that God mitigated and revoked this punishment on account of the penance of Achab, as is hinted in verse 29.
Finally, more plainly and fully, Salian and Sanchez think that it was fulfilled in Joram the son of Achab: for he was slain in the field of Jezrahel. For blood often signifies children; for these are begotten of blood; whence that of Anchises about Julius Caesar:
Cast away your weapons, my blood, that is, O my son Julus, Aeneid book 6. This is proved both from verse 29, where God, mitigating this punishment threatened to Achab on account of his penance, says that He will transfer it from Achab to his son Joram, and from 4 Kings, chapter 9, verses 25 and 26, where, Joram being slain, Jehu commanded his corpse to be cast into the field of Naboth to be licked and devoured by dogs, to fulfil this prophecy of God concerning him.
So Aristobulus, first king of the Jews of the Machabees, slew his brother Antigonus, but by the just judgment of God, tortured with pains, he vomited blood, which was poured out in the same place where he had shed his brother’s blood. Whence, groaning, he exclaimed, says Josephus, book 13 of the Antiquities, chapter 19: “So my impious and wicked deed is not hidden from God, when I am so quickly called to punishment for the blood of my kinsman. O shameless body, how long will you keep the soul which the shades of my mother and my brother together demand? why do you not give it back at once, that I need not pour out my blood thus by parts, and so make offering to those oppressed by wickedness and parricide?” Scarcely had he said this when he breathed out his soul, having completed only one year in the kingdom.
20. BECAUSE THOU ART SOLD TO DO EVIL.—“Sold,” as a slave addicted to sin. Whence Cajetan says: “sold,” that is delivered to sin; for what is sold is delivered to the buyer as to a master, as if to say: Thou, O Achab, art by thy evil will wholly addicted to sin, as if sold or hired for nothing else than to sin. He alludes to servants, who hire themselves out for certain works and wholly devote themselves to them: for so Achab had devoted himself not only to idols, but also to his Jezabel, so that like a slave he was driven by her to every crime; so Abulensis. The sense, then, is: Thou, O Achab, art in truth neither a king nor an Israelite, that is free and of free condition, but a slave of Baal and Jezabel; because thou hast wholly devoted and given thyself to them, to obey them in all things, and do whatever they will. The cause was that Ithobaal, king of Tyre and father of Jezabel, and therefore father-in-law of Achab, was a priest of Astarte, as Josephus says, book 1 Against Apion, and by his name professed the worship of Baal; for he was called Ithobaal, or, as our Vulgate translates, chapter 16, verse 31, Ethbaal. This father, therefore, most devoted to Baal and Astarte, nay a consecrated priest, poured out his impiety and idolatry upon his daughter Jezabel, and her husband Achab; whence Josephus, book 9, chapter 7: “Baal,” he says, “was the god of the Tyrians whom Achab worshipped, in favour of Ithobal king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, his father-in-law, a temple being dedicated to him at Samaria, and prophets and the rest of the worship assigned.”
Behold here and admire the liberty of Elias, who rebukes King Achab to his face, and throws in his teeth that he is a slave of sin, and even announces extreme destruction. So St. Athanasius, St. Hilary and Lucifer of Cagliari sharply rebuke the Arian Emperor Constantius, and call him Herod, Nero and Antichrist. I recited their words on Apocalypse chapter 11, verse 9.
Tropologically, see here how vile, wretched and unhappy is the sinner, who like Achab for a little pleasure, nay for one gold piece, sells himself and his soul to the devil, and as a slave to his cupidity, to become the food of death and the fuel of hell.
21. I WILL CUT DOWN THY POSTERITY,—that is, I will utterly cut off thy descendants.
27. HE RENT HIS GARMENTS.—This penance of Achab seems to have been from fear of punishment, not from love of justice, and therefore servile, imperfect and extorted; whence God does not seem to have forgiven him the guilt, but only deferred the punishment and transferred it from him to his son, as is said in verse 29. So Lyranus, Dionysius, Cajetan, nay St. Gregory, homily 19 on Ezechiel: “In these words,” he says, “it must be weighed how the sorrow of bitterness in His elect pleases Him, who fear to lose God, if the penance of the reprobate so pleased Him, because he feared to lose the present world; or how welcome to Him is spontaneous affliction for faults in those who please, if this pleased for a time in those also who displeased.”
Nevertheless Abulensis, Hugh, Vatablus, Sanchez, Serarius, nay St. Chrysostom, in his epistle to Theodore (of Mopsuestia) the lapsed, hold that the penance of Achab at this time was true and serious, where he says: “Achab, disturbed by the enormity of the crime itself, repented, and clothed in sackcloth wept for his deed, and so provoked toward himself the mercy of the Lord that He absolved him from all his sins. For thus God says to Elias: Hast thou seen how Achab is compunct before my face, because he wept in my sight, I will not bring the evils in his days.”
So also St. Ambrose, in the book On Naboth, chapter 17, and Tertullian, book 4 Against Marcion, chapter 10. This opinion is likewise probable, and what God says to Elias, verse 29, hints at it: “Hast thou not seen Achab humbled?” etc. Nor does it matter that Achab after his penance soon returned to his former crimes. For he was a very light man, says Theodoret, and was wholly driven by his Jezabel. So today many truly repent, but soon, occasion being given, fall back into their usual sins.
You may reconcile both opinions by saying that the penance of Achab was true attrition, but did not rise to contrition formed by charity. For he seriously grieved for his sins on account of the impending disasters threatened by Elias; but he did not grieve for them out of love of God, namely that he had offended Him who is the highest good. Wherefore he escaped the punishment, but did not blot out the guilt, nor was he justified: which opinion seems most true and in the highest degree consonant with Holy Scripture. Wherefore Calvin wrongly thinks this penance of Achab to have been feigned.
29. BECAUSE THEREFORE HE HATH HUMBLED HIMSELF FOR MY SAKE (namely for me not so much from love as from fear; whence I repay him only temporal pardon and reward, namely), I WILL NOT BRING THE EVIL IN HIS DAYS, BUT IN THE DAYS OF HIS SON.—Wherefore he rightly exclaims… penance, which drew the eyes of God to itself; which, error being confessed, changed the furious sentence of God!
He speaks of the penance of Achab.