3 Kings 21:19
And thou shalt speak to him, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast slain, moreover also thou hast taken possession. And after these words thou shalt add: Thus saith the Lord: In this place, wherein the dogs have licked the blood of Naboth, they shall lick thy blood also.
Open 3 Kings 21:19 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et loqueris ad eum, dicens : Hæc dicit Dominus : Occidisti, insuper et possedisti. Et post hæc addes : Hæc dicit Dominus : In loco hoc, in quo linxerunt canes sanguinem Naboth, lambent quoque sanguinem tuum.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from 3 Kings 20:19
- καὶ λαλήσεις πρὸς αὐτὸν λέγων Τάδε λέγει Κύριος Ὡς σὺ ἐφόνευσας καὶ ἐκληρονόμησας, διὰ τοῦτο τάδε λέγει Κύριος Ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ᾧ ἔλιξαν αἱ ὕες καὶ οἱ κύνες τὸ αἷμα Ναβουθαί, ἐκεῖ λίξουσιν οἱ κύνες τὸ αἷμά σου, καὶ αἱ πόρναι λούσονται ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְדִבַּרְתָּ֨ אֵלָ֜יו לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה הֲרָצַ֖חְתָּ וְגַם יָרָ֑שְׁתָּ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֨ אֵלָ֜יו לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה בִּמְק֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר לָקְק֤וּ הַכְּלָבִים֙ אֶת דַּ֣ם נָב֔וֹת יָלֹ֧קּוּ הַכְּלָבִ֛ים אֶת דָּמְךָ֖ גַּם אָֽתָּה
Haydock's commentary
Possession, by desire; though he was yet only on the road. (Menochius)
Perhaps he had sent his servants before. (Haydock)
Place, not precisely, as Achab was slain in Samaria. (Menochius)
But Naboth's vineyard, perhaps, was not far distant from the pool, where dogs licked the blood of the king. (Haydock)
On account of Achab's repentance, the sentence was (ver. 29.; Calmet) rather changed, and his son Joram was substituted in his stead, 4 Kings ix. 25. Jehu, and his captain, Badacer, were present, when Elias denounced this judgment upon the family of Achab; and they concluded that the prediction regarded Joram. He had, perhaps, taken part with his impious parents, and promoted the same crimes. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew VII. 21
Such an one was Elias too: wherefore also with the same freedom did he discourse to the people. For as the former said, “Ye generation of vipers;”so this latter, “How long will ye halt upon both your hips?” And the one said, “Hast thou killed, and inherited?”the other, “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother Philip’s wife.”
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XII on Acts iv. 36, 37
If those for lying suffered such things, what shall not the perjured suffer? Because she simply affirmed, “Yea, for so much,” ye see what she suffered. Bethink you then; they that swear and forswear themselves, of what should they be worthy? It comes in opportunely to-day even from the Old Testament to show you the heinousness of perjury. “There was,” it says, “a flying sickle, ten cubits in breadth.” ( Zech. v. 2 .) The “flying” betokens the swift advent of the vengeance which pursues oaths; that it is many cubits in length and breadth, signifies the force and magnitude of the woes; that it comes flying “from heaven,” is to show that the vengeance comes from the judgment-seat on high: that it is in the form of a sickle,” denotes the inevitableness of the doom: for just as the sickle, where it comes and has hooked the neck, is not drawn back with nothing but itself, but with the head rea …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Oceanus
4. But why do I linger over old and forgotten matters, seeking to excuse a fault for which Fabiola has herself confessed her penitence? Who would believe that, after the death of her second husband at a time when most widows, having shaken off the yoke of servitude, grow careless and allow themselves more liberty than ever, frequenting the baths, flitting through the streets, shewing their harlot faces everywhere; that at this time Fabiola came to herself? Yet it was then that she put on sackcloth to make public confession of her error. It was then that in the presence of all Rome (in the basilica which formerly belonged to that Lateranus who perished by the sword of Cæsar) she stood in the ranks of the penitents and exposed before bishop, presbyters, and people, all of whom wept when they saw her weep, her dishevelled hair, pale features, soiled hands and unwashed neck. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Rusticus
The ungodly king Ahab, who shed the blood of Naboth to gain his vineyard, was with Jezebel, the partner less of his bed than of his cruelty, severely rebuked by Elijah. “Thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession?” and again, “in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine;” and “the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.” “And it came to pass”, the passage goes on, “when Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth…and the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying, Because Ahab humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.” Ahab’s sin and Jezebel’s were the same; yet because Ahab repented, his punishment was postponed so as to fall upon his sons, while Jezebel persisting in her wickedness met her doom then and there.