3 Kings 21:3
Naboth answered him: The Lord be merciful to me, and not let me give thee the inheritance of my fathers.
Open 3 Kings 21:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cui respondit Naboth : Propitius sit mihi Dominus, ne dem hæreditatem patrum meorum tibi.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from 3 Kings 20:3
- καὶ εἶπεν Ναβουθαὶ πρὸς Ἀχαάβ Μὴ γένοιτό μοι παρὰ θεοῦ μου δοῦναι κληρονομίαν πατέρων μου σοί.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֥אמֶר נָב֖וֹת אֶל אַחְאָ֑ב חָלִ֤ילָה לִּי֙ מֵֽיהוָ֔ה מִתִּתִּ֛י אֶת נַחֲלַ֥ת אֲבֹתַ֖י לָֽךְ
Haydock's commentary
Fathers. He would have deemed it a mark of disrespect and a crime, as he was not in a state of indigence; which alone could authorize him to sell his property, and then only till the year of jubilee; (Leviticus xxv. 23.) and as his field was to be turned into a royal garden, and the law was disregarded by the king, there was no prospect of his regaining it at that period. The law of Moses was till in force; and there were some, like Naboth, who were resolved to comply with it, (Calmet) even at the hazard of their lives. (Tirinus)
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 Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter IX. Cheating and dishonest ways of making money are utterly unfit for clerics whose duty is to serve all. They ought never to be involved in a money affair, unless it is one affecting a man's life. For them the example of David is given, that they should injure none, even when provoked; also the death of Naboth, to keep them from preferring life to virtue
63. And what, in the case of holy Naboth, was the cause of his death, except his regard for a virtuous life? For when the king demanded the vineyard from him, promising to give him money, he refused the price for his father’s heritage as unseemly, and preferred to shun such shame by dying. “The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee;” that is, that such reproach may not fall on me, that God may not allow such wickedness to be attained by force. He is not speaking about the vines, nor has God care for vines or plots of ground, but he says it of his fathers’ rights. He could have received another or the king’s vineyards and been his friend, wherein men think there is no small usefulness so far as this world is concerned. …
St Ambrose Sermon Against Auxentius on the Giving Up of the Basilicas
17. Thou, Lord Jesus, hast redeemed the world in one moment of time: shall Auxentius in one moment slay, as far as he can, so many peoples, some by the sword, others by sacrilege? He seeks my basilica with bloody lips and gory hands. Him to-day’s chapter answers well: “But unto the wicked said God: Wherefore dost thou declare My righteousness?” That is, there is no union between peace and madness, there is no union between Christ and Belial. You remember also that we read to-day of Naboth, a holy man who owned his own vineyard, being urged on the king’s request to give it up. When the king after rooting up the vines intended to plant common herbs, he answered him: “God forbid that I should give up the inheritance of my fathers.” The king was grieved, because what belonged by right to another had been refused him on fair grounds, but had been unfairly got by a woman’s device. …