SEV Biblia, Chapter 21:2
Y Acab habló a Nabot, diciendo: Dame tu viña para un huerto de legumbres, porque está cercana, junto a mi casa, y yo te daré por ella otra viña mejor que ésta; o si mejor te pareciere, te pagaré su valor en dinero.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Kings 21:2
Verse 2. Give me thy vineyard] The request of Ahab seems at first view fair and honourable. Naboth's vineyard was nigh to the palace of Ahab, and he wished to add it to his own for a kitchen garden, or perhaps a grass-plat, qry g gan yarak; and he offers to give him either a better vineyard for it, or to give him its worth in money. Naboth rejects the proposal with horror: The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee. No man could finally alienate any part of the parental inheritance; it might be sold or mortgaged till the jubilee, but at that time it must revert to its original owner, if not redeemed before; for this God had particularly enjoined Lev. xxv. 14-17, 25-x18: therefore Naboth properly said, ver. 3, The Lord forbid it me, to give the inheritance of my fathers. Ahab most evidently wished him to alienate it finally, and this is what God's law had expressly forbidden; therefore he could not, consistently with his duty to God, indulge Ahab; and it was high iniquity in Ahab to tempt him to do it; and to covet it showed the depravity of Ahab's soul. But we see farther that, despotic as those kings were, they dared not seize on the inheritance of any man. This would have been a flagrant breach of the law and constitution of the country; and this indeed would have been inconsistent with the character which they sustained, viz., the Lord's vicegerents. The Jewish kings had no authority either to alter the old laws, or to make new ones. "The Hindoos," says Mr. Ward, "are as strongly attached to their homesteads as the Jews were. Though the heads of the family be employed in a distant part of the country, and though the homesteads may be almost in ruins, they cling still to the family inheritance with a fondness bordering on superstition."
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 2. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs , etc.] For a kitchen garden to produce eatables of the vegetable kind for his household, or for a flower garden; and perhaps for both, as Kimchi observes, it being customary to have such in court yards, or behind the house; perhaps he might take his notion of an herb garden from his neighbours the Syrians, who were very diligent and laborious in cultivating their gardens, as Pliny f444 ; hence “multa Syrorum olera”, the many herbs of the Syrians, became a proverb with the Greeks: because it is near unto mine house ; lay very convenient for him: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seemeth good unto thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money ; which seems very well spoken, that he would either give him a better in exchange, or purchase it at its full value; he did not pretend to take it by usurpation, by force, against his will, as it was represented by Samuel kings would do, ( Samuel 8:14) as yet such oppression and tyranny was not exercised.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-4 - Naboth, perhaps, had been pleased that he had a vineyard situated s near the palace, but the situation proved fatal to him; many a man' possessions have been his snare, and his neighbourhood to greatness, or bad consequence. Discontent is a sin that is its own punishment, an makes men torment themselves. It is a sin that is its own parent; it arises not from the condition, but from the mind: as we find Pau contented in a prison, so Ahab was discontented in a palace. He had all the delights of Canaan, that pleasant land, at command; the wealth of kingdom, the pleasures of a court, and the honours and powers of throne; yet all avails him nothing without Naboth's vineyard. Wron desires expose men to continual vexations, and those that are dispose to fret, however well off, may always find something or other to fre at.
Original Hebrew
וידבר 1696 אחאב 256 אל 413 נבות 5022 לאמר 559 תנה 5414 לי את 853 כרמך 3754 ויהי 1961 לי לגן 1588 ירק 3419 כי 3588 הוא 1931 קרוב 7138 אצל 681 ביתי 1004 ואתנה 5414 לך תחתיו 8478 כרם 3754 טוב 2896 ממנו 4480 אם 518 טוב 2896 בעיניך 5869 אתנה 5414 לך כסף 3701 מחיר 4242 זה׃ 2088
