| I Kings 21:9
| And this was the tenor of the letters: Proclaim a fast, and make Naboth sit among the chief of the people;
| Fast, as in a case of the greatest importance, where the welfare of the king and of the state are concerned. We have frequent mention of such extraordinary fasts, 2 Paralipomenon 20:3., 1 Esdras 8:21., and Joel 1:14, etc. Some would translated, "Call an assembly." (Vatable) --- But the Chaldean, etc., are for the fast. Josephus joins both. All the people were collected, (Calmet) and Naboth was (Hebrew) "set on high, or at the head, as president, on account of his riches and nobility, (Haydock) that he might be unprepared, and afterwards be more disgraced. (Menochius) Abulensis (q. 4.) thinks that the judges were accustomed to fast, to shew their pity for the criminal, and that they were moved only by a zeal for justice.
|