Verse 2
And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs ,.... 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 F26 Nat Hist. l. 20. c. 5. ; 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, 1 Samuel 8:14 as yet such oppression and tyranny was not exercised.
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