And Ahab spoke unto Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give you for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you the worth of it in money.
All Commentaries on 1 Kings 21:2 Go To 1 Kings 21
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
“Give me your vineyard,” he says, “so that I may have it for a vegetable garden.” This, then, was his whole madness; this was his whole passion: that a space should be obtained for paltry herbs. Not so much therefore do you yourself desire to possess, as it were, something useful, but you wish to exclude others. You have a greater concern about the possessions of the poor than about your own gains. You think it a wrong to you if a poor person has anything that is considered worthy of a rich person’s ownership. You believe it your loss, whatever is another’s. Why do the injuries done to nature delight you? For all has the world been created, which you few rich people are trying to keep for yourselves. For not merely the possession of the earth but the very sky, the air and the sea are claimed for the use of the rich few.
