1 Kings 21:17-29
"17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. 19 And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. 21 Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 22 And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin. 23 And of Jezebel the Lord also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’24 Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.”
25 (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. 26 He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the people of Israel.)
27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly.28 And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster upon his house.”"
Ahab had indeed shot his bolt; this crime was the climax of a terrible career and now the hour of requital had dawned. In 20, the words of the king and Elijah are full of suggestion. Here is a man who had consistently violated the dictates of his conscience in turning from the ways of God, a man whose sins had progressively hardened his heart, and yet one to whom God had willed to be gracious. Wherever there is a prophet of God there is opportunity to repent. But instead of looking at Elijah's ministry as an opportunity, Ahab had regarded him as a thorn in the flesh, a constant goad to his guilty conscience. Hence his words, 'Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' - words that might be placed on the lips of many who have fled from God's grace and mercy. How tragic that men should regard the grace that could have saved them and transformed their lives as an enemy they must at all costs avoid: Elijah's rejoinder was terse, and to the point, 'I have found thee.' Exactly. God always catches up. 'Be sure your sin will find you out.' God always gets His man. No-one ever escapes His hand. Doom was pronounced on Ahab and Jezebel alike, and God made the punishment fit the crimes they had committed. Ahab's reaction, it is true, was to humble himself in sackcloth, and the strict justice of God reacted thus late to the slightest sign of penitence (29) how forbearing He is - but there is little sign of a real change of heart in him, as we shall see in the next chapter. But even then, it would seem, God was prepared to deal in mercy with him, had he only forsaken his evil ways. As the paraphrase puts it,
'While the lamp holds on to burn, The greatest sinner may return.'