1 Kings 21:27

27 When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

1 Kings 21:27 Meaning and Commentary

Ver. 27 And it came to pass when Ahab heard these words
Delivered in ( 1 Kings 21:21-24 ) ,

that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon, his flesh,
tore off his clothes, and stripped himself of all, even of his very shirt, and put sackcloth on his bare flesh, a coarse cloth made of hair, and such as sacks are made with:

and fasted,
how long it is not said:

and lay in sackcloth;
in the night on his bed, would have no linen on him day nor night:

and went softly:
step by step, as persons mourning, grieving, and pensive, do; the Targum renders it "barefoot", and so Jarchi.

1 Kings 21:27 In-Context

25 (There was no one else who had devoted himself so completely to doing wrong in the Lord's sight as Ahab - all at the urging of his wife Jezebel.

26 He committed the most shameful sins by worshiping idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the people of Israel advanced.)

27 When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

28 The Lord said to the prophet Elijah,

29 "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family."