Chapter XVII.
The reason why Ahab, to whom God had promised forgiveness for his repentance, was still defeated and killed, is twofold: from this it is concluded that God keeps His promises even to the unworthy.
In this place arises the question, how do we understand the Lord's words to Elijah: 'Have you seen how Ahab has been moved before me?' I will not bring evil upon his days, but upon the days of his son (3 Kings 21:29). Or how do we say that repentance is powerful before the Lord? Behold, the king was moved before the face of the Lord, and he went weeping, and tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and was clothed in mourning from the day he killed Naboth the Jezreelite (ibid., 27); so that he would move God with mercy, and change his sentence. Therefore, either repentance did not have power, or it did not turn the merciful Lord, or the oracle is false. For Ahab was defeated and killed (III Kings 22:35).
71. But consider that Jezebel had a wife (3 Kings 20, 25), whose will she was inflamed by, who turned his heart, and made him detestable with excessive sacrileges; and therefore she revoked this affection of his penance. However, the Lord cannot be considered changeable, but he did not consider it necessary to keep the promise he had made to the one confessing, forgetting the confession.
72. Take another example: and the Lord preserved the tenor of his sentence even for the unworthy, but he himself did not retain divine benefits around him. The king of Syria had brought war: he was defeated, and saved for mercy: he was also given freedom as a captive, and restored to his kingdom. What was the divine sentence, Ahab not only escaped, but also triumphed: because of his own cowardice, he armed the enemy whom he would be defeated by. And he had certainly been warned by the prophet saying: Know and see what you are doing (III Kings XXI, 22). I say that he was warned because the grace of Heaven was due to the sons of the king of Syria, since he had said, 'The God of the mountains, the God of Israel, and not the God of Baal.' Therefore, he said, they obtained [victory] for us. And therefore, he said, if we do not fully obtain them, let us appoint satraps in place of the king of Syria, so that he may take away their power and the power of the king. Finally, in the first encounter, he won in order to rout the enemy; he won a second time when he restored him to his command after having captured him. The cause of his evident defeat resulted in an oracle, with one of the sons of the prophets saying to his neighbor: Kill me. But the man refused to kill him. And he said: Because you did not obey the word of the Lord, behold, you will depart from me and a lion will kill you. And he departed from him, and a lion found him and killed him (cf. 2 Kings 20:35 et seq.). And after this, another prophet stood before the king of Israel and said to him: Thus says the Lord, Because you have let a man of destruction escape from your hand, behold, your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.
Therefore, it is clear from these oracles that the Lord also keeps His promises even for the unworthy; but the wicked are either oppressed by their own foolishness or condemned by other transgressions, even if they have escaped the snares of the first transgression. But we must act in such a way that we deserve to receive the promises of the Almighty God, being worthy of good works.