I Kings 21

Interpretation and application of God's

law regarding who is "in charge" and

feels their coveting and even plundering

of those vulnerable has no check or warning

[ see the way Prophet Elijah the Tishbite

warns off the scheming, covetous ruler Ahab

in Chapter 21, The Book of First Kings,

Hebrew Tanakh ]

Give me your vineyard, he says,

so that I may have it for a vegetable

garden.

This then was Ahab's 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 are claimed

but the very sky, the air, and the sea

are claimed for the use of the rich few.

(Bishop Ambrose of Milan, On Naboth

ch.31, #11) - translated for 1927

CUA Press by M. McGuire for Patristic

Studies volume 15: page 53.