As described in 1 Kings 21:1-7, the previous article reviewed how – long ago – the king of Israel (named Ahab) wanted to buy a nearby vineyard that belonged to someone else named Naboth. Naboth declined Ahab’s offer, though, for a legitimate reason, and the king went and pouted about it. When the king complained to his wife Jezebel, she said that she would take care of it.
Now, if we saw a similar situation today, where a company or developer was buying up land for a particular project, there are at least 2 solutions (at least, that’s what TV or the movies suggest).
- One option is that the business offers to “sweeten the pot” by increasing the offer price, or perhaps proposing to help acquire and move the current landowners to somewhere else that is even nicer.
- The other approach is that bad things start to happen to the holdouts. In the Hollywood scenario, this could range from threats to “accidents” or the property being burned down.
I’m afraid that Jezebel took the latter approach. Rather than just putting a hit out on Naboth, though, she had a strategy.
So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. In those letters she wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”
1 Kings 21:8-10 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.21.8-10.NIV
I’m not sure if we should be appalled or impressed at her tactics, but she found a way to take Naboth out of the picture without directly implicating Ahab (at least to those who weren’t “in the loop”). She drew up instructions for the local political leaders (she was the queen, after all) in Ahab’s name, and set Naboth up for a fall. A couple of liars were going to say that Naboth did something terrible – something so bad that it deserved execution.
Now, since we have the truth written out here, apparently what she did eventually became known. It’s not a secret today, after all. However, she may have had enough influence with the leaders of Jezreel to cover it up for a while. As a commentator pointed out, though, these other leaders seem to have been quite complicit in this deception.
By the way, note that even this evil plan follows some of the rules that God had given to Israel. Passages like Deuteronomy 17:2-7 and Deuteronomy 19:15-21 emphasize the importance of having multiple witnesses, especially for capital crimes. However, as detailed by Long, p.250-251, this is clearly a travesty of justice, even if it was given the appearance of compliance with God’s law. And, while perhaps some of the observers of the trial were fooled into thinking that the accusations were true, God was not deceived.
Thinking about the trial of Jesus centuries later, the gospel of Mark (see Mark 14:55-65) says that false testimony was given against Jesus but even the false witnesses’ lies didn’t line up with each other. The gospel of Matthew (see Matthew 26:59-66) mentions a couple of people talking about a prophecy that Jesus made, but apparently taking out of context. In the end, I think that this just adds more weight to the fact that the “trial” of Jesus was a sham: a pretense to get Him executed by the Roman Empire.
Back in 1 Kings 21, in verses 11-14, the leaders of the city did what Jezebel told them to: Naboth was falsely accused of blasphemy and sedition, and he was stoned to death.
Once this was done, the leaders sent word back that the deed was done. (By the way, since they sent this message back to Jezebel, they seem to have known that she was behind the order, despite it being sealed with the king’s seal.)
Then, per verses 15-16, if I could paraphrase Jezebel’s message back to Ahab, it might be, “You can stop pouting now. Naboth, who turned down your purchase of his land, is dead, so you can do what you want with his property.”
In the book of Esther, Haman’s property returned to the king when he was executed, so the king could give Haman’s land to anyone he wanted (which ended up being Esther, who appointed her cousin Mordecai over it). I wonder if the Israelites had a similar law, although that would imply Naboth didn’t have any heirs to contest the land. However, a commentator [Long, p.252] pointed out that 2 Kings 9 suggests that Naboth’s sons were also executed. So, perhaps Naboth’s being convicted of a capital offense (even if the accusations were false) forfeited his other heirs’ claim to the land, or maybe they were too afraid to make a claim to it after seeing what Jezebel did to Naboth and his sons.
Regardless, Ahab got up and took the vineyard. Like a pouting child who gets what he or she wants, Ahab got what he wanted, so he stopped pouting (at least about the vineyard). As you might imagine, though, this wasn’t the end of the story!
From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 25, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 & 2 Kings, by Jesse C. Long, Jr. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 