Chapter Twenty-One

1–6. Ahab attempts to acquire the vineyard of Naboth but receives his refusal. 7–13. Jezebel accuses Naboth of blasphemy and contempt of the king; his trial and execution. 14–17. Ahab takes possession of Naboth’s vineyard. 18–29. Elijah denounces Ahab, who repents and receives mitigation of the divine sentence.

1 Kings 21:1. Now after these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. 1 Kings 21:2. And Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near to my house; and I will give you for it a vineyard better than it, or if it seem good to you, I will give you money for it, according to its worth. 1 Kings 21:3. But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers! 1 Kings 21:4. And Ahab came home angry and grieved because of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, saying, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down upon his bed and turned his face away, and ate no food. 1 Kings 21:5. And his wife Jezebel came to him and said to him, Why is your spirit troubled, that you eat no food? 1 Kings 21:6. And he said to her, When I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money, or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place, then he said, I will not give you my vineyard, [the inheritance of my fathers]. The incident with Naboth presents a vivid but unattractive picture of material and legal relationships in the Israelite kingdom. In the person of Ahab, seeking to acquire not something necessary to him but merely a vineyard of the peaceful citizen Naboth lying near his Jezreel palace, there is fulfilled in all its force the prophetic word of Samuel regarding the future despotism of Hebrew kings (1 Sam 8:11-16): proud with his twofold victory over the Syrians, Ahab is concerned with expanding his gardens at his summer residence (cf. 1 Kgs 18:46; 2 Kgs 9:30) in Jezreel (according to H. Grotius, ‘post victos hostes ad delicias comparandas animum adjicit’), sparing no means to do so; the venal conscience of the elders and judges subservient to the king favors the display of palace intrigue and tyranny. Naboth’s refusal to sell his ancestral plot to Ahab (v. 3) shows in him a true worshiper of Jehovah and a zealot of His law, which forbade the Israelites from alienating inherited land into other hands, and even in extreme poverty the sold land had to be returned to its original owner without redemption (Lev 25:23-28; Num 36:7-9); the sale of an ancestral plot could seem to Naboth also an insult to the memory of his ancestors, who according to ancient Hebrew custom might have been buried on the very plot itself. Here, therefore, there can be no question of Naboth’s obstinacy or willfulness; here the matter concerned the law that secured the very existence of the theocracy, which was binding even upon kings (Ezek 46:18). Perhaps feeling the rightness of Naboth, not seduced even by the tempting promises of Ahab to compensate him for surrendering his vineyard to the king, Ahab does not dare to act with violence and merely gives himself over to melancholy (v. 4): in sorrow he “lay upon his bed and turned his face” (to the wall, as in (2 Kgs 20:2) and the Vulgate: avertit faciem suam ad parietem. The LXX instead of the Hebrew sawab, “turned,” read sakh—“covered”: συγκάλυψε τὸ πρόσωπον αύτοῦ; Slavonic: “covered his face”), and ate no food. But if for Ahab there still existed obstacles to boundless willfulness and violence—in the form of dimly perceived divine law and recognized public opinion—for his wife Jezebel no such obstacles could exist: as a stubborn heathen, she refused to know the law of God, except perhaps to mask her base designs with the name of law (v. 10), and public opinion, in her concepts of the absolutism of royal power (v. 7), is likewise a negligible quantity that she, as queen, can create and use at her own discretion. The subsequent narrative (vv. 7–13) fully confirms that Jezebel’s actions completely corresponded to her convictions and words. “Ahab was light-minded and prone to fall, and it was easy to turn him this way and that; for this reason the crafty wife plunged him into the pit of wickedness” (the blessed Theodoret, question 62).

1 Kings 21:7. And Jezebel his wife said to him, What kind of kingship would this be for you in Israel? Rise up, eat bread, and let your heart be glad; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. 1 Kings 21:8. And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and nobles who dwelt in his city with Naboth. 1 Kings 21:9. In the letters she wrote: Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people; 1 Kings 21:10. and set two worthless men opposite him, and let them testify against him, saying, You cursed God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death. Rebuking Ahab for weakness in using royal power (v. 7), Jezebel takes this power into her own hands, acting in Ahab’s name. These actions reveal the greatest cunning of Jezebel and her ability to achieve her dark ends by respectable means. Given that (as Josephus says, Antiquities of the Jews VIII, 13, 8) Naboth was probably of noble birth, Jezebel considers it necessary to have a formal trial of him, conducted outwardly in full accordance with the law. She writes (v. 8) letters to the elders and nobles who are Naboth’s fellow citizens in Jezreel (the royal court was then apparently in Samaria), sealing these letters with Ahab’s royal seal (probably a royal ring with the king’s name engraved on it, cf. Esth 8:10; Dan 6:17); Naboth was to be judged, therefore, by his own fellow citizens, by the local city court of Jezreel (cf. Deut 16:18), not by the royal court—to eliminate suspicion of court bias. This final goal, the elimination of all suspicion of court bias, was served by Jezebel’s arrangement (v. 9) that at the coming assembly of the court Naboth be seated at the head of the people, so that then the people’s indignation against Naboth would manifest itself all the more forcefully when his supposed crime would be revealed. Wishing to give Naboth’s supposed crime an anti-social character, threatening the welfare of the whole people, Jezebel commands (v. 9) that a public fast be proclaimed in Jezreel, as in cases of grave national disasters (Joel 1:12), after disastrous defeats (Judg 20:26; 1 Sam 31:13), after grave sins, in repentance (1 Sam 7:6; Joel 2:12), to avert impending disaster (2 Chr 20:3-5); the fast in this case could be presented by hypocritical Jezebel both as a means to seek God’s help in the work of justice (cf. Deut 9:9; Dan 9:3) and as a cleansing measure, as a symbol of atonement regarding the predetermined death sentence passed upon Naboth by the court. Jezebel’s cunning extends to requiring (v. 10) the observance of the formality necessarily required by the law in criminal cases (Deut 17:6) of the presence of two or three witnesses of the crime (according to Josephus, Jezebel requires three witnesses, not two, as in the biblical text). The charge that was to be brought against Naboth could and, by the law, must inevitably carry his death sentence, namely: blasphemy against God (Lev 24:14-15) and blasphemy against the king (Exod 22:28). The LXX and Slavonic (v. 10): εύλόγησε Θεὸν καὶ βασιλέα; Slavonic: “blessed God and king”: the Hebrew verb barach has this opposite meaning—to bless and to curse—also in (Job 1:5). According to the blessed Theodoret (question 61), “the abominable Jezebel fabricated slander... the slanderers came and brought an accusation against him as a blasphemer. The writer, however, piously used the word: ‘blessed’ instead of ‘cursed’.”

1 Kings 21:11. And the men of his city, the elders and nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had commanded them, as it was written in the letters she had sent to them. 1 Kings 21:12. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people; 1 Kings 21:13. and two worthless men came and sat against him and testified against him, these wicked men testifying before the people that Naboth cursed God and the king. And they brought him out of the city and stoned him with stones, and he died. Everything happened in exact accordance with Jezebel’s design and orders: the godless queen found in the elders-judges worthy executors of her will. Naboth was stoned (v. 13); together with him, his sons were also killed (2 Kgs 9:26), so that Naboth’s vineyard could be a free plot. Such plots of those condemned for crimes of state, by unwritten law, were considered the property of the crown and were confiscated in favor of the king (2 Sam 16:4); on the other hand, the opinion (of Klostermann) that Ahab should have taken possession of the vineyard by the right of his kinship with Naboth is lacking in probability.

1 Kings 21:14. And they sent word to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned and is dead. 1 Kings 21:15. When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, she said to Ahab, Rise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead. 1 Kings 21:16. When Ahab heard that Naboth [the Jezreelite] was dead, [he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and then] rose to go into the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite and take possession of it. As soon as the news of Naboth’s execution reached Samaria, Ahab, at Jezebel’s urging, hastens to take possession of the vineyard. In the accepted text of the LXX and Slavonic there is a remark about Ahab: καὶ δέρρηξε τὰ ἱμάτια αυτοῦ καὶ περιεβάλετο σάκκον, “and he tore his robes and put on sackcloth.” These words are absent in many Greek manuscripts of Holmes, in the Complutensian Bible, and in the Vulgate: they accord poorly with the context of v. 16 and could have been erroneously transferred here from v. 27.

1 Kings 21:17. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: 1 Kings 21:18. Rise, go to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he has come to take it into possession; 1 Kings 21:19. and say to him, Thus says the Lord: You have killed, and also taken possession? and say to him, Thus says the Lord: In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick your blood also. Now to expose the crying crime of Ahab, the prophet Elijah appears again and, as always, with the speed of lightning. Although the initiative of the crime, the incitement to the murder of Naboth, came from Jezebel, Ahab’s undoubted knowledge of this affair (v. 7) and his evident enjoyment of what was obtained through blood (v. 16) made him a full participant in his wife’s crime (cf. Gen 3:9). The prophecy regarding Ahab’s shameful death (v. 19) was fulfilled in all its exactness in his son Joram (2 Kgs 9:21-26), but essentially also in Ahab himself, (1 Kgs 22:38): from this latter passage the accepted text of the LXX and Slavonic introduces also into (1 Kgs 21:19) the words: καὶ αἱ πόρναι λούσονται ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου, “and the harlots shall wash themselves in your blood,” and furthermore in both places the LXX and Slavonic insert αί ὕες, “the swine.”

1 Kings 21:20. And Ahab said to Elijah, Have you found me, my enemy? He said, I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord [and to provoke Him]. 1 Kings 21:21. [Thus says the Lord:] Behold, I will bring disaster upon you and will sweep away after you and cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free, and those remaining in Israel. 1 Kings 21:22. And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah, because of the offense with which you have provoked Me and caused Israel to sin. 1 Kings 21:23. And the Lord also spoke concerning Jezebel: The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. 1 Kings 21:24. Anyone of Ahab’s line who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone who dies in the field the birds of the sky shall devour; 1 Kings 21:25. (There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, because his wife Jezebel incited him; 1 Kings 21:26. he acted most abominably, following idols, as the Amorites did, whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. Ahab already from experience knows what it means that the prophet Elijah suddenly appears before him (1 Kgs 17:1). To the prophet’s denunciation he sets forth (v. 20; cf. 1 Kgs 18:17) the prophet’s personal hostility toward him, but the latter points out that the cause of everything is Ahab’s willful surrender to sin (Hebrew gitmakker: sold (to sin), cf. 2 Kgs 17:17; Rom 7:14 and the Slavonic add: μάτην, “in vain, sold”; the divine punishment will overtake Ahab and his house, as it did the house of Jeroboam (1 Kgs 14:10-11) and the house of Baasha (1 Kgs 16:3-4)—the features of destruction in all cases are depicted with literal exactness the same way, (vv. 21, 22); cf. (2 Kgs 9:8-9); a shameful death threatens especially Jezebel, the chief culprit of ungodliness in Israel under Ahab (v. 23); cf. (2 Kgs 9:10); ungodliness consisting of the official introduction of the cult of Baal (vv. 25–26), in which Ahab proved worse than all his predecessors (cf. 1 Kgs 16:31-33): they supported the cult of the calves, displeasing to Jehovah, but Ahab introduced pure heathendom.

1 Kings 21:27. When Ahab heard all these words, [he was moved before the Lord, and walked and wept,] he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, and fasted, and slept in sackcloth, and went about dejectedly. 1 Kings 21:28. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite [concerning Ahab], saying: 1 Kings 21:29. Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; in the days of his son I will bring the disaster upon his house. The denunciation of the prophet Elijah, as after the Mount Carmel event (1 Kgs 18:45-46), produced a powerful effect on Ahab. Ahab, apparently, was inclined to receive the impact of the prophet’s preaching, but his weak character and submission to the influence of his heathen wife paralyzed the saving effect of the prophet’s personality and preaching: (a complete analogy with Herod, who listened to John the Baptist with pleasure and yet had him put to death at the instigation of wicked Herodias), (Mark 6:20-26): Ahab (according to the LXX and Slavonic: “was moved before the Lord, and walked weeping”—an addition, scarcely original, but fully expressing the sense of the text) put on mourning, customary in sorrow (cf. 1 Kgs 20:31-32), and subjected himself to penitential fasting (cf. 2 Sam 12:16; Isa 58:3-11), for which reason the Lord through the prophet Elijah softened His judgment upon Ahab (v. 29): the threatening prophecy will be fulfilled in all its force not upon Ahab, but upon his son Joram (2 Kgs 9:24-26). Thus, “the abyss of goodness—the Master God threatened final destruction for murder; and for tears over the murder He granted a delay of punishment” (the blessed Theodoret, question 62). “The repentance, of course, was not feigned, but temporary; for which reason the pardon that accompanied it was also temporary” (Philaret, p. 246).