Near
King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth.
One day Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard;
it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable
garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will
pay you a fair place."
"I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors, "
Naboth replied. "The LORD forbid that I should let you have it!"
Ahab went home, depressed and angry over to what Naboth had
said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not
eat. His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, "Why are you so
depressed? Why won't you eat?"
He answered, "Because of what Naboth said to me. I
offered to buy his vineyard or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it,
but he told me that I couldn't have it!"
"Well, are you the king or aren't you?"
Jezebel replied. "Get out of bed, cheer up, and eat. I will get
you Naboth's vineyard!"
Then she wrote some letters, signed Ahab's name to them,
sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens
of Jezreel. the letters said: "Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people
together, and give Naboth the place of honor. Get a couple of scoundrels
to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out
of the city and stone him to death."
The officials and leading citizens of Jezebel did what
Jezebel had commanded. they proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people
together, and gave Naboth the place of honor.
The tow scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and
the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. The
message was sent to Jezebel: "Naboth had been put to death."
As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab,
"Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused
to sell to you." At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession
of it.
Then the LORD said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe,
"Go to King Ahab of Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard,
about to take possession of it. Tell him that I, the LORD, say to him,
'After murdering the man, are you taking over his property as well?' Tell
him that this is what I say: 'In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth's
blood they will lick up your blood!'
When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, "Have you caught up wiht
me, my enemy?"
"Yes, I have," Elijah answered. "You have devoted
yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the LORD's sight. So the
LORD says to you, 'I will bring disaster on you. I will do away with you
and get rid of every male in your family, young and old alike. Your family
will become like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of
King Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have stirred up my anger by leading
Israel into sin.'
And concerning Jezebel, the LORD says that dogs will
eat her body in the city of Jezreel. Any of your relatives who die in the
city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by
vultures."
(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. 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 advance.)
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.
The LORD said to the prophet Elijah, "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."
