1 Kings 21:16

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN AHAB HEARD THAT NABOTH WAS DEAD, THAT AHAB ROSE UP TO GO DOWN TO THE VINEYARD OF NABOTH THE JEZREELITE, TO TAKE POSSESSION OF IT._ Ahab rose up to go down - from Samaria to Jezreel....

5-16 When, instead of a help meet, a man has an agent for Satan, in the form of an artful, unprincipled, yet beloved wife, fatal effects may be expected. Never were more wicked orders given by any prince, than those Jezebel sent to the rulers of Jezreel. Naboth must be murdered under colour of religion. There is no wickedness so vile, so horrid, but religion has sometimes been made a cover for it. Also, it must be done under colour of justice, and with the formalities of legal process. Let us, from this sad story, be amazed at the wickedness of the wicked, and the power of Satan in the children of disobedience. Let us commit the keeping of our lives and comforts to God, for innocence will not always be our security; and let us rejoice in the knowledge that all will be set to rights in the great day....

TO TAKE POSSESSION OF IT - The goods of traitors appear to have been forfeited to the crown by the Jewish law as they still are almost universally throughout the East. Compare 2 Samuel 16:4....

EXPOSITION THE STORY OF NABOTH. THE DOOM OF AHAB'S HOUSE. HIS PENITENCE.— 1 KINGS 21:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THESE THINGS [These words are omitted in the Vat. LXX; which, as before remarked, transposes 1 Kings 20:1. and 21. See introductory note, 1 Kings 20:1.], THAT NABOTH ["Fruit," "produce" (Gesen). Wordsworth sees in him a type of Christ, cast out of the vineyard ...

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN AHAB HEARD THAT NABOTH WAS DEAD,.... Of which he was informed by Jezebel: THAT AHAB ROSE UP TO GO DOWN TO THE VINEYARD OF NABOTH THE JEZREELITE, TO TAKE POSSESSION OF IT; if it was in Jezreel, that was sixteen miles from Samaria, and lay lower than that, in a valley, and therefore he is said to go down to it; and which he did very likely in great state and pomp, many of his nobles and captains accompanying him, as we read that Jehu and Bidkar did ride after him at this time, 2 Kings 9:25....

CHAPTER 21NABOTH'S VINEYARD _ 1. Naboth's refusal (1 Kings 21:1)_ 2. Jezebel's wicked deed (1 Kings 21:5) 3. Elijah pronounces divine judgment (1 Kings 21:17) 4. Ahab's wickedness and confession (1 Kings 21:25) 5. The LORD's mercy (1 Kings 21:28) No comment is needed on the story of Naboth's vineyard. Jezebel, the wicked, and Ahab's submission to her was his ruination. On her Satanic suggestion one of the most wicked deeds recorded in Bible history is done. Naboth is murdered to obtain his vi

THE STORY OF NABOTH. This is evidently not a part of the Elijah story of 1 Kings 17-19. There are certain differences of style; _e.g._ Ahab is described as king of Samaria (1); and Elijah does not, as in 1 Kings 17-19, occupy the central place. Nor does the story come in a very suitable place between 1 Kings 20 and 1 Kings 22, which have points in common. In the LXX it occurs before 1 Kings 20. It is probably, though not certainly, an independent narrative about Elijah. Ahab, as is usual. is not represented in the worst possible light; the great offender is Jezebel, who acts not as a Baal worshipper so much as a queen of Israel. Some critics (_e.g._ Burney) connect this passage with 2 Kings 9 f., the story of the destruction of the house of Omri by Jehu, where the mention of the burden laid on Ahab on that occasion demands the recital of thesecircumstances. Naboth refused to sell his vin...

_when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead_ Here the LXX. adds -he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloth". This clause must be entirely out of place. Josephus gives us a detail far more in harmony with Ahab's character. He says (_Ant._viii. 13, 8) -And Ahab was pleased with what had been done, and sprang up from his bed, and went to see Naboth's vineyard". There was certainly no time lost by him. His entry on the possession seems to have been made the very next day after Naboth's death. We learn afterwards (2 Kings 9:26) that Jehu and Bidkar rode with Ahab at the time, and so appalling was the curse which Elijah pronounced on the wretched king that it was imprinted on Jehu's memory and he could quote it many years afterwards, apparently in its very words....

B. THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST NABOTH 21:8-16 TRANSLATION (8) So she wrote letters in the name of Ahab, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and unto the nobles which were in his city, dwelling with Naboth, (9) and she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people, (10) and two men, sons of Belial, before him that they may testify against him, saying, You cursed God and king; then they shall take him out, and stone him, that he may die. (11) And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in his city, did according to that which Jezebel had sent unto them, according to that which was written in the letters which she had sent onto them. (12) They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. (13) And two of the men, sons of Belial, came and sat before him, and the men of Belial testifie...

NABOTH'S VINEYARD 1. After these things] The LXX places this chapter after 1 Kings 19, and so prevents the separation of 1 Kings 20:22, which are closely connected. JEZREEL] in the plain of Esdraelon....