1 Kings 21:11

And the men of his city... did. — The pains taken in the invention of this foul plot, and the ready acquiescence of the rulers of the city in carrying it out, are characteristic of the baser forms of organised Eastern despotism — not venturing to take life by simple violence without some cause apparently shown, and yet always able to poison the springs of justice, and do murder under form of law. In Israel, where the king was held to be but a vicegerent of God, subject, in theory, under the old constitution or “manner of the kingdom” (1 Samuel 10:25), to the supreme law, the need of clothing crime with legal form would be especially felt.