'And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had
a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of
Samaria. 2. And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard,
that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my
house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it
seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. 3. And
Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the
inheritance of my fathers unto thee. 4. And Ahab came into his house
heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite
had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the
inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and
turned away his face, and would eat no bread. 5. But Jezebel his wife
came to him, and said unto him. Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou
eatest no bread? 6. And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth
the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money: or
else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and
he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard. 7. And Jezebel his wife
said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and
eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard
of Naboth the Jezreelite. 8. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and
sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to
the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. 9. And she
wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high
among the people: 10. And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to
bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the
king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. 11. And
the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the
inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it
was written in the letters which she had sent unto them. 12. They
proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. 13. And
there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the
men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the
presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king.
Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with
stones, that he died. 14. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is
stoned, and is dead. 15. And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that
Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take
possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused
to give thee for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead. 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.'-1 KINGS xxi. 1-16.
There are three types of character in this story, all bad, but in
different ways. Ahab is wicked and weak; Jezebel, wicked and strong;
the elders of Jezreel, wicked and subservient. Amongst them they commit
a great crime, which was the last drop in the full cup of the king's
sins, and brought down God's judgment on him and his house.
I. We have to look at the weakly wicked Ahab. His wish for Naboth's
vineyard was a mere selfish whim. He was willing to give more for it
than it was worth. It suited his convenience for a kitchen-garden. In
the true spirit of an Eastern despot, he expected everything to yield
to his caprice, and did not think that a subject had any rights. What
business has a poor man with sentiment? Naboth is to go, and a handful
of silver will set all right. Samuel's warning of what a king would be
and do was fulfilled. This highhanded interference with private rights
was what Israel's revolt had led to. The sturdy Naboth was influenced
not only by love for the bit of land which his fathers had cultivated
for more years than Ahab had reigned days, but by obedience to the law
of God; and he was not afraid to show himself a Jehovah worshipper, by
his solemn appeal to 'the Lord,' as well as by the fact of his refusal.
The brusque, flat refusal shows that some independence was left in the
nation.
The weak rage and childish sulking of Ahab are very characteristic of a
feeble and selfish nature, accustomed to be humoured and not thwarted.
These fits of temper seem to have been common with him; for he was in
one at the end of the preceding chapter, as he is now. The 'bed' on
which he flung himself is probably the couch for reclining on at table,
and, if so, the picture of his passion is still more vivid. Instead of
partaking of the meal, he turns his face to the wall, and refuses food.
'No meat will down with him for want of a salad, because wanting
Naboth's vineyard for a garden of herbs.' As he lies there, like a
spoiled child, all because he could not get his own way, he may serve
for an example of the misery of unbridled selfishness and unregulated
desires. An acre or two of land was a small matter to get into such a
state about, and there are few things that are worth a wise or a strong
man's being so troubled. Hezekiah might 'turn his face to the wall' in
the extremity of sickness and earnestness of prayer; but Ahab in doing
it is only a poor, feeble creature who has weakly set his heart on what
is not his, and weakly whimpers because he cannot have it.
To be thus at the mercy of our own ravenous desires, and so utterly
miserable when they are thwarted, is unworthy of manhood, and is sure
to bring many a bitter moment; for there are more disappointments than
gratifications in store for such a one. We may learn from Ahab, too,
the certainty that weakness will darken into wickedness. Such a mood as
his always brings some Jezebel or other to suggest evil ways of
succeeding. In this wicked world there are more temptations to sin than
helps to virtue, and the weak man will soon fall into some of the
abundant traps laid for him. Unless we have learned to say 'No' with
much emphasis, because we are 'strong in the Lord,' we shall fall.
'This did not I because of the fear of the Lord.' To be weak is to be
miserable, and any sin may come from it.
II. Jezebel is a type of a different sort of wickedness. She is wicked
and strong. Notice how she takes the upper hand at once, in her abrupt
question, not without a spice of scorn; and note how Ahab answers,
bemoaning himself, putting in the forefront his fair proposal, and
making Naboth's refusal ruder than it really had been, by suppressing
its reason. Then out flashes the imperious will of this masterful
princess, who had come from a land where royalty was all-powerful, and
who had no restraints of conscience. She darts a half-contemptuous
question at Ahab, to stir him to action; for nothing moves a weak man
so much as the fear of being thought weak. 'Dost thou govern?' implies,
'If thou dost, thou mayest trample on a subject.' It should mean, 'If
thou dost, thou must jealously guard the subject's rights.' What a
proud consciousness of her power speaks in that 'I will give thee the
vineyard'! It is like Lady Macbeth's 'Give me the dagger!' No more is
said. She can keep her own counsel, and Ahab suspects that some
violence is to be used, which he had better not know. So, again, his
weakness leads him astray. He does not wish to hear what he is willing
should be done, if only he has not to do it. So feeble men hoodwink
conscience by conniving at evils which they dare not perpetrate, and
then enjoying their fruits, and saying, 'Thou canst not say I did it.'
Jezebel had Ahab's signet, the badge of authority, which she probably
got from him for her unspoken purpose. Her letter to the elders of
Jezreel speaks out, with cynical disregard of decency, the whole ugly
conspiracy. It is direct, horribly plain, and imperative. There is a
perfect nest of sins hissing and coiled together in it. Hypocrisy
calling religion in to attest a lie, subornation of evidence, contempt
for the poor tools who are to perjure themselves, consciousness that
such work will only be done by worthless men, cool lying, ferocity, and
murder,--these are a pretty company to crowd into half a dozen lines.
Most detestable of all is the plain speaking which shows her hardened
audacity and conscious defiance of all right. To name sin by its true
name, and then to do it without a quiver, is a depth of evil reached by
few men, and perhaps fewer women.
The plot gives a colour of legality, which is probably often unobserved
by readers. Naboth was to be accused of treason: 'renouncing God and
the king'; and that was, according to the law of Moses, a charge which,
if proved, merited capital punishment. But it is Satan accusing sin for
Jezebel, the Baal worshipper, who had done her best to root out the
name of Jehovah, to accuse Naboth of departing from God. Much
highhanded oppression must have gone before such outspoken contempt of
justice; and, if Ahab represents the fatal connection of weakness and
wickedness, Jezebel is an instance of the fatal audacity with which a
strong character may come, by long indulgence in self-willed
gratification of its own desires, to trample down all obstacles and go
crashing through all laws, human and divine. The climax of sin is to
see a deed to be sinful, and to do it all the same. Such a pre-eminence
in evil is not reached at a bound, but it can be reached; and every
indulgence in passion, and every gratifying of desire against which
conscience protests, is a step toward it. Therefore, if we shrink from
such a goal, let us turn away from the paths that lead to it. 'No
mortal man is supremely foul all at once.' Therefore resist the
beginnings of evil. Elijah was strong by natural temperament, and so
was Jezebel. But the strength of the prophet was hallowed by obedience,
and, like some great river, poured blessings where it flowed. Jezebel's
strength was lawless, and foamed itself away in fury, like some
devastating torrent that spreads ruin whithersoever it bursts out. 'Be
strong' is good advice, but it needs the supplement, 'Let all your
deeds be done in charity,' and the foundation,' Be strong in the Lord,
and in the power of His might.'
III. The last set of actors in this pitiful tragedy are the
subserviently wicked elders. The narrative sets their slavish
compliance in a strong light. It puts emphasis on the tie between them
and Naboth, in that they 'dwelt in his city,' and so should have had
neighbourly feeling. It lays stress on their cowardly motive and their
complete execution of orders, both by reiterating that they acted 'as
Jezebel had sent' and 'as it was written,' and by taking the letter
clause by clause, in the narrative of the shameful parody of justice
which they acted. It suggests both their eagerness to do her pleasure,
and her impatient waiting, in her palace, by the message sent in hot
haste as soon as the brave peasant proprietor was dead. 'It is ill
sitting at Rome and striving with the Pope,' as the proverb has it. No
doubt these cowards were afraid for their own necks, and were too near
the royal tigress to venture disobedience. But their swift,
unremonstrating, and complete obedience indicates the depth of
degradation and corruption to which they and the nation had sunk, and
the terror exercised by their upstart king and his Sidonian wife.
Cowardice is always contemptible, and wickedness is always odious; but
when the two come together, and a man has no other reason for his sin
than 'I was afraid,' each makes the other blacker. Israel had cast off
the fear of the Lord, which would have preserved it from the ignoble
terror of men, and the consequence was that it trembled before an
angry, unscrupulous woman. It had revolted from Rehoboam and his
foolish bluster about whips and scorpions, and the consequence was a
worse slavery. If we fear God, we need have no other fear. The sun puts
out a fire. If we rebel against Him, we do not become free, but fall
under a heavy yoke. It is never prudent to do wrong. The worst
consequences of resistance to powerful evil are easier to bear than
those of compliance, though it may seem the safer. Better be lying dead
beneath a heap of stones, like the sturdy Naboth, who could say 'No' to
a king, than be one of his stoners, who killed their innocent neighbour
to pleasure Jezebel!
Her indecent triumph at the success of the plot, and her utter
callousness, are expressed in her words to Ahab, in which the main
point is the taking possession of the vineyard. The death of its owner
is told with exultation, as being nothing but the sweeping aside of an
obstacle. Ahab asks no questions as to how this opportune clearing away
of hindrance came about. He knew, no doubt, well enough that there had
been foul play; but that does not matter to him, and such a trifle as
murder does not slacken his glad haste to get his new toy. There was
other red on the vines than their clustering grapes, as he soon found
out, when Elijah's grim figure, like an embodied conscience, met him
there. Whoever reaches out to grasp a fancied good by breaking God's
law, may get his good, but he will get more than he expected along with
it,--even an accusing voice that prophesies evil. Elijah strides among
the leafy vines in the field bought by crime. Ahab meant to make it a
garden of pot-herbs. 'Surely the bitter wormwood of divine revenge grew
abundantly therein.'