And she wrote a letter in Ahab's name, and sealed it with his seal, and sent the letter to the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth.
Ahab has failed to buy Naboth's vineyard. He has gone home to sulk. Now his wife picks up the pen he would not use. This verse is about borrowed authority. A letter goes out under the king's name and seal — to the neighbours of the man it condemns.
A seal was not decoration. It told the readers that the order came from the throne and carried its full force.
The people who received the letters read them as Ahab's commands. The seal showed that Ahab's power and authority stood behind the sealed orders.
How did Ahab's seal come to be in her hand at all? One commentator presses that question.
She had no hesitation in using Ahab's name in her heartless abuse of authority. She wrote letters in his name and sealed them with his seal. Why was Ahab's seal available to her? But he made no objection, so he was just as guilty as she was.
Her promise to hand him the vineyard costs him more than he notices.
She takes Ahab by the hand and leads him down her own path, a path of lying and murder, while pretending she is doing him a kindness. She "will give him" the vineyard. But in the meantime she takes possession of his authority, of his royal privilege: "She wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal" (v. 8). Ahab has turned into her slave.
The letters did not order a murder outright. They ordered a religious ceremony, with the murder hidden inside it.
She wrote letters to the town council, using the king's name and the royal seal. Her orders were especially devilish. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the gathering. They were to bring in two worthless men to charge him with cursing God and the king… The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet such was the moral state of Israel that queen and elders did all of this in God's name!
The double charge — against God and against the king — was not carelessness. It was calculated, and one writer explains why Jezebel needed both.
She knew the penalty for blasphemy against the Lord was death (Lev. 24:16)… But according to Jewish teachers, a charge of blasphemy alone would leave his property to his heirs, just as if he had died naturally. To secure the vineyard, a further charge of treason had to be invented against him. In such a case the condemned man's estate went to the royal treasury. So Naboth was accused of blasphemy against both "God and the king."
The letters went to Naboth's own neighbours. They obeyed, and one writer does not excuse them.
The elders and nobles of Jezreel do it knowing the reason. The letters sent to them told them to choose two wicked men, worthless men, who should lie under oath to get rid of Naboth. They have almost no scruples, because it is in their interest to please the king and win his good will.
They kept every legal form. The signature was the king's, two witnesses testified, the sentence was lawful. When Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard, he mentions none of it.
"Have you killed and also taken possession?" — in other words, have you committed murder and robbery? God deals with realities. In His estimation, people and things get their proper place and value. There is no gloss, no pretence, no posing — everything is real.
Notice where the charge lands. Jezebel wrote the letter, but Ahab's name stood at the bottom. God holds him to his own signature.
"Have you [not Jezebel, but you, have you] killed and also taken possession? … Thus says the Lord, 'In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.'"
Jezebel's name appears again in Revelation 2. One writer ties that back to what she does here.
She has been well described as "the wife of responsible Ahab." So the height of his offence was that he allowed her to take his place and to act by his authority. We learn this from the use of Jezebel's name in Revelation 2.
- Seal. The seal put the king's power behind the page; whoever holds it speaks as the king, whatever the king intends.
- Surrender. Ahab never wrote a word. But he lent his name and raised no objection, so commentators count him as guilty as Jezebel.
- Slavery. Jezebel offered him a vineyard and took his authority. What looked like a favour made him her slave.
- Cover. A fast, two witnesses, a lawful verdict: religion supplied the forms. The double charge of blasphemy and treason moved the land to the crown.
- Reality. God's verdict skipped the paperwork and the wife alike: "Have you killed and also taken possession?" He weighs the deed, not the excuse behind the signature.
And she wrote in the letter saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, and they shall bear witness against him saying, Thou didst curse God and the king; and carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.
Jezebel's letter does not tell the elders of Jezreel to seize Naboth or to kill him in secret. It tells them to call a religious ceremony, seat him at the top of it, and then destroy him by sworn testimony. So murder here wears the forms of God's own law — and this verse asks who answers for that.
One writer walks through the scene the elders were told to stage:
She wrote letters to the Town Council, using the king's name and the royal seal. Her orders were especially devilish. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the gathering. Then they were to bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with cursing God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend there was some divine displeasure against their city. At the fast they were to look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. They were to denounce the man they pretended to honour as the "Achan" of the place, and hurry him off to execution... yet such was the moral degradation of Israel that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
The charge names God and the king together. Older translations read "blaspheme" where the ESV has "cursed." The pairing was deliberate, and it was about the land:
She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find associates to prove Naboth guilty of this. So she would take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to the desire of power. But Jewish teachers taught this. If he were found guilty of blasphemy alone, his property would pass to his heirs, just as if he had died naturally. To secure the vineyard, a further charge had to be trumped up against him: treason. In such a case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury. So Naboth was accused of blasphemy against both "God and the king."
The plan needed more than two hired liars. It needed a whole town council willing to read the letter and obey it:
Ahab lets the evil be done and the wrong completed so that he may profit by it. The men of Jezreel, the elders and nobles, do it knowing the reason for it. The letters sent to them told them to choose two wicked men, sons of Belial, who should commit perjury to get rid of Naboth. They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interest to please the king and to win his good will.
Two witnesses, not one — the number gave the killing the look of careful obedience to Scripture. The same show of care marked other deaths:
The Bible's own history gives us more than one case of a man condemned with a show of attention to Deuteronomy 17:6-7. Look at Naboth here, at Stephen in Acts 6 and 7, and above all at the only perfect Man who ever walked this earth. Men can, at times, put on the appearance of wonderful attention to the letter of scripture when it suits their own ungodly ends. They can quote its sacred words in defence of the most flagrant unrighteousness and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite was robbed of his inheritance and of his life on the testimony of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman. Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, was stoned to death for blasphemy. The great religious leaders of the day received the testimony of false witnesses and acted on it.
Stoning was the sentence attached to this charge, and that is what makes the act so ugly:
Stoning was a punishment commanded by the law for Jews guilty of idolatry, blasphemy, or other forms of ungodly rebellion against Jehovah. This is why the death of Naboth and of Zechariah was so appalling. The wickedness lay wholly with those in high authority, who twisted the law to injure saints. We can hardly imagine a worse or more daring wrong than this: that godly people should suffer the death of the ungodly at the hands of ungodly rulers.
The elders obeyed, and Naboth died. The same method reappears long after Israel, and God keeps the account:
Jezebel's action in the case of Naboth was a dark foreshadowing of what Christendom's Jezebel has often been guilty of. Rulers and governors who wanted to stay in favour have been all too willing to put choice saints of God to a cruel death. They did it at the bidding of the so-called "Church." But in the coming day of repayment God will remember everything done in Israel and in Christendom. Innocent blood will yet be avenged.
- Covetousness — a king's wish for his neighbour's vineyard sets the whole plot moving.
- Cloak — a fast, a seat of honour and a sacred charge dress murder up as justice done in God's Name.
- Calculation — blasphemy alone would have left the land to Naboth's heirs. Adding treason sent the estate to the crown.
- Complicity — the elders knew why the letters came, and obeyed. Pleasing the king served their own interests.
- Court — the staged trial fooled Jezreel, not God. Innocent blood will yet be avenged.
And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles that dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letter that she had sent to them
The men who killed Naboth were not strangers or soldiers, but his own neighbours and the leaders of his town, acting on a letter. Here a queen's private plot turns into a public, legal-looking procedure, and one question presses: why did no one refuse?
The letters carried a seal, and the seal is what gave them their force.
In 1 Kings 21:8, Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal. She sent them to the elders and the nobles in his city, the men who lived alongside Naboth. Those men read the letters as Ahab's own commands, and the seal showed that Ahab's power and authority stood behind them.
They were not fooled. The letters told them the plan, and they weighed what obeying would gain them.
Ahab lets the evil happen and lets the wickedness run its full course so that he can profit by it. The men of Jezreel, the elders and nobles, do it knowing the reason for it. The letters sent to them told them to choose two wicked men, sons of Belial, who would lie under oath to get rid of Naboth. They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to win his good will.
Silence, in this account, is not innocence.
The elders of the city were just as guilty as Jezebel and Ahab. They knew the charge against Naboth was false, yet no one would protest. Jezebel had already decided that Naboth must die by stoning, and that horrible injustice soon followed.
The letters ordered a religious ceremony, with Naboth in the seat of honour.
The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the gathering. Then they were to bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend that God was displeased with their city. At the fast they would look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. Then they would denounce the man they pretended to honour as the "Achan" of the place, and hurry him off to execution. The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
Achan was the Israelite whose hidden sin brought defeat on the nation, and he was stoned for it.
The wording was calculated. One charge would kill Naboth; only a second charge could take his land.
Jezebel knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). So she would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of it, and take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to power. But according to Jewish teachers, a man found guilty of blasphemy alone still left his property to his heirs, just as if he had died naturally. So to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a second charge: treason. In that case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury. That is why they accused Naboth of blasphemy both against "God and the king."
The whole ceremony existed to produce evidence that everyone involved knew was false.
The ninth commandment reads, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." To bear false witness is cruel and gross evil. Yet too many Israelites coldly ignored this commandment. Jezebel deliberately bribed wicked men to falsely accuse Naboth to have him put to death. Even the chief priests of Israel sought false witnesses to testify against the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.
Everyone here acted as if the paperwork settled the matter. But one person had been left out, and He sent a prophet to the vineyard.
So far all concerned, except Naboth, had left God out of their calculations, and it seemed as if sin had triumphed. Naboth had been stoned, and Ahab was now free to take possession. He went down, and his feet at last stood in the vineyard of Naboth. But at the very moment he was about to lay his hand on the possession he had coveted, Elijah the Tishbite confronted him. The prophet's terrible words terrified his soul and taught him that there really is a God who judges the earth. "Have you [not Jezebel, but you, have you] killed and also taken possession?"
- Written — Jezebel's letters spelled out the whole plan, so the men who obeyed knew exactly what they were doing.
- Sealed — the king's seal, not the justice of the demand, is what made the town's leaders move at once.
- Silent — they knew the charge was false and said nothing. That left them as guilty as the queen who wrote.
- Sacred — they turned a fast held in God's Name into the cover for a legal murder. Two charges made sure the land fell to the crown.
- Seen — everyone left God out of the calculation. Elijah met Ahab in that very vineyard and charged him with the killing.
they proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.
Naboth has refused to sell his vineyard, so Jezebel writes to the leaders of Jezreel under the king's seal. Their first move is not violence but worship — which raises the question of the chapter: why did murder need a religious ceremony?
Commentators read the fast as a staged inquiry: the town pretends God is angry with it, and the man it seats in the place of honour will be named the cause.
The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast, set Naboth at the head of the gathering, and bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend God was displeased with their city. At the fast they would look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. Then they would denounce the man they claimed to honour as the "Achan" of the place — the one blamed for bringing God's anger on the town — and hurry him off to execution (Joshua 7:25). The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low morally that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
The fast was not decoration. A naked killing would have shocked the nation, so the crime needed a respectable face.
How base could such men be, to make themselves willing tools of her treacherous plan and carry out her instructions to the letter! Yet public conscience might rebel at open murder, so she had to give her act some appearance of justice. Besides, what had happened on Mount Carmel had probably not yet lost its moral effect on the nation, and this wicked patron of Baal had to move with some caution in her wickedness.
Jezebel drafted the charge with care. She needed two accusations, not one, because she wanted more than Naboth's death. She wanted his land.
Jezebel had got her way. But how dreadful it is to use something God set up to serve the will of the flesh! She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of this... But, according to Jewish teachers, if he were found guilty of blasphemy alone, his property would still pass to his heirs, just as if he had died a natural death. So to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a further charge against him — treason. In such a case the condemned man's estate went to the royal treasury.
Jezebel gave the order. Naboth's own neighbours carried it out, and they had their reasons.
Surely there would be conscience, we might think, in some of Jezreel's elders! Alas! The men of Naboth's city, "the elders and the nobles," were fellow-citizens of this faithful man. Yet they hurried to obey the queen's command. They brought in false witnesses, as happened to our blessed Lord and to Stephen, and got him condemned.
They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.
The plot worked because it looked lawful. That danger did not end with Naboth.
At times men can look wonderfully careful about the letter of Scripture when it suits their own ungodly ends. They can quote its sacred words to defend blatant wrongdoing and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite lost his inheritance and his life on the word of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman.
The fast changed nothing about how God saw the event.
Jezebel would gladly put a fair cloak on her shocking wickedness... But how did the Lord view it? "Thus says the Lord, Have you killed, and also taken possession?" (in other words, Have you committed murder and robbery?) God deals with realities. In His estimation, men and things get their proper place and value; there is no gilding, no pretence, no assumption — all is real.
- Cover made. The elders staged a day of seeking God so that a murder could pass as justice done in His Name.
- Cover needed. Open murder would have stirred the nation's conscience, so Jezebel dressed her cruelty as justice and moved with care.
- Cover drafted. Even the wording was cover: the blasphemy charge took his life, the treason charge took his vineyard for the royal treasury.
- Cover shared. The cover needed accomplices, and Naboth's own neighbours supplied it for nothing more than the king's good will.
- Cover stripped. God tore the cover off in one question — murder and robbery — because He deals with realities, not appearances.
And there came the two men, sons of Belial, and sat before him; and the men of Belial witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth blasphemed God and the king. And they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
The town holds a fast, two hired men tell their lie, and the leaders drag Naboth outside and stone him — all in good religious order. So how could murder look like piety, and where was God while it happened?
The whole scene was staged. Orders under the royal seal turned a day of fasting into a place of execution.
Her orders were especially devilish. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast, set Naboth at the head of the gathering, and bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to claim that God was displeased with their city. At the fast they would look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. The man they pretended to honour would then be named the "Achan" of the place — the one whose sin had brought God's anger on everyone — and hurried off to execution. The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low morally that the queen and the elders did all this in God's Name!
The charge named God and the king. That second half was not extra spite. It was the legal path to the vineyard.
Jezebel had had her will, but oh, the dreadfulness of using God's institution to carry out the will of the flesh! She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of this. That way she would take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to the desire of power. But according to Jewish teachers, a man guilty of blasphemy alone still left his property to his heirs, just as if he had died in the usual way. So to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a second charge: treason. In such a case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury.
Jezebel wrote the letters, but other hands picked up the stones. The men of the city knew exactly what they were doing.
Of course the evil men were paid for their lies. The elders of the city were just as guilty as Jezebel and Ahab. They knew the charge against Naboth was false, yet no one would protest. Jezebel had already decided that Naboth must die by stoning, and the city carried out this horrible injustice at once.
Their motive was not fear alone but advantage:
They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.
The refusal that cost him his life was not stubbornness over property values. He was holding to a command about the land.
But the land was God's and He had forbidden His people to sell it permanently. Moreover, the land was to remain within the tribe to which God had assigned it. So Naboth's refusal to give up his inheritance was a matter of simple obedience to God. His faithfulness cost him his life through Jezebel's scheming.
Naboth was not the last man killed this way. Others kept the words of Scripture and used them to cover the same crime.
Alas! When it suits their own ungodly ends, men can at times look remarkably careful about the letter of Scripture. They can quote its sacred words to defend the most flagrant unrighteousness and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite lost his inheritance and his life on the word of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman. Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, was stoned to death for blasphemy. The great religious leaders of the day took the word of false witnesses and acted on it.
Some writers go further. They see in Naboth's death a picture of Christ's own death — the rightful Heir killed so that others could seize His inheritance.
Our blessed Lord was the righteous one in Israel in His day, as Naboth had been. He was properly the Heir of all the nation's greatness... The vineyard, the inheritance was His; but the wicked tenants, though admitting His title, refused Him possession, and said, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance." And they did so.
Everyone in the room had left God out of the reckoning. That was the one mistake that undid all the others.
Ahab lay on his bed, irritated by Naboth's refusal to sell his vineyard. The wicked Jezebel worked out how to destroy Naboth. All the while, God was watching. If He is not in all the thoughts of the sinner, the day of reckoning will come just the same.
- Blood — two paid lies killed Naboth. The elders knew better and said nothing. Silence made them guilty too.
- Cloak — a fast, a seat of honour, a charge, two witnesses. They dressed murder up as religion and did it in God's own Name.
- Motive — the double charge killed the man and handed his field to the crown. Greed wrote the script.
- Cost — Naboth died refusing to sell what God had given his fathers. Obedience on one point can cost everything.
- Reckoning — the one guest they never invited was God. He watched it all. Innocent blood is never forgotten.