And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.
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?
Murder Dressed Up as Worship
The whole scene was staged. Orders under the royal seal turned a day of fasting into a place of execution.
W. W. FeredayHer 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!
Why Two Charges, Not One
The charge named God and the king. That second half was not extra spite. It was the legal path to the vineyard.
C KnappJezebel 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.
The Silence of the City Elders
Jezebel wrote the letters, but other hands picked up the stones. The men of the city knew exactly what they were doing.
Leslie M. GrantOf 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:
H. L. RossierThey have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.
What Naboth Died For
The refusal that cost him his life was not stubbornness over property values. He was holding to a command about the land.
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.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.
A Pattern Scripture Repeats
Naboth was not the last man killed this way. Others kept the words of Scripture and used them to cover the same crime.
C. H. MackintoshAlas! 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.
J. G. BellettOur 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.
The Unseen Witness
Everyone in the room had left God out of the reckoning. That was the one mistake that undid all the others.
The Christian's FriendAhab 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.
Summary
- 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.