So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city.
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.
What the Seal Meant
A seal was not decoration. It told the readers that the order came from the throne and carried its full force.
W. H. WestcottThe 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.
Leslie M. GrantShe 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.
Jezebel Takes the Throne
Her promise to hand him the vineyard costs him more than he notices.
H. L. RossierShe 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.
Crime Dressed as Religion
The letters did not order a murder outright. They ordered a religious ceremony, with the murder hidden inside it.
W. W. FeredayShe 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.
C KnappShe 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 Men Who Obeyed
The letters went to Naboth's own neighbours. They obeyed, and one writer does not excuse them.
H. L. RossierThe 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.
God Reads the Letter Differently
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.
C. H. Mackintosh"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.
Edward Dennett"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.'"
The Pattern Repeats
Jezebel's name appears again in Revelation 2. One writer ties that back to what she does here.
The Christian's FriendShe 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.
Summary
- 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.