1 Kings 21:5 - Meaning and Application

Nothing but trouble can be expected when Jezebel enters the story, that wicked woman (2 Kings 9:34). Under the pretense of comforting her troubled husband, she feeds his pride and anger and stirs up his sinful desires. It was right for her to notice his grief and ask why he was so upset (1 Kings 21:5). People who do not care about each other’s troubles have forgotten both the duty and the love that belong in marriage.

Ahab told her what was bothering him (1 Kings 21:6), but he left out Naboth’s real reason for refusing. He made it sound rude, when it was actually a matter of conscience, saying, “I will not give it to you,” when Naboth had said, “I may not.” Jezebel answered, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise, and eat bread” (1 Kings 21:7). She seems, at first, to encourage him to shake off his gloom and not let sorrow crush him, since sadness would not fix anything, but cheerfulness might ease his burden.

Her words can be read in a good way: “Is it fitting for such a great king as you to be upset over such a small matter? You are shaming yourself and treating your crown lightly. Why should you trouble yourself over something so small? Should a man rule Israel if he cannot rule his own temper? Or if you already have so much, why can you not do without this one vineyard?” We should learn to calm ourselves in hardship by remembering the mercies we still enjoy, especially our hope of God’s kingdom. But Jezebel meant her words in a bad way: “Do you govern Israel, and should any subject refuse you anything you want? You are a king. It is beneath you to buy and pay, much less to beg. Use your power and take by force what you cannot get fairly. Do not just resent the insult, avenge it. If you do not know how to act like a king, leave it to me. Let me use your name, and I will soon get Naboth’s vineyard for you. Right or wrong, it will be yours soon, and it will cost you nothing.”

Unhappy are those rulers who have people around them who push them toward tyranny and teach them to abuse their power. To please Ahab, Jezebel planned and carried out Naboth’s death. Nothing less than his blood would satisfy the insult Ahab had received, and she wanted it even more because Naboth stood firm on the law of the God of Israel.

If she had only wanted his land, false witnesses could have stolen it from him by a forged claim. The elders of Jezreel would likely have accepted a weak title if it had been made to look official. But the adulteress hunted for a precious life (Proverbs 6:26). Revenge was sweet to her. Naboth had to die, and he had to die as if he were a criminal.

Never were worse orders given by any ruler than the ones Jezebel sent to the magistrates of Jezreel (1 Kings 21:8-10). She used the king’s seal, but Ahab did not know how she would use it. It is likely this was not the first time he had lent it to her, and she may have used it before to sign orders for killing the prophets. She used the king’s name because she knew the act would please him once it was done, though she feared he might object to the way it was carried out. In short, she commanded them, under their duty to the king, to put Naboth to death, without giving them any reason.

If she had simply sent witnesses to accuse him, the judges, who were supposed to judge according to the charges and proof, might have been fooled, and their verdict might have been their misfortune more than their sin. But to force them to find false witnesses themselves, then make them judge by testimony they knew was false, was a shameless attack on everything just and holy. We can only hope nothing so bold has ever been matched in any story. She must have thought the elders of Jezreel were utterly careless of honesty and honor if she expected them to obey such orders.

She also showed them how to do it, with all the serpent’s craft and poison. It was to be done under the cover of religion: “Declare a fast. Tell your city that you fear some terrible judgment is coming, and that you must try to turn it away, not only by prayer, but by finding and removing the guilty person. Pretend you are afraid there is some great offender among you who has not yet been uncovered, and for whose sake God is angry with your city. On that solemn day, tell the people that if they know of such a man, they must report him for the good of the city. Then have Naboth singled out as the suspect, perhaps because he does not join his neighbors in worship. This can serve as the reason to place him before the people and bring him to court. Make it known that if anyone can accuse the prisoner and prove he is the guilty one, they will be heard. Then let the witnesses come and testify against him.”

There is no wickedness so vile or so shocking that religion has not sometimes been used as its cover. We should not think less of fasting and prayer because they have sometimes been abused in this way. We should, instead, think far worse of the evil plans that have been carried out under their shelter.

It was also done under the cover of justice, with all the forms of legal process. If she had hired some desperate men to murder him in the street at night, that would have been wicked enough. But to destroy him by law, and to use the power meant to protect the innocent for their murder, was a monstrous twisting of justice and judgment. Yet Scripture tells us not to be surprised at such things (Ecclesiastes 5:8). The charge they were to bring against him was blaspheming God and the king, a double accusation. Surely she could not really think the answer Naboth gave Ahab could be twisted into blasphemy, as if refusing the vineyard were insulting the king, and as if his reason, based on God’s law, were insulting God. No, she did not even pretend to have a true basis for the charge. False witnesses were to swear it, Naboth was not to defend himself or question them, and then, under the claim that such a crime was hated by all, he was to be taken out and stoned.

His supposed blasphemy against God would cost him his life, but not his property. So she also charged him with treason, blaspheming the king, so that his land could be taken and Ahab could have the vineyard. Never were wicked orders more wickedly obeyed than these were by the magistrates of Jezreel.

They did not even dispute the order or raise any objection, though it was plainly unjust. They carried out every part of it exactly, either because they feared Jezebel’s cruelty or because they hated Naboth’s godliness, or both. They did as the letters said (1 Kings 21:11-12). They found no trouble in doing it, and they met no trouble while doing it, so they carried out the evil plot skillfully.

They stoned Naboth to death (1 Kings 21:13), and it seems his sons were killed with him or after him. When God later called this bloodshed to account, this detail appears in the record: “I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons” (2 Kings 9:26). Perhaps they were secretly murdered so they could not claim their father’s land or protest the wrong done to him.

From this sad story, we should be moved in several ways. First, we should be stunned by the evil of the wicked and by Satan’s power in those who refuse obedience. What anger should rise in us when we see wickedness in the court of law (Ecclesiastes 3:16)! Second, we should grieve for oppressed innocence and weep with those who are crushed and have no one to comfort them, while power stays with the oppressors (Ecclesiastes 4:1). Third, we should commit our lives and comforts to God, because innocence itself will not always protect us. Fourth, we should rejoice in the certainty of a coming judgment, when such false judgments will be reviewed. For now we see that righteous people may suffer what the wicked deserve (Ecclesiastes 8:14), but everything will be set right on the great day.

With Naboth removed, Ahab took possession of the vineyard. The elders of Jezreel sent word to Jezebel without concern, bringing her what they thought was good news: “Naboth is stoned, and is dead” (1 Kings 21:14). Notice here that the elders of Jezreel were just as ready to obey Jezebel’s orders from Samaria for Naboth’s murder as the elders of Samaria later were to obey Jehu’s orders from Jezreel for the murder of Ahab’s seventy sons, though that later act was not carried out through lawful procedure (2 Kings 10:6-7). Rulers who corrupt the consciences of lower officials with evil commands may find, in time, that the same kind of men will be ready to turn against them.

Jezebel, pleased that her scheme had worked so well, told Ahab that Naboth was no longer alive but dead. So she said, “Arise, take possession of his vineyard” (1 Kings 21:15). He could have taken it through one of his officers, but he was so pleased with the gain that he went himself to Jezreel to claim it. It seems he also went in royal style, as if he had won a great victory, because Jehu remembered long afterward that he and Bidkar were with him then (2 Kings 9:25).

If all Naboth’s sons had been killed, Ahab thought the land was his because there were no heirs left. If they were still living, then, since Naboth died as a criminal, Ahab claimed the land as forfeited because of Naboth’s supposed crime. And if neither of those gave him a valid claim, Jezebel’s absolute power would have given it to him anyway, and who would dare resist her will? Force often wins over justice, and it is remarkable that God allows this for a time. God surely has purer eyes than to look on evil, and yet for a while he remains silent when the wicked swallows up someone more righteous than himself (Habakkuk 1:13).