The king was so troubled [1] because he could not have the vineyard, that he could neither eat nor sleep. Jezabel, his queen, perceiving this, inquired the cause of his sadness and fretting. The king having explained the cause, Jezabel mockingly said: “Thou art of great authority indeed and governest well the kingdom of Israel! Arise and eat bread and be of good cheer: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezrahelite.”
She then wrote letters in the king’s name to the chief men[2] of the city, whom she knew to be wicked like herself, requesting them to find some men who would wrongfully accuse Naboth. These men were easily found, and they bore false witness against Naboth, saying that he had blasphemed [3] God and the king. And on their testimony Naboth was condemned, taken out of the city and stoned to death.
Jezabel being informed of Naboth’s death, went and told her husband that he might now take the vineyard, as Naboth was dead. And Achab took the vineyard. Then the Lord commanded Elias to go to Achab, to reproach him with his crime and to tell him that the dogs would lick up his own blood on the very spot on which Naboth was slain, and that the queen would be devoured by dogs in the same field. This prediction was literally fulfilled.
Three years after, Achab was mortally wounded [4] in a battle with the Syrians; and when the chariot in which he received the fatal wound was being washed after his death, the dogs came and licked up[5] his blood.
Some time after, when Jehu was king, he went to Jezrahel. And when Jezabel heard of his coming, she dressed herself in her richest apparel. She painted her face and adorned her head and
- ↑ Troubled. Like a spoilt child who cannot have his own way.
- ↑ The chief men. i. e. men of position, power and influence. Holy Scripture calls these men sons of Belial or of the devil, because they bore false witness against Naboth, thus causing his death. How great must have been the corruption of the whole people, if even their chief men and the witnesses called by them were so wicked!
- ↑ Blasphemed. Death by stoning was the punishment decreed for blasphemy. The wicked Jezabel, who did not herself believe in God, caused an innocent man to be put to death on the charge of blasphemy against Him!
- ↑ Wounded. An arrow, which pierced a joint of his coat of mail, wounded him so seriously that he died soon after.
- ↑ Licked up. As his bloody corpse was being washed in the pool of Samaria.
