1 Kings 21:1-4
The inheritance of my fathers
The offer is reasonable and he does not haggle. He answers with the law rather than a price, and the king goes home and lies down and refuses food.
People of the Bible
Naboth
Said no to a king once, politely and on legal grounds, and it cost him and his sons their lives.
Naboth has a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace. The king offers him a better vineyard or the value in money, which is a fair offer, and Naboth refuses on one ground: the LORD forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you. Under the law the land is not his to sell permanently, it belongs to the family in perpetuity, and he says so. The queen writes to the elders and nobles of his own town. They proclaim a fast, set him at the head of the people, seat two worthless men opposite him, and have him carried out and stoned.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Naboth
- 01
- 02
1 Kings 21:8-10
Letters with the king’s seal
A fast proclaimed, Naboth set on high among the people, and two sons of Belial seated before him to say that he blasphemed God and the king. The instructions specify the verdict.
- 03
1 Kings 21:11-14
The men of his city did as she had sent
The elders and nobles who dwelt in his own town carry it out exactly and send word back in four words: Naboth is stoned and is dead.
- 04
1 Kings 21:17-19
Have you killed and also taken possession
Elijah is sent to meet Ahab in the vineyard itself, on the day he goes down to take it. The sentence names the place, and it is kept: in the portion of Jezreel.
Why it matters
Naboth speaks four times in his life, once, and then the chapter is about other people. That is the point. The account records who carried out the letters, and they are his neighbours, the elders and nobles who dwelt in his city. What follows is the only death sentence in Kings delivered to a king in person in a field, and the vineyard is where it is carried out on his son, and where the dogs licked Ahab’s blood.
2 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
