Chapter 16—The Fall of the House of Ahab
This chapter is based on
1 Kings 21
;
2 Kings 1
.
The evil influence that Jezebel had exercised from the first over
Ahab continued during the later years of his life and bore fruit in deeds
of shame and violence such as have seldom been equaled in sacred
history. “There was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to
work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife
stirred up.”
Naturally of a covetous disposition, Ahab, strengthened and sus-
tained in wrongdoing by Jezebel, had followed the dictates of his evil
heart until he was fully controlled by the spirit of selfishness. He could
brook no refusal of his wishes; the things he desired he felt should by
right be his.
This dominant trait in Ahab, which influenced so disastrously the
fortunes of the kingdom under his successors, is revealed in an incident
which took place while Elijah was still a prophet in Israel. Hard by the
palace of the king was a vineyard belonging to Naboth, a Jezreelite.
Ahab set his heart on possessing this vineyard, and he proposed to buy
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it or else to give in exchange for it another piece of land. “Give me thy
vineyard,” he said to Naboth, “that I may have it for a garden of herbs,
because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better
vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth
of it in money.”
Naboth valued his vineyard highly because it had belonged to his
fathers, and he refused to part with it. “The Lord forbid it me,” he
said to Ahab, “that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto
thee.” According to the Levitical code no land could be transferred
permanently by sale or exchange; every one of the children of Israel
must “keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.”
Numbers 36:7
.
Naboth’s refusal made the selfish monarch ill. “Ahab came into
his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the
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