Proper 06 – Year C
1 Kings 21:1–21
Naboth’s Vineyard
(Textual notes are included at the end of this blog post)
On the surface, this story is a confrontation between a vineyard owner, Elijah the prophet, and the royal family of Ahab and Jezebel. But underneath the little drama is a larger drama of how trade in north Israel concentrated power and wealth into the hands of a tiny minority (symbolized here as the royal family) and took it from the ordinary farmers, whose families had lived there for centuries.
If you know the story (and paid attention back in Sunday School), you may recall that Ahab had already angered Yahweh when he took on the worship of Baal after marrying Jezebel, who was from Sidon, a major international trading city just north of Israel in Phoenicia. With that marriage, Ahab gave Sidon’s state religion legitimacy in Israel (1 Kings 16: 31-33). The previous stories of conflict in 1 Kings reflect this apostasy, but here the issue is injustice as well as theology: the abuse of power in order to secure land.
If you know the story (and paid attention back in Sunday School), you may recall that Ahab had already angered Yahweh when he took on the worship of Baal after marrying Jezebel, who was from Sidon, a major international trading city just north of Israel in Phoenicia. With that marriage, Ahab gave Sidon’s state religion legitimacy in Israel (1 Kings 16: 31-33). The previous stories of conflict in 1 Kings reflect this apostasy, but here the issue is injustice as well as theology: the abuse of power in order to secure land.
At the beginning of this story, Ahab is vacationing in
his northern palace, up in Jezreel, near the Phoenician border. The official
capital of Israel in those
days was in Samaria
He tells Naboth that he wants his land for what he
calls a vegetable garden, though as we will see, it’s more likely he wants it
for export crops, not summer tomatoes to share during coffee hour at church. He
makes Naboth what appears to be a generous—or at least fair—offer. He even
offers him silver,[1] which
actually may have been useless to an agrarian peasant, but in any case payment
of any kind was of no interest to Naboth and he refuses. According to Israelite
cosmology, Naboth is the land and the
land is Naboth. So, legally and
theologically he can’t let go of it.
As he puts it in his response to the offer, the land is his “ancestral
inheritance” (some translations have “heritage”), and the Lord would “forbid” his giving it away
for any reason.[2]
“Forbid” (ḥāliylāh)
is a far more cosmic, theological term than it might appear at first. It means “forbid,”
of course, but is almost always used as it is here, that is, it is not the
person speaking who forbids this, but rather it is God (or the “Lord”). (Cf. 1 Sam. 24:6; 1 Sam. 26:11; 1
Sam. 14:45.) Derived from Chalal, to
bore down or wound, and to profane and defile. So from the beginning it is not
just that there is a rule against it, but that there is something larger, more
cosmic, that is against it.[3]
It’s important to note that Jezebel was not just a
nice girl he met on college break at one of the tourist beaches outside of Sidon Tyre
After his rebuke from Naboth, Ahab goes home (probably
back to Samaria Israel
The background of this story is that North Israel
(where this story takes place) was rapidly coming under the economic influence
of aristocratic mercantilists with trading ties to the powerful Phoenicians of
Tyre and Sidon (we all remember, of course, that Jezebel was an heiress of a
major multinational import/export family from Tyre). Archeological findings in
the region have found that wealthy merchant families in Tyre
and Sidon (and their Israelite wealthy wannabes)
had been dispossessing north Israel Carthage
Naboth, citing the theological logic of the Jubilee,
says that he simply cannot sell it. He can’t because technically he doesn’t own
it. It is tribal property, an “ancestral inheritance,”[6]
owned by the entire family and by God, and God would “forbid” his selling it (1
Kings 21:1-3).[7]
Naboth and other Hebrew peasants understood their land
to be a gift of God and they were only stewards of it, their job was to
“redeem” it, while the Phoenicians, reflecting a more urban, city-state
individualist view of humanity, believed that land was just a commodity and
could be bought, sold and stolen by anybody. Leviticus 25:23-24 puts the
theology succinctly: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is
mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the land that you
hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.”
It was an early conflict between theology and
economics.[8]
According to Walter Brueggemann, “the vineyard could not be without Naboth belonging to it. Naboth could not be without this land. That close and
inalienable land linkage is likely reflected in the Jubilee practice (Leviticus
25), a social, institutional guarantee that this connection of land and family
is indispensable for the functioning of society.”[9]
One side believed in a family-based monotheism which by necessity produced a
kind of primitive trade protectionism along with capital controls, while the
other believed in a competition-based henotheism which produced winners,
losers, and economic dislocation. Historically, it is very likely that this
small story was preserved in the biblical tradition because it was later seen
as a paradigm of protest on behalf of Yahweh ownership of land and on behalf of
a whole class of dispossessed, oppressed people.
So, Ahab pouts and refuses to eat, in part because of course he is a
pansy, but in part because he understands Yahwistic faith: one cannot conceive
of stealing land from another because we are all a part of the same family and
created by the same God. You can’t steal from someone in the family and under
Yawheh religion, we are all family. So he was stuck. Jezebel, on the other hand,
cannot conceive of not stealing it, because
we are not the same.
She first calls for a fast. Fasts were typically proclaimed
in order to announce that something important was about to happen. It was a religious
act, but it was also political. There was about to be a battle, or a
coronation, or a trial, etc. Naboth is then brought into the Assembly (either in
the open air or in the largest public building of the village), and set at the
head of the room alongside two “scoundrels” she has chosen to bring false
charges against him. At this point there is no evidence that he has heard
anything of the charges, and may in fact not understand the purpose for the
gathering. The exact nature of the charges is unclear, but they at least
include blasphemy against God and king, which was a capital offense because it
is tantamount to treason. There was more than one document filed in Samaria
In any case the gathered assembly side with the two
paid witnesses and pronounce him guilty, and then, following the law, they take
him to the edge of town for the execution and they stone him to death. The land
then reverts to the king and the story should have ended there. “As soon as
Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of
Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it” (v. 16).
Note that Jezebel is not more evil than Ahab, she is
just less troubled by the social impropriety of violating Israel
But before he can take possession of the land, Elijah
appears. He just shows up, with no introduction: “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite” (v 17).
God commands that he go to the vineyard, where Ahab is standing, perusing his
new holdings, and they talk. Their conversation is brief, but powerful. “Thus says the Lord,”
announces Elijah, “You have killed someone, and also taken possession of
his property!”[11] Elijah
doesn’t say more about the crime itself, because there’s no point. Ahab
understands it, it is his sin. But he describes what his punishment should be. “In
the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your
blood.”
“Have
you found me, O my enemy?” asks Ahab.
“I
have found you,” he says. Then, in perhaps the most psychologically and
spiritually revealing statement of the conversation, Elijah says that God will
bring disaster upon Ahab “Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in
the sight of the Lord.” He hadn’t
just committed a crime, but he had done so by selling himself, selling who he
was and what he (supposedly) believed in. You did “what is evil I the sight of
the Lord.”
He goes on to describe the punishment in more detail, and amazingly and to his credit, Ahab remembers something of his heritage of faith and repents. He begins mourning, dresses in sackcloth and ashes, and fasts. Not actions that would impress your local parishioners today, but which were very meaningful in Ahab’s. God sees this, and is moved, and says to Elijah, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days” (1 Kings 21:22-29).[12]
[1] The text is usually translated “money,” but
the word is keseph, or Silver.
For many among the currency classes (though maybe not peasants) money and
silver were synonymous.
[2] “Possession of the land had
been a gift of the covenant. Distributed to tribes, clans and families, the
patrimonial landholdings constituted each family’s part of the covenant
promises and benefits… Documents from both Mari and Ugarit attest to a practice
of perpetual ownership of land and strict rules about the transfer of property.”
(Victor Harold
Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, and John H. Walton, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. [Downers Grove,
IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000].)
[3] Numbers 27:4-11 make it clear
that land must remain in the family.
Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the
Lord spoke to Moses, saying: The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they
are saying; you shall indeed let them possess an inheritance among their
father’s brothers and pass the inheritance of their father on to them. You
shall also say to the Israelites, “If a man dies, and has no son, then you
shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter. If he has no daughter, then you
shall give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, then you
shall give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. And if his father has no
brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his
clan, and he shall possess it. It shall be for the Israelites a statute and
ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
[4]
Clinton McCann, Texts for Preaching
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press), 1994, p. 362.
[5]
See “Search for Phoenician Shipwrecks,” Biblical Archaeology Review Vol. 12, No.
5 (Sept./Oct 1999), p 16; and James D. Newsome’s Hebrew Scripture essay for
Proper 6, Ordinary time 11, in Texts for
Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year C (Louisville:
Westminster/John Knox Press: 1994) pp. 282-284.
[6]
The Hebrew word for “inheritance” is nahala and could also be translated
“sacred patrimony” or “heirloom.”
[7]
See Walter Brueggemann, “The Prophet as a
Destabilizing Presence,” in A Social
Reading of the Old Testament: Prophetic Approaches to Israel’s Communal Life,
ed. Patrick D. Miller (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994) pp. 221-244.
[8]
Brueggemann, A Social Reading of the Old
Testament, p. 239-242.
[9]
Brueggemann, Ibid., p. 239.
[10]
Barrett, C.K., ed. The New Testament
Background: Selected Documents, Rev. Ed. (NY: Harper and Row, 1989), pp.
7-8.
[11]
My paraphrase. Though phrased in the NRSV as a question, it’s actually an implied
declaration of Ahab’s guilt. See Clinton McCann, Texts for Preaching (Philadelphia: Fortress Press), 1994, p. 384).
Other translations that agree are the CEV, ERV, GNB. The Oxford Bible Commentary calls it an “accusation,” not a question.
[12] The
passage goes on here to say that the punishment will happen to Ahab’s
son instead. Many commentators believe that this was added by the much later Deuteronomic
editor/author who wrote generations later, and who wanted some kind of justice
to explain why Ahab’s son did in fact suffer and die in a way similar to this
pronouncement. I don’t believe it is important or helpful to the meaning of
this particular story.
1 Kings 21:1–21
Naboth’s Vineyard
21 Later the following events
took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel,[1]
beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria.[2]
2 And Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, so that I
may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give
you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its
value in money.” [3]
3 But Naboth said to Ahab,
“The Lord forbid[4]
that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.”[5]
4 Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth
the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, “I will not give you my
ancestral inheritance.” He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would
not eat.
5 His wife Jezebel came to him
and said, “Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?” 6 He
said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give
me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another
vineyard for it’; but he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ” 7 His
wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and
be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”[6]
8 So she wrote letters in
Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders
and the nobles[7]
who lived with Naboth in his city. 9 She wrote in the letters,
“Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; 10 seat
two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying,
‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out, and stone him to death.”
11 The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city,
did as Jezebel had sent word to them. Just as it was written in the letters
that she had sent to them, 12 they proclaimed a fast and seated
Naboth at the head of the assembly. 13 The two scoundrels came
in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a charge against Naboth, in
the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they
took him outside the city, and stoned him to death. 14 Then
they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”
15 As soon as Jezebel heard
that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Go, take possession
of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for
money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” 16 As soon as Ahab
heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth
the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
Elijah Pronounces God’s Sentence
17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite,
saying: 18 Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rulesa
in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take
possession. 19 You shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken
possession?” You shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth,
dogs will also lick up your blood.”
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have
you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you. Because you have
sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, 21 I will
bring disaster on you
[; I will consume you, and
will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel
[1] “The
palace at Jezreel was excavated in the early 1990s. The rectangular enclosure
covers about eleven acres and is surrounded by a casemate wall with towers at
the corners. It featured a six-chambered gate, a moat and earthen ramparts. The
moat was cut from rock and averaged thirty feet wide and at points was nearly
twenty feet deep. The moat used in Palestine was a dry moat (called a fosse)
probably intended to prevent tunneling under the walls of the city. Jezreel was
about twenty-three miles from Samaria.” (Victor Harold Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, and John
H. Walton, The IVP Bible Background
Commentary: Old Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000).
[2] Samaria was built by King Omri as the
capital of the Northern Kingdom. The first six years of his reign, he lived in
the city of Tirzah, much further south. Samaria was near the border of
Phoenicia, and on a hill about 11 km north West of Shechem at the cross roads
of the main trade routes through the Esdraelon plain. He probably named it
after its owner Shemer (1 Kings 16:24). But since it is on a hill, about 100 m
high and almost impregnable (2 Ki. 6:24), the name (šōmerôn) may also be related to the Hebrew for
“watch-post.” (D. J. Wiseman, “Samaria,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester,
England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), p. 1050.
[3] “Money”
(keseph) Silver. A metal desired because of
its value. Universally used as a form of money for the wealthy. Unclear if a
peasant farmer from Jezreel could have much use for it.
[4]
“Forbid” (ḥāliylāh). “An
adversative interjection of strong emotion.” (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, AMG
International, Inc., Chattanooga, TN [1992]). It means “forbid,” of course, but
almost always used as here, that is, it is not I who forbids this, but rather
it is God (or the “Lord”) who forbids
it. (Cf. 1 Sam. 24:6; 1 Sam. 26:11; 1 Sam. 14:45.) Derived from Chalal, to bore down or wound, and to
profane and defile. So from the beginning it is not just that there is a rule
against it. But that there is something larger, more cosmic, that is against
it.
[5]
“Ancestral inheritance” (nachălâh,
n. fem.). “Ancestral inheritance” (נַחֲלָה
nachalah). Better would be “inheritance (or heritage)
of my ancestors.” Like an heirloom. This emphasizes that the loss of land would
not just be to Naboth, but his ancestors as well.
“Property that was given by means of a will or
as a heritage. It denoted the land of Canaan given to Israel and distributed
among the tribes (Num_26:53-56; Eze_48:29); a portion or state of blessing
assigned by God to His people (Isa_54:17)” (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary, AMG
International, Inc., Chattanooga, TN [1992].
[6]
“This passage is believed to represent a true distinction between the rights
extended to the king in Israel and those current in Phoenicia. Differences
involve issues concerning (1) the ultimate ownership of land and (2) the
absolute power of the king. In the first category, Israelites believed that all
the land was Yahweh’s land, while the Phoenicians would have seen land as royal
fiefdoms—all land was on grant from the king. In the second category, Israelite
kingship was designed to be less despotic than most monarchies—the king was not
above the law. Jezebel would not have been accustomed to such niceties.”
(Victor Harold Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, and John H. Walton, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old
Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000).
[7] “Elders
and Nobles.” “They were the civic
authorities of Jezreel, and would, in all likelihood, be the creatures and fit
tools of Jezebel. It is evident that, though Ahab had recently been in Jezreel,
when he made the offer to Naboth, both he and Jezebel were now in Samaria (1Kings 20:43). A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments,
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown. See Deut. 16:18 for reference
to the king establishing local authorities in small communities, though the
terms “Elders and Nobles” is not used.
a Heb who is
