If Only They Had Eminent Domain (1 Kings 20-21, 2 Corinthians 1)

If you can believe it, I had never ever before heard the story of Jezebel. I’ve heard references to her before and how bad she is, but I never knew what exactly she did. Turns out, what she did was pretty bad…

Now it happened sometime later that Naboth from Jezreel had a vineyard in Jezreel that was next to the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. ² Ahab ordered Naboth, “ Give me your vineyard so it can become my vegetable garden, because it is right next to my palace. In exchange for it, I’ll give you an even better vineyard. Or if you prefer, I’ll pay you the price in silver. ”

³ Naboth responded to Ahab, “ LORD forbid that I give you my family inheritance! ”

⁴ So Ahab went to his palace, irritated and upset at what Naboth^j had said to him—because Naboth had said, “ I won’t give you my family inheritance! ” Ahab lay down on his bed and turned his face away. He wouldn’t eat anything.

⁵ His wife Jezebel came to him. “ Why are you upset and not eating any food? ” she asked.

⁶ He answered her, “ I was talking to Naboth. I said, ‘Sell me your vineyard. Or if you prefer, I’ll give you another vineyard for it.’ But he said, ‘I won’t give you my vineyard!’ ”

⁷ Then his wife Jezebel said to him, “ Aren’t you the one who rules Israel? Get up! Eat some food and cheer up. I’ll get Naboth’s vineyard for you myself. ” ⁸ So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, putting his seal on them. She sent them to the elders and officials who lived in the same town as Naboth. ⁹ This is what she wrote in the letters: “ Announce a fast and place Naboth at the head of the people. ¹⁰ Then bring in two liars in front of him and have them testify as follows: ‘You cursed God and king!’ Then take Naboth outside and stone him so he dies. ”

¹¹ The elders and the officials who lived in Naboth’s town did exactly as Jezebel specified in the letters that she had sent. ¹² They announced a fast and placed Naboth at the head of the people. ¹³ Then the two liars came and sat in front of him. They testified against Naboth in front of the people, “ Naboth cursed God and king! ” So the people took Naboth outside the town and stoned him so that he died.

¹⁴ It was then reported to Jezebel, “ Naboth was stoned. He’s dead. ” ¹⁵ As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “ Get up and take ownership of the vineyard of Naboth, which he had refused to sell to you. Naboth is no longer alive; he’s dead. ” ¹⁶ When Ahab heard that Naboth had died, he got up and went down to Naboth’s vineyard to take ownership of it. –1 Kings 21: 1-16

So yeah…her husband, who was the king, mind you, wanted the plot of land next to his, but the owner wouldn’t give it up, so he threw a tantrum and pouted on his bed. His wife said she’d deal with it and schemed a way to frame the land owner so that he would be stoned to death and the king got his land. Yikes. If only they had eminent domain back then. Then the king could have just taken it for fair market value and Naboth could have had his life spared. I guess in this way, the rule of law makes us more civilized, even if we disagree with it.

It’s interesting that Jezebel gets such a bad rap in history, though. She’s pretty bad, but is she much worse than so many other (and many male) characters before her? Isn’t there a continuously long list of kings that are failures (it even says at the end of each reign  something about how it’ll be written in the history books how bad these guys were). Why don’t we use Ahab’s name in a negative way?