1 *Kings 21

₁There was a man in the town of Jezreel who had a vineyard next to the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. The man's name was Naboth. ₂Ahab went to Naboth and said: ‘Please give me your vineyard. I will give you a better vineyard, or if you want, I will pay you a lot of money for it. I want to plant vegetables there because it is next to my palace.’ ₃But Naboth said to Ahab: ‘I pray that the Lord will stop me if I want to do that. I will never give you the field that my forefathers gave me.’

₄When Ahab went home he was sad and angry because Naboth of Jezreel had told him he would not give him the field that he had received from his forefathers. Ahab lay on his bed and he looked at the wall. He did not want to eat. ₅His wife Jezebel came to him and asked him: ‘Why are you sad and why don't you eat?’ ₆He said to her: ‘I talked to Naboth of Jezreel and I asked him to give me his vineyard. I said I would pay for it or give him another vineyard, but he said no. He did not want to give me his vineyard.’ ₇Ahab's wife Jezebel said to him: ‘You are the king_of_Israel. Get up and eat and be happy. I will make a plan so that you can get the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel.’

₈Jezebel then wrote letters and she put Ahab's name and the mark of his seal on them. She sent the letters to the leaders and officials of the city. ₉In the letters she wrote: ‘You must call all the people of the city to come together and you must all fast and tell Naboth to come and sit in front of you. ₁₀You must get 2 men who will tell lies about Naboth. They must sit in front of him. They must say that Naboth has cursed God and the king and they must say they are witnesses that he did it. Then you must take Naboth out of the city and you must kill him with stones.’

₁₁The leaders and officials of the city did what Jezebel had written in the letters. ₁₂They called all the people to fast and they called Naboth to come and sit in front of the people. ₁₃The 2 men who were going to tell lies about Naboth sat down in front of Naboth. The 2 men then said they were the witnesses and they had heard Naboth cursing God and the king. Then they took Naboth out of the city and they killed him with stones. ₁₄Then they went to Jezebel and told her that they had killed Naboth with stones.

₁₅When they told that to Jezebel, she said to Ahab: ‘Naboth is not alive anymore. He has died. Now you can go and take Naboth's vineyard that he did not want to sell to you.’

₁₆When they told Ahab that Naboth was dead, he went to the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel to take it for himself. ₁₇The Lord said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe: ₁₈‘Ahab, king_of_Israel in Samaria, is in the vineyard of Naboth. He went there to take it for himself. You must go and meet him there. ₁₉You must tell him: The Lord says: “Ahab, you have murdered someone and now you are taking his field. At the same place where the dogs licked up Naboth's blood, there the dogs will also lick up your blood.” ’

₂₀When Elijah said this to Ahab, Ahab said: ‘Have you found me, my enemy?’ Elijah answered: ‘Yes, I have found you because you enjoy doing things which God does not like. ₂₁The Lord says: “I will make you suffer. I will kill you and every man and boy in your family who lives in the land_of_Israel. I will kill the old men and the boys. ₂₂I will do with your royal family what I did to the family of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and the family of Baasha, son of Ahijah. I will do this because you made Me angry and because you have made Israel sin.” ₂₃The Lord also talked about Jezebel. He said: “The dogs will eat Jezebel at the wall of Jezreel. ₂₄If someone of Ahab's family dies in a town, the dogs will eat him, and if one of Ahab's family dies in the field, the birds will eat him.” ’

₂₅There was no other person who was as bad as Ahab. He enjoyed doing things which God did not like. His wife Jezebel told him to do all these bad things. ₂₆He did things which the Lord hates and he served idols. The Amorites had done this before, and that is why the Lord chased them out of the land and He gave their land to the Israelites.

₂₇When Ahab heard what Elijah said, he tore his clothes and put on sack-cloth and he fasted. He did not take off the sack-cloth. He went to bed and slept with it on. He was upset and he did not speak to anyone. ₂₈The Lord said to Elijah from Tishbe: ₂₉‘Have you seen what Ahab has done? He has humbled himself before Me. Because he has done it, I will not make all those bad things happen while he is alive, but when his son becomes king, I will destroy his royal family.’