1 Kings 21:5-23

⁵His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so depressed? Why are you refusing to eat anything?”

⁶Ahab replied, “I talked to Naboth, that man from Jezreel. I told him that I wanted his vineyard. I said, ‘I will buy it from you, or I will give you another vineyard for it.’ But he refused to let me have it.”

⁷His wife replied, “You are RHQ the king of Israel, so you can get whatever you want Get up, and eat some food and do not worry about what Naboth said. I will get Naboth's vineyard for you.”

⁸Then Jezebel wrote some letters, and she signed Ahab's name on them. She used his official seal to seal them. Then she sent them to the older leaders and other important men who lived in Naboth's town.

⁹This is what she wrote in the letters: “Proclaim a day when all the people will gather together and ◄fast/abstain from eating food►. Give to Naboth an important place to sit among them.

¹⁰Then find two men who always cause trouble. Give them places to sit opposite/facing him. Tell these men to testify that they heard Naboth say things that criticized God and the king. Then take Naboth out of the city and kill him by throwing stones at him.”

¹¹The leaders received the letters and did what Jezebel had written in the letters for them to do.

¹²They declared a day on which the people would all ◄fast/abstain from food►. And they gave Naboth a seat in a place where honored people sat, in front of the people.

¹³Two men who always caused trouble sat opposite/facing Naboth. While everyone was listening, they stated that they had heard Naboth say things that criticized God and the king. So the people seized Naboth. They took him outside the city and killed him by throwing stones at him.

¹⁴Then those leaders sent a message to Jezebel, saying “We have executed Naboth.”

¹⁵When Jezebel found out that Naboth had been killed, she told Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now you can go and take possession of the vineyard that he refused to sell to you.”

¹⁶When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went to the vineyard to claim that he now owned it.

¹⁷Then Yahweh spoke to Elijah the prophet. He said,

¹⁸“Go to Samaria and talk to Ahab, the king of Israel. He is in the vineyard of a man named Naboth. He has gone there to claim that he now owns it.

¹⁹Tell Ahab that this is what I, Yahweh, say to him: ‘You have murdered Naboth and taken his land.’ So I am telling you this: ‘In the same place where Naboth died and dogs came and licked up Naboth's blood, you will die and the dogs will lick up your blood, too!’ ”

²⁰So when Elijah met with Ahab, Ahab said to him, “You, my enemy, have found me!” RHQ Elijah answered, “Yes, I have found you. You have never stopped doing the things that Yahweh says are wrong.

²¹So this is what Yahweh says to you: ‘I will soon get rid of you. I will kill you, and I will also kill every male in your household, including those who are slaves and those who are not slaves.

²²Your family will all be killed, just like the family of King Jeroboam and like the family of King Baasha were killed. I will get rid of you because you have caused me to become very angry, and you have also led the Israeli people to sin.’

²³Yahweh has also told me that your wife Jezebel will be killed, and dogs in Jezreel will eat her corpse.