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Context No. 2948 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 21:11-15: in context

11The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had instructed them in the letters which she had written and sent to them. 12They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. 13The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones. 14Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.” 15When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”

Jezebel's plot against Naboth is carried out to the letter. The elders and nobles of his own city do exactly as her letters instruct: they proclaim a fast, seat Naboth prominently before the people, and pay two scoundrels to accuse him falsely of cursing God and the king. Naboth is dragged out and stoned to death. Word goes back to Jezebel, who tells Ahab, get up and take the vineyard; Naboth is dead.

This should be read soberly, because it is a chilling account of religion and law twisted into instruments of murder. Look at the machinery of it. A fast is proclaimed to give the crime a pious cover. False witnesses supply a legal pretext. And the whole town's leadership cooperates rather than resists. An innocent man is killed under the very forms of justice and worship, all to satisfy a king's greed for a vineyard. When those in power bend law and religion to their appetites, and everyone goes along, terrible evil wears a respectable face.

When those in authority twist law or religion to serve their appetites, do I go along like Naboth's neighbors, or refuse to be part of it?

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