the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Naboth
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Na´both (fruit, produce), an inhabitant of Jezreel, who was the possessor of a patrimonial vineyard adjoining the garden of the palace which the kings of Israel had there. King Ahab had conceived a desire to add this vineyard to his ground, to make of it 'a garden of herbs,' but found that Naboth could not, on any consideration, be induced to alienate a property which he had derived from his fathers. This gave the king so much concern, that he took to his bed and refused his food; but when his wife, the notorious Jezebel, understood the cause of his trouble, she bade him be of good cheer, for she would procure him the vineyard. Sometime after Naboth was, at a public feast, accused of blasphemy, by an order from her under the royal seal, and, being condemned through the testimony of false witnesses, was stoned to death, according to the law, outside the town (; ). His estate, by a usage which appears to have crept in, was forfeited to the crown.
When Ahab heard of the death of Naboth—and he must have known how that death had been accomplished, or he would not have supposed himself a gainer by the event—he hastened to take possession. But he was speedily taught that this horrid crime had not passed without notice by the all-seeing God, and would not remain unpunished. The only tribunal to which he remained accountable, pronounced his doom through the prophet Elijah, who met him on the spot, 'In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine' (1 Kings 21).
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Naboth'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/n/naboth.html.
