Naboth's Vineyard

¹Near King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth.

²One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price.”

³“I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors,” Naboth replied. “The Lord forbid that I should let you have it!”

⁴Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat.

⁵His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, “Why are you so depressed? Why won't you eat?”

⁶He answered, “Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn't have it!”

⁷“Well, are you the king or aren't you?” Jezebel replied. “Get out of bed, cheer up, and eat. I will get you Naboth's vineyard!”

⁸Then she wrote some letters, signed Ahab's name to them, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel.

⁹The letters said: “Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honor.

¹⁰Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death.”

¹¹The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded.

¹²They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honor.

¹³The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death.

¹⁴The message was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been put to death.”

¹⁵As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you.”

¹⁶At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.

¹⁷Then the Lord said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe,

¹⁸“Go to King Ahab of Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard, about to take possession of it.

¹⁹Tell him that I, the Lord, say to him, ‘After murdering the man, are you taking over his property as well?’ Tell him that this is what I say: ‘In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth's blood they will lick up your blood!’”

²⁰When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “Have you caught up with me, my enemy?” “Yes, I have,” Elijah answered. “You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the Lord's sight.

²¹So the Lord says to you, ‘I will bring disaster on you. I will do away with you and get rid of every male in your family, young and old alike.

²²Your family will become like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of King Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have stirred up my anger by leading Israel into sin.’

²³And concerning Jezebel, the Lord says that dogs will eat her body in the city of Jezreel.

²⁴Any of your relatives who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures.”

²⁵(There was no one else who had devoted himself so completely to doing wrong in the Lord's sight as Ahab—all at the urging of his wife Jezebel.

²⁶He committed the most shameful sins by worshiping idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the people of Israel advanced.)

²⁷When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

²⁸The Lord said to the prophet Elijah,

²⁹“Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family.”

¹Jehoshaphat died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City and his son Jehoram succeeded him as king.

King Jehoram of Judah

²Jehoram son of King Jehoshaphat of Judah had six brothers: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael, and Shephatiah.

³Their father gave them large amounts of gold, silver, and other valuable possessions, and placed each one in charge of one of the fortified cities of Judah. But because Jehoram was the oldest, Jehoshaphat made him his successor.

⁴When Jehoram was in firm control of the kingdom, he had all his brothers killed, and also some Israelite officials.

⁵Jehoram became king at the age of thirty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years.

⁶He followed the wicked example of King Ahab and the other kings of Israel, because he had married one of Ahab's daughters. He sinned against the Lord,

⁷but the Lord was not willing to destroy the dynasty of David, because he had made a covenant with David and promised that his descendants would always continue to rule.

⁸During Jehoram's reign Edom revolted against Judah and became an independent kingdom.

⁹So Jehoram and his officers set out with chariots and invaded Edom. There the Edomite army surrounded them, but during the night they managed to break out and escape.

¹⁰Edom has been independent of Judah ever since. During this same period the city of Libnah also revolted, because Jehoram had abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors.

¹¹He even built pagan places of worship in the Judean highlands and led the people of Judah and Jerusalem to sin against the Lord.

¹²The prophet Elijah sent Jehoram a letter, which read as follows: “The Lord, the God of your ancestor David, condemns you, because you did not follow the example of your father, King Jehoshaphat, or that of your grandfather, King Asa.

¹³Instead, you have followed the example of the kings of Israel and have led the people of Judah and Jerusalem into being unfaithful to God, just as Ahab and his successors led Israel into unfaithfulness. You even murdered your brothers, who were better men than you are.

¹⁴As a result, the Lord will severely punish your people, your children, and your wives, and will destroy your possessions.

¹⁵You yourself will suffer a painful intestinal disease that will grow worse day by day.”

¹⁶Some Philistines and Arabs lived near where some Ethiopians had settled along the coast. The Lord caused them to go to war against Jehoram.

¹⁷They invaded Judah, looted the royal palace, and carried off as prisoners all the king's wives and sons except Ahaziah, his youngest son.

¹⁸Then after all this, the Lord brought on the king a painful disease of the intestines.

¹⁹For almost two years it grew steadily worse until finally the king died in agony. His subjects did not light a bonfire in mourning for him as had been done for his ancestors.

²⁰Jehoram had become king at the age of thirty-two and had ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. Nobody was sorry when he died. They buried him in David's City, but not in the royal tombs.

King Ahaziah of Judah

¹Some Arabs had led a raid and killed all of King Jehoram's sons except Ahaziah, the youngest. So now the people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah king as his father's successor.

^2-3Ahaziah became king at the age of twenty-two, and he ruled in Jerusalem for one year. Ahaziah also followed the example of King Ahab's family, since his mother Athaliah—the daughter of King Ahab and granddaughter of King Omri of Israel—gave him advice that led him into evil.

⁴He sinned against the Lord, because after his father's death other members of King Ahab's family became his advisers, and they led to his downfall.

⁵Following their advice, he joined King Joram of Israel in a war against King Hazael of Syria. The armies clashed at Ramoth in Gilead, and Joram was wounded in battle.

⁶He returned to the city of Jezreel to recover from his wounds, and Ahaziah went there to visit him.

⁷God used this visit to Joram to bring about Ahaziah's downfall. While Ahaziah was there, he and Joram were confronted by a man named Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had chosen to destroy the dynasty of Ahab.

⁸As Jehu was carrying out God's sentence on the dynasty, he came across a group made up of Judean leaders and of Ahaziah's nephews that had accompanied Ahaziah on his visit. Jehu killed them all.

⁹A search was made for Ahaziah, and he was found hiding in Samaria. They took him to Jehu and put him to death. But they did bury his body out of respect for his grandfather King Jehoshaphat, who had done all he could to serve the Lord. No member of Ahaziah's family was left who could rule the kingdom.

Queen Athaliah of Judah

¹⁰As soon as King Ahaziah's mother Athaliah learned of her son's murder, she gave orders for all the members of the royal family of Judah to be killed.

¹¹Ahaziah had a half sister, Jehosheba, who was married to a priest named Jehoiada. She secretly rescued one of Ahaziah's sons, Joash, took him away from the other princes who were about to be murdered and hid him and a nurse in a bedroom at the Temple. By keeping him hidden, she saved him from death at the hands of Athaliah.

¹²For six years he remained there in hiding, while Athaliah ruled as queen.

¹What a magnificent young woman you are! How beautiful are your feet in sandals. The curve of your thighs is like the work of an artist.

²A bowl is there, that never runs out of spiced wine. A sheaf of wheat is there, surrounded by lilies.

³Your breasts are like twin deer, like two gazelles.

⁴Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like the pools in the city of Heshbon, near the gate of that great city. Your nose is as lovely as the tower of Lebanon that stands guard at Damascus.

⁵Your head is held high like Mount Carmel. Your braided hair shines like the finest satin; its beauty could hold a king captive.

⁶How pretty you are, how beautiful; how complete the delights of your love.

⁷You are as graceful as a palm tree, and your breasts are clusters of dates.

⁸I will climb the palm tree and pick its fruit. To me your breasts are like bunches of grapes, your breath like the fragrance of apples,

The Woman

⁹and your mouth like the finest wine. Then let the wine flow straight to my lover, flowing over his lips and teeth.

¹⁰I belong to my lover, and he desires me.

¹¹Come, darling, let's go out to the countryside and spend the night in the villages.

¹²We will get up early and look at the vines to see whether they've started to grow, whether the blossoms are opening and the pomegranate trees are in bloom. There I will give you my love.

¹³You can smell the scent of mandrakes, and all the pleasant fruits are near our door. Darling, I have kept for you the old delights and the new.