to her, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet
me.”
On her return she found her husband incapable from drunkenness of
understanding the state of matters, and not till the following day did she
explain to him what had happened. He was stunned by a sense of the
danger to which his conduct had exposed him. “His heart died within him,
and he became as a stone.” and about ten days after “the Lord smote Nabal
that he died” (1 Samuel 25:37, 38). Not long after David married Abigail
(q.v.).
- NABOTH fruits, “the Jezreelite,” was the owner of a portion of ground
on the eastern slope of the hill of Jezreel (2 Kings 9:25, 26). This small
“plat of ground” seems to have been all he possessed. It was a vineyard,
and lay “hard by the palace of Ahab” (1 Kings 21:1, 2), who greatly
coveted it. Naboth, however, refused on any terms to part with it to the
king. He had inherited it from his fathers, and no Israelite could lawfully
sell his property (Leviticus 25:23). Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, was grievously
offended at Naboth’s refusal to part with his vineyard. By a crafty and
cruel plot she compassed his death. His sons also shared his fate (2 Kings
9:26; 1 Kings 21:19). She then came to Ahab and said, “Arise, take
possession of the vineyard; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” Ahab arose
and went forth into the garden which had so treacherously and cruelly been
acquired, seemingly enjoying his new possession, when, lo, Elijah
suddenly appeared before him and pronounced against him a fearful doom
(1 Kings 21:17-24). Jehu and Bidcar were with Ahab at this time, and so
deeply were the words of Elijah imprinted on Jehu’s memory that many
years afterwards he refers to them (2 Kings 9:26), and he was the chief
instrument in inflicting this sentence on Ahab and Jezebel and all their
house (9:30-37). The house of Ahab was extinguished by him. Not one of
all his great men and his kinsfolk and his priests did Jehu spare (10:11).
Ahab humbled himself at Elijah’s words (1 Kings 21:28, 29), and therefore
the prophecy was fulfilled not in his fate but in that of his son Joram (2
Kings 9:25).
The history of Naboth, compared with that of Ahab and Jezebel, furnishes
a remarkable illustration of the law of a retributive providence, a law which
runs through all history (comp. Psalm 109:17, 18).