1 Kings 21:1-5

Ahab Murders Naboth

21:1 After this the following episode took place. ¹  Naboth the Jezreelite owned a vineyard in Jezreel adjacent to the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. ²  21:2 Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard so I can make a vegetable garden out of it, for it is adjacent to my palace. I will give you an even better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, ³  I will pay you silver for it.” ⁴  21:3 But Naboth replied to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should sell you my ancestral inheritance.” ⁵ 

21:4 So Ahab went into his palace, bitter and angry that Naboth the Jezreelite had said, ⁶  “I will not sell to you my ancestral inheritance.” ⁷  He lay down on his bed, pouted, ⁸  and would not eat. 21:5 Then his wife Jezebel came in and said to him, “Why do you have a bitter attitude and refuse to eat?”

[21:1]  ¹ tn Heb “after these things.” The words “the following episode took place” are added for stylistic reasons.

[21:1]  ² sn King Ahab of Samaria. Samaria, as the capital of the northern kingdom, here stands for the nation of Israel.

[21:2]  ³ tn Heb “if it is good in your eyes.”

[21:2]  ⁴ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And it will be mine as a garden of herbs.”

[21:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “Far be it from me, by the Lord, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.”

[21:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “on account of the word that Naboth the Jezreelite spoke to him.”

[21:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will not give to you the inheritance of my fathers.”

[21:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “turned away his face.”