Naboth

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  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
     (Lev. 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. Ps.
     109:17, 18).
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Naboth, words; prophecies