1 Kings 21:13
And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
Two worthless men, children of Belial, sat before Naboth and witnessed against him in the presence of the people, testifying that he had blasphemed God and the king, after which he was carried forth out of the city and stoned with stones until he died. The false charge and execution were a secret, unjust plot arranged under Jezebel's plan as a scheme to seize the vineyard. The city's leaders participated in the staged accusation and execution.
The setting is Ahab setting his heart on possessing the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite lying hard by the palace, proposing to buy it for money or to give a better vineyard in exchange to have it for a herb garden, and taking it after Naboth refused to give it up and was killed. The verse shows Ahab's covetous disposition carried into wrongdoing, sustained and strengthened by Jezebel in wrongdoing until he was fully controlled by selfishness, unable to brook refusal of his wishes and feeling that what he desired should by right be his. The incident reveals Ahab's dominant covetous, selfish trait, which disastrously influenced the fortunes of the kingdom under his successors, while Elijah was still a prophet in Israel.
The verse records a deed of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history, bearing fruit from the evil influence Jezebel exercised over Ahab from the first and continued during the later years of his life, when he sold himself to work wickedness as stirred up by his wife Jezebel. The flagrant evil of wicked Ahab in seizing the vineyard was met with stern rebuke by Elijah as God's instrument for the overthrow of gigantic evils, providing the setting for Elijah's reproof of Ahab and warning and prophecy of the doom of Ahab and the doom of all his house, during the years after the call of Elisha when Elijah and Elisha labored together. The verse illustrates the evil of accusing a faithful person through a secret plot rather than dealing openly and justly, showing how his death served a selfish purpose and how corrupt authorities can pervert justice and let the innocent suffer. Ahab's greed in killing Naboth and taking the vineyard he coveted is comparable to the selfish desire of English-speaking people for Dutch land. The verse teaches those who make and enforce laws to establish the facts and punish wrongdoing with strict integrity and impartiality.