But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?
Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard because it lay near his palace, and he offered either to buy it or to exchange it for another piece of land, but Naboth refused to give up his ancestral inheritance. His sad spirit and refusal to eat after that refusal exposed a naturally covetous, self-willed disposition fully controlled by selfishness, with distress deepening even to sickness because his selfish will had been crossed. He could brook no refusal of his wishes and felt that what he desired was rightfully his, because he had followed the dictates of his evil heart.
When Jezebel learned what had happened, she urged him to eat and be cheerful and promised to obtain the vineyard for him. Her action showed the evil influence she had exercised over him from the first continuing into his later years, strengthening and sustaining him in wrongdoing and stirring him to wickedness that bore fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history. The episode ended with Naboth killed so that Ahab could take the vineyard he coveted, showing how rulers who abuse their authority for selfish ends can cause the death of an innocent person.
The incident occurred when Elijah and Elisha were laboring together, after a decided check to the idolatry by which Ahab and the heathen Jezebel had seduced the nation. The seizure was a flagrant evil met with stern rebuke, with Elijah prophesying the doom of Ahab and all his house.
Ahab coveted Naboth's vineyard because it lay near his palace, and he offered either to buy it or to exchange it for another piece of land, but Naboth refused to give up his ancestral inheritance. His sad spirit and refusal to eat after that refusal exposed a naturally covetous, self-willed disposition fully controlled by selfishness, with distress deepening even to sickness because his selfish will had been crossed. He could brook no refusal of his wishes and felt that what he desired was rightfully his, because he had followed the dictates of his evil heart.
When Jezebel learned what had happened, she urged him to eat and be cheerful and promised to obtain the vineyard for him. Her action showed the evil influence she had exercised over him from the first continuing into his later years, strengthening and sustaining him in wrongdoing and stirring him to wickedness that bore fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history. The episode ended with Naboth killed so that Ahab could take the vineyard he coveted, showing how rulers who abuse their authority for selfish ends can cause the death of an innocent person.
The incident occurred when Elijah and Elisha were laboring together, after a decided check to the idolatry by which Ahab and the heathen Jezebel had seduced the nation. The seizure was a flagrant evil met with stern rebuke, with Elijah prophesying the doom of Ahab and all his house.