1 Kings 21:6
And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard.
While Elijah was still prophet in Israel, Ahab set his heart on possessing the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite beside the palace, because it lay near his house and he wanted it for a garden of herbs. He offered to buy it for money or, if it pleased Naboth, to give another and better vineyard in exchange for it. Naboth refused to give up his vineyard because he valued it as belonging to his fathers, an ancestral inheritance that Israel's law protected from permanent transfer by sale or exchange.
Ahab's report of the refusal reveals his ruling covetousness and selfishness: he could bear no refusal and felt that what he desired should by right be his. His selfish desire and anger at having his will crossed further expose that covetousness. Behind his course was the evil influence Jezebel had exercised over him from the first and continued in his later years, stirring him up until he had sold himself to work wickedness, bearing fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled.
To obtain the coveted vineyard, Naboth was slain and Ahab seized the vineyard, a murder that served a selfish purpose and abused power. This flagrant evil was met by Elijah with stern rebuke prophesying the doom of Ahab and the doom of all his house, bringing disaster on the kingdom under his successors, during the years after the call of Elisha when Elijah and Elisha labored together and Elijah was called upon from time to time to confront such evils. Ahab's later seizure of the vineyard and killing of Naboth parallels the pursuit of Dutch land by English-speaking powers and the bloodshed that followed.