Naboth

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Na'both. (Fruits). The victim of Ahab and Jezebel, was the owner of a small vineyard at Jezreel, close to the royal palace of Shab.  1 Kings 21:1-2. (B.C. 897). It thus became an object of desire to the king, who offered an equivalent in money or another vineyard. In exchange for this, Naboth, in the independent spirit of a Jewish landholder, refused: "The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my father unto thee."

Ahab was cowed by this reply; but the proud spirit of Jezebel was aroused. She took the matter into her own hands. A fast was proclaimed, as on the announcement of some impending calamity. Naboth was "set on high" in the public place of Samaria; two men of worthless character accused him of having, "cursed God and the king."

He and his children,  2 Kings 9:26, were dragged out of the city and despatched; the same night. The place of execution there, was by the large tank or reservoir, which still remains on the slope of the hill of Samaria, immediately outside the walls. The usual punishment for blasphemy was enforced: Naboth and his sons were stoned; and the blood from their wounds ran down into the waters of the tank below. For the signal retribution taken on this judicial murder - a remarkable proof of the high regard paid in the old dispensation. To the claims of justice and independence - See Ahab; Jehu; Jezebel .

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

"fruit" (Gesenius); "preeminence" (Furst). 1 Kings 21;  2 Kings 9:21-26. (See Ahab ; Elijah Septuagint ( 1 Kings 21:1) omit "which was in Jezreel," and read instead of "the palace" "the threshing floor of Ahab king of Samaria." This locates Naboth's vineyard on the hill of Samaria, close by the threshing floor, hard by the gate of the city; but Hebrew text is probably right. David's offer to Araunah ( 2 Samuel 24:21-24) and Omri's purchase from Shemer illustrate Ahab's offer to Naboth. Naboth was "set on high," i.e. seated on a conspicuous place before all the people. Ahab's blood in retribution was washed from the chariot in the pool of Samaria, where harlots were bathing (so translated instead of "and they washed the armour"), while dogs licked up the rest of the blood ( 1 Kings 22:38); the further retribution was on his seed Joram (2 Kings 9).

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

an Israelite of the city of Jezreel, who lived under Ahab, king of the ten tribes, and had a fine vineyard near the king's palace. Ahab coveted his property; but Naboth, according to the law,  Leviticus 25:23-24 , refused to sell it: and beside, it was a disgrace for a Hebrew to alienate the inheritance of his ancestors. Ahab, returning into his house, threw himself on his bed, and refused to eat, when Jezebel, his wife, took upon herself to procure the vineyard. She wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with the king's seal, and sent them to the elders of Jezreel, directing them to publish a fast, to place Naboth among the chief of the people, suborn against him two sons of Belial, or two false witnesses, who might depose, that Naboth had blasphemed God and the king. Accordingly, Naboth was condemned and stoned for the supposed crime, which brought upon Ahab and Jezebel the severest maledictions, 1 Kings 21. See Ahab .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A Jezreelite, owner of a vineyard adjoining the property of Ahab, king of Israel. Ahab desired to purchase this vineyard, or exchange it for another; but Naboth refused to part with it, because it was the inheritance of his fathers. Jezebel, Ahab's wife, observing her husband's vexation on account of this refusal, wrote to the elders and nobles of the city where Naboth lived, telling them to proclaim a fast, to set Naboth in a prominent place, to get two sons of Belial to charge him with blaspheming God and the king, and then to stone him to death. The elders and nobles were mean and wicked enough to carry out her instructions, and sent word that Naboth was dead. Jezebel now informed her husband, and he went down to take possession of the vineyard; but God sent Elijah to tell him his doom and that of Jezebel. God could not allow such wickedness to go unpunished.  1 Kings 21:1-19;  2 Kings 9:21-26 .

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 2 Kings 9:25,26 1 Kings 21:1,2 Leviticus 25:23 2 Kings 9:26 1 Kings 21:19 1 Kings 21:17-24 2 Kings 9:26

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 (Compare  Psalm 109:17,18 ).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

NABOTH. A man of Jezreel, owner of a vineyard adjoining the palace of Ahab (  1 Kings 21:1 ). The king, desiring to add the vineyard to his lands, offered to buy it or exchange it for another. Naboth, however, refused to give up ‘the inheritance of his fathers.’ Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, by using the royal authority with the elders of the city, had Naboth accused of treason and blasphemy, and stoned to death. As Ahab went to take possession of the vineyard, he was met by Elijah, the prophet, who pronounced doom on him and his house. The murder of Naboth seems to have deeply impressed the popular mind, and the deaths of Joram and Jezebel near the spot were regarded as Divine retribution on the act (  2 Kings 9:25;   2 Kings 9:36 ).

W. F. Boyd.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

An Israelite at Jezreel, who declined selling his ancestral vineyard to Ahab,  Leviticus 25:23,24; and was in consequence murdered, on a false charge of blasphemy contrived by Jezebel the queen. Ahab took immediate possession of the coveted vineyardperhaps as being legally for forfeited to the government, construing blasphemy as treason; or it may be, that the heirs were deterred from asserting their claim by a dread of the unscrupulous arts of Jezebel. Elijah, however, did not fear to denounce against the king and queen the vengeance of One "higher than they,"  1 Kings 21:1-29   2 Kings 9:24-26,36   Ecclesiastes 5:8 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Naboth ( Nâ'Bŏth ), Fruits. An Israelite of Jezreel who owned a vineyard adjoining the palace of king Ahab.  1 Kings 21:1. Anxious to secure this spot to use it for a garden, the king proposed to buy it; but Naboth declined to sell. So Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, made a wicked plan to have Naboth condemned to death on a fake charge of blasphemy, and thus allow the king to seize upon the vineyard. The murder was avenged by the doom immediately passed upon Ahab and Jezebel, the royal murderers.  1 Kings 21:19.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 1 Kings 21:3-4 Leviticus 25:15-16 Leviticus 25:23 1 Kings 21:8-14 1 Kings 21:17-24

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

We have his history,  1 Kings 21:1-29. Same name in meaning as Nebajoth, son of Ishmael.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Naboth', נָבוֹת Frts, according to Gesenius, but Pre-Eminence according to Furst; Sept. Ναβούθ , v.r. Ναβουθαί , Ναβοθα ; Josephus, Νάβουθος ', Ant. 8:13,7), an Israelite of the town of Jezreel in the time of Ahab, king of Israel. B.C. cir. 897. " He was the owner of a small portion of ground ( 2 Kings 9:25-26) that lay on the eastern slope of the hill of Jezreel. He had also a vineyard, of which the situation is not quite certain. According to the Hebrew text ( 1 Kings 21:1) it was in Jezreel, but the Sept. renders the whole clause differently, omitting the words 'which was in Jezreel,' and reading instead of 'the palace,' 'the threshing-floor of Ahab, king of Samaria.' This points to the view, certainly most consistent with the subsequent narrative, that Nabotl's vineyard was on the hill of Samaria, close to the 'threshing-floor' (the word translated in A.V. 'void place') which undoubtedlv existed there, hard by the gate of the city (1 Kings 24). The royal palace of Ahab was close upon the city wall at Jezreel. According to both texts, it immediately adjoined the vineyard ( 1 Kings 21:1-2, Heb.;  1 Kings 21:2, Sept.;  2 Kings 9:30;  2 Kings 9:36), and it thus became an object of desire to the king, who offered an equivalent in money, or another vineyard, in exchange for this. Naboth, in the independent spirit of a Jewish landholder (comp. 2 Samuel 24; 1 Kings 16), refused. Perhaps the turn of his expression implies that his objection was mingled with a religious scruple at forwarding the acquisitions of a half- heathen king: 'Jehovah forbid it to me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.' Ahab was cowed by this reply; but the proud spirit of his wife, Jezebel, was roused. She and hlee husband were apparently in the city of Samaria ( 1 Kings 21:18). She took the matter into her own hanlds, and sent a warrant in Ahab's name, sealed with Ahai's seal, to the elders and nobles of Jezreel, suggesting the mode of qestroving the man who had insilted the royal power. A solemn fast was proclaimed, as on the. announcement of some great calamity. Naboth was 'set on high' in, the public place of Samaria (the Heb. word which is rendered, here only, '(on high,' is more accurately 'at the head of,' or 'in the chiefest place among' [ 1 Samuel 9:22].

The passage is obscured by our ignorance of the nature of the ceremonial in which Naboth was made to take part; but, in default of this knowledge, we may accept the explanation of Josephus, that an assembly [ Ἐκκλησία ] was convened, at the head of which Naboth, in virtue of his position, was placed, in order that the charge of blasphemy and the subsequent catastrophe might be more telling); two men of worthless character accused him of having 'cursed God and the king.' He and his children ( 2 Kings 9:26), who else might have succeeded to his father's inheritance, were dragged out of the city and despatched the same night. The place of execution there, as at Hebron (2 Samuel 3), was by the large tank, or reservoir, which still remains on the slope of the hill of Samaria, immediately outside the walls. The usual punishment for blasphemy was enforced ( Leviticus 24:16;  Numbers 15:30). Naboth and his sons were stoned; their mangled remains were devoured by the dogs (and swine, Sept.) that prowled under the walls; and the blood from their wounds ran down into the waters of the tank below, which was the common bathing-place of the prostitutes of the city (comp.  1 Kings 21:19;  1 Kings 22:38, Sept.). Josephus (Ant. 8:15, 6) makes the execution to have been at Jezreel, where he also places the washing of Ahab's chariot." This figurative is remarkable as the only mention in the Scriptures of a woman as able to write, and some have inferred, but needlessly, that the letters mentioned in  1 Kings 21:8 muist have been written by an amanuensis.

The state of female education in the East has probably always, as now been such that not one woman in ten thousand could write at all. Coquerel (in the Biographie Sacrae) thinks that the reason why the children of Naboth perished with him being perhaps put to death by the creatures of Jezebel — was that otherwise the crime would have been useless, as the children would still have been entitled to the father's heritage. But we know not that Naboth had any sons; and if he had sons, and they had been taken off, the estate might still have had an heir. It is not unlikely that a custom like that of escheat in modern times obtained in Israel, giving to the crown the property of persons put to death for treason or blasphemy. On Naboth's death, accordingly, Ahab obtained possession of his inheritance. The perpetration of this crime brought upon Ahab and Jezebel the severest maledictions, which shortly after were carried into effect. The only tribunal to which he remained accountable pronounced his doom through a prophet. "This was the final step in Ahab's course of wickedness, and as he was in the act of taking possession, Elijah met him and announced the awful doom which awaited him and his queen and children. A kind of repentance on the part of the king led to another announcement of a certain modification of the retribution, which was not to come during Ahab's lifetime. But in that very plot of ground, and apparently quite close to the city, his son, king Jehoram, was met by Jehu, who mortally wounded him with an arrow.

The king sank dead in his chariot, and Jehu bade his attendant captain take up the body and cast it into the portion of the field of Naboth. As he was doing so he was reminded by Jehu that they both had been riding behind Ahab at the time when the Lord laid this burden upon him, 'Surely I have seen yesterday ( אֶמֶשׁ , Yesternight) the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord; and I will requite thee in this plat, saith the Lord' ( 2 Kings 9:21-26). This passage seems to imply two circumstances which are not mentioned in the earlier history: that Naboth's sons were put to death as well as himself, and that Ahab took possession the very day after the juldicital mulrdler." The English version renders the words true: "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine" ( 1 Kings 21:19). But the fulfilment is recorded as taking place in the pool of Samaria (22:38), "And they washed out the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood." Kimchi explains this by saving that the water of this pool ran to Jezreel; but Schwarz (Palest. page 165) identifies Jezreel with Seram, sixteen miles from Sebaste, where the pool stood, and on a higher level. Accordingly, he insists that the rendering "on the spot" is wrong, and that בִּמִּקוֹם should be rendered " in place of," i.e., "in punishnent for" (comp.  Hosea 2:1). See Kitto. Daily Bible Illustr. ad loc. (See Ahab); (See Elijah); (See Jezebel); (See Jezreel).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

nā´both , nā´bōth ( נבות , nābhōth , from נוּב , nūbh , "a sprout"; Ναβουθαί , Nabouthaı́ ): The owner of a vineyard contiguous to the palace of King Ahab. The king desired, by purchase or exchange, to add the vineyard to his own grounds. Naboth, however, refused to part on any terms with his paternal inheritance. This refusal made Ahab "heavy and displeased"   1 Kings 21:4 . Jezebel, the king's wife, then took the matter in hand, and by false accusation on an irrelevant charge procured the death of Naboth by stoning  1 Kings 21:7-14 . As Ahab was on his way to take possession of the vineyard he met Elijah the prophet, who denounced his vile act and pronounced judgment on king and royal house. A temporary respite was given to Ahab because of a repentant mood  1 Kings 21:27-29; but later the blow fell, first upon himself in a conflict with Syria  1 Kings 22:34-40; then upon his house through a conspiracy of Jehu, in which Jehoram, Ahab's son, and Jezebel, his wife, were slain ( 2 Kings 9:25-26 ,  2 Kings 9:30 ). In both cases the circumstances recalled the foul treatment of Naboth.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Na´both (fruit, produce), an inhabitant of Jezreel, who was the possessor of a patrimonial vineyard adjoining the garden of the palace which the kings of Israel had there. King Ahab had conceived a desire to add this vineyard to his ground, to make of it 'a garden of herbs,' but found that Naboth could not, on any consideration, be induced to alienate a property which he had derived from his fathers. This gave the king so much concern, that he took to his bed and refused his food; but when his wife, the notorious Jezebel, understood the cause of his trouble, she bade him be of good cheer, for she would procure him the vineyard. Sometime after Naboth was, at a public feast, accused of blasphemy, by an order from her under the royal seal, and, being condemned through the testimony of false witnesses, was stoned to death, according to the law, outside the town . His estate, by a usage which appears to have crept in, was forfeited to the crown.

When Ahab heard of the death of Naboth—and he must have known how that death had been accomplished, or he would not have supposed himself a gainer by the event—he hastened to take possession. But he was speedily taught that this horrid crime had not passed without notice by the all-seeing God, and would not remain unpunished. The only tribunal to which he remained accountable, pronounced his doom through the prophet Elijah, who met him on the spot, 'In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine' (1 Kings 21).

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

A Jew, who was stoned by order of Ahab, king of Israel, because he refused to sell him his vineyard, an outrage for which Ahab was visited by Divine judgment; is symbol, in the regard of the Jews, of the punishment sure to overtake all rich oppressors of the poor.