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1 Kings 21 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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Naboth’s Vineyard
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:1 - Now there was a man named Naboth, from Jezreel, who owned a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:2 - One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Since your vineyard is so convenient to my palace, I would like to buy it to use as a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange, or if you prefer, I will pay you for it.”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:3 - But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance that was passed down by my ancestors.”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:4 - So Ahab went home angry and sullen because of Naboth’s answer. The king went to bed with his face to the wall and refused to eat!
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:5 - “What’s the matter?” his wife Jezebel asked him. “What’s made you so upset that you’re not eating?”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:6 - “I asked Naboth to sell me his vineyard or trade it, but he refused!” Ahab told her.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:7 - “Are you the king of Israel or not?” Jezebel demanded. “Get up and eat something, and don’t worry about it. I’ll get you Naboth’s vineyard!”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:8 - So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and other leaders of the town where Naboth lived.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:9 - In her letters she commanded: “Call the citizens together for fasting and prayer, and give Naboth a place of honor.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:10 - And then seat two scoundrels across from him who will accuse him of cursing God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:11 - So the elders and other town leaders followed the instructions Jezebel had written in the letters.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:12 - They called for a fast and put Naboth at a prominent place before the people.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:13 - Then the two scoundrels came and sat down across from him. And they accused Naboth before all the people, saying, “He cursed God and the king.” So he was dragged outside the town and stoned to death.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:14 - The town leaders then sent word to Jezebel, “Naboth has been stoned to death.”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:15 - When Jezebel heard the news, she said to Ahab, “You know the vineyard Naboth wouldn’t sell you? Well, you can have it now! He’s dead!”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:16 - So Ahab immediately went down to the vineyard of Naboth to claim it.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:17 - But the LORD said to Elijah,[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:18 - “Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He will be at Naboth’s vineyard in Jezreel, claiming it for himself.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:19 - Give him this message: ‘This is what the LORD says: Wasn’t it enough that you killed Naboth? Must you rob him, too? Because you have done this, dogs will lick your blood at the very place where they licked the blood of Naboth!’”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:20 - “So, my enemy, you have found me!” Ahab exclaimed to Elijah.
“Yes,” Elijah answered, “I have come because you have sold yourself to what is evil in the LORD’s sight.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:21 - So now the LORD says, ‘I will bring disaster on you and consume you. I will destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel!
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:22 - I am going to destroy your family as I did the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the family of Baasha son of Ahijah, for you have made me very angry and have led Israel into sin.’
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:23 - “And regarding Jezebel, the LORD says, ‘Dogs will eat Jezebel’s body at the plot of land in Jezreel.[fn]
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:24 - “The members of Ahab’s family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by vultures.”
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:25 - (No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the LORD’s sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:26 - His worst outrage was worshiping idols[fn] just as the Amorites had done—the people whom the LORD had driven out from the land ahead of the Israelites.)
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:27 - But when Ahab heard this message, he tore his clothing, dressed in burlap, and fasted. He even slept in burlap and went about in deep mourning.
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:28 - Then another message from the LORD came to Elijah:
Unchecked Copy Box1Ki 21:29 - “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has done this, I will not do what I promised during his lifetime. It will happen to his sons; I will destroy his dynasty.”
NLT Footnotes
Hebrew Elijah the Tishbite; also in 21:28.
As in several Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac, and Latin Vulgate (see also 2 Kgs 9:26, 36); most Hebrew manuscripts read at the city wall.
The Hebrew term (literally round things) probably alludes to dung.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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