Naboth the Master of Ahab’s Palace?

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

A suggested identification here of the contemporaneous ‘Obadiah,

Master of King Ahab’s Palace, with Naboth whom the king murdered.

 

 

 

 

The two accounts, ‘Obadiah (I Kings 18) and Naboth (I Kings 21), are replete with similarities. For instance:

 

I Kings 21:1: “… Naboth of Jezreel had a vineyard close by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria, and Ahab said to Naboth …”.

 

I Kings 18:3-4: “…. In Samaria, Ahab summoned ‘Obadiah, the master of the palace …”.

 

The common Hebrew name ‘Obadiah (עֹבַדְיָהוּ), meaning “servant of Yahweh”, is rendered in Greek as Tobit (Τωβίτ), or Tobith (Τωβίθ), without the theophoric yahu, and with the Hebrew letter ayin (ע) being replaced by the letter tau (Τ).

My suggestion is that the name Naboth (נָבוֹת), apparently being “of uncertain derivation” (http://biblehub.com/hebrew/5022.htm), is simply a variant of ‘Obadiah similar to “Tobith”, this time with the ayin (ע) being replaced by the Hebrew letter nun (נ).

 

Next we find King Ahab and his servant dividing the country in their search for resources – presumably commencing from two ‘adjoining’ pieces of land:  

 

I Kings 21:2: “… Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it adjoins my house [palace] …’.”

 

I Kings 18:5: “…Ahab said to ‘Obadiah, ‘Come along …’. … They divided the country for the purpose of their survey; Ahab went one way by himself and ‘Obadiah went another …”.

 

In neither case does the king exhibit any sort of animosity or intentional disrespect towards his servant. However, his request for Naboth’s vineyard - for which the king is prepared to pay - was actually (though the apostate Ahab may have been completely unaware of this) a blatant flouting of the Torah.

“What an unthinkable demand. Not only did the Torah forbid such a thing [See Leviticus 25:23; Numbers 36:7; and Ezekiel 46:18] ... to give away or sell one’s inheritance … this vineyard embodied Naboth’s life, as it had his father’s and distant generations before him”.

https://womenfromthebook.com/2013/08/22/naboths-vineyard/

Jewish legend has it that Naboth was in fact a kinsman (cousin?) of Ahab’s.

According to Josephus, Naboth came from an illustrious family (Ant. 8.358).

 

In the mind of King Ahab, who was no doubt used to getting his own way, what he was proposing to Naboth was merely a reasonable business transaction.

But for the fervently Yahwistic Naboth (‘Obadiah), the king’s offer was unconscionable.  

 

I Kings 21:3: “But Naboth answered, ‘Yahweh forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors!’”

 

I Kings 18:3: “… ‘Obadiah held Yahweh in great reverence …”.

 

The king’s servant had in fact been prepared to risk his life for the cause of Yahweh (18:4): “While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water”.

Now, again, he was going to stand firm, even though it might mean provoking the wrath of Ahab (not to mention, Queen Jezebel).

Did Jezebel have well in mind ‘Obadiah’s early track record for Yahweh when she proposed this murderous plan to the sulking Ahab for acquiring the servant’s (as Naboth) vineyard? (21:5-10):

 

“His wife Jezebel came to him and said, ‘Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?’ [Cf. 18:2: “Now the famine was severe in Samaria …”]. He said to her, ‘Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it’; but he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard’.’ His wife Jezebel said to him, ‘Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite’.

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. She wrote in the letters, ‘Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; seat two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out, and stone him to death’.”   

 

Not surprisingly, the prophet Elijah - a foe of Ahab’s and Jezebel’s – was on the side of the Yahwistic servant:

 

I Kings 18:7: “While ‘Obadiah went on his way whom should he meet but Elijah …?”

 

I Kings 21:17-18: “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: ‘Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession’.”

 

Jerome T. Walsh has made the interesting observation (in Style and Structure in Biblical Hebrew Narrative, p. 145, n. 2) that:

 

“… Elijah’s meticulous obedience to YHWH is revealed when the narrative repeats the words of YHWH’s command in describing Elijah’s compliance (I Kings 17:3-6); Obadiah’s veracity is shown when he describes himself in the same words the narrator has already used (I Kings 18:3-4; 12-13, see above, p. 140); Ahab reveals something about himself and his opinion of Jezebel by not repeating accurately the conversation he had withNnaboth (I Kings 21:2, 3-6)”.   

 

In the time of ‘Obadiah, Jezebel had been busy ‘butchering the prophets’.

Now she saw to it that ‘Obadiah himself (as Naboth) was eliminated once and for all (21:15): “As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, ‘Go, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead’.”

 

King Ahab had customarily, in the case of the elusive Elijah (18:10), “… made [kingdoms] swear an oath that they could not find [him]”.

Now Queen Jezebel was ordering in the king’s name for ‘false witness’ against Naboth (21:10): ‘… seat two men, scoundrels, before [Naboth] to bear witness against him, saying, ‘You have blasphemed God and the king’. Then take him out, and stone him, that he may die’.

 

Some time after the death of King Ahab, when Jehu was on the rampage against the king’s son, Jehoram, we learn from the mouth of the same Jehu that Naboth’s sons had also been wiped out in this bloody episode (2 Kings 9:24-26):

 

“Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Jehoram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot. Jehu said to Bidkar, his chariot officer, ‘Pick him up and throw him on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I were riding together in chariots behind Ahab his father when the Lord spoke this prophecy against him: ‘Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord’. Now then, pick him up and throw him on that plot, in accordance with the word of the Lord’.”

 

Queen Jezebel would have realised that it was necessary for Naboth’s sons to die as well if Ahab were to inherit the vineyard.

 

Elijah the Tishbite had made himself inimical to King Ahab (and his wife):

 

I Kings 18:16-17: “Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, ‘Is that you, you troubler of Israel?’

 

I Kings 21:20: “Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Have you found me, O my enemy?’ …”.

 

Elijah was not to be cowed on either occasion:

 

I Kings 18:18: “‘I have not made trouble for Israel’, Elijah replied. ‘But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals’.”

 

I Kings 21:20-24: “[Elijah] answered, ‘I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat’.”

 

This was because (21:25-26): “(Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites)”.