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 (×¢ֹבַדְ×™ָהוּ), meaning “servant of
Yahweh”, is rendered in Greek as Tobit (Τωβίτ), or
Tobith (Τωβίθ), without the theophoric yahu, and
with the Hebrew letter ayin (×¢) being replaced by the letter tau
(Τ).
My suggestion is that the name Naboth (× ָבוֹת), 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 (×¢) being replaced by the Hebrew letter nun (× ).
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”.
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)”.
