21Near King Ahab’s palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. ²One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it, or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price.” ³“I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors,” Naboth replied. “The Lord forbid that I should let you have it!”

⁴Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat. ⁵His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, “Why are you so depressed? Why won’t you eat?”

⁶He answered, “Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard, or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn’t have it!”

⁷“Well, are you the king or aren’t you?” Jezebel replied. “Get out of bed, cheer up and eat. I will get you Naboth’s vineyard!”

⁸Then she wrote some letters, signed them with Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel. ⁹The letters said: “Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honour. ¹⁰Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death.”

¹¹The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded. ¹²They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honour. ¹³The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. ¹⁴The message was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been put to death.”

¹⁵As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you.” ¹⁶At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.

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