NOTES for Ki1 21:1-29

Good impulses did not prevail in Ahab’s heart. After a successful war, he returned to his usual way of life and soon coveted another person’s property. Queen Jezebel is ready to help him, but even in their wickedness a difference between her and Ahab is visible. It did not, after all, occur to Ahab to seize Naboth’s vineyard by force and slander. Nevertheless, by failing to object to his wife’s actions, he became her accomplice, even though he “washed his hands” of the matter.

But even the wicked need to observe an appearance of piety; even Jezebel tries to clothe her arbitrary action in the appearance of a lawful procedure. And so this blasphemer accuses Naboth of blaspheming God. Here we see the same false and unjust judgment that the trial of Christ would become several centuries later. If the reason for the killing of Naboth was the desire to take possession of the vineyard, those who wanted to kill Jesus likewise intended to rule without restraint over the vineyard of which Christ spoke in His parable.

Ahab repented of what he had done; he had not yet entirely exhausted the momentum of his former piety. But Jezebel lacks even such a lingering momentum. She acts with utter lawlessness.