NOTES for Ki1 21:1-16
Of course, the first impulse is to write an angry tirade about wicked Jezebel and vile Ahab. But perhaps they are not worth discussing? After all, everything is essentially clear. What is not entirely clear is whether Naboth's stubbornness makes sense. Admit it: this concern for his ancestral vineyard looks thoroughly out of date. Ahab could have paid him good money, and that would have been that. Yet for some reason it matters to Naboth that this is not just a vineyard, but his ancestral inheritance! One may, of course, say that you and I have neither a vineyard nor a family estate—in fact, practically no ancestral inheritance at all—so there is nothing to discuss. And yet, what does the notion of “the inheritance of my fathers” mean for me personally? Is it worth consigning this notion to the archives?