When it comes to villains in the Bible, Queen Jezebel attained a perpetual place of dishonor.
But why? The Biblical perspective, based on the Judean Southern Kingdom’s hatred of the pagan and the other, paints her as the one responsible for the religious renegade ways of the Kingdom of Israel and as the culprit in the theft and murder scheme of land in today’s famous chapter. With time, Jezebel, whose name likely means that she was also a Priestess of Ba’al, the great God of the North, becomes a victim of violence and hatred. Her name becomes identified in rabbinic writings not with the great god of her people and his mighty temple, but with the Hebrew word for “trash”. In later lore ‘Jezebel’ becomes code name for a harlot, and even eye-makeup is identified by pious patriarchs as her bad example and frivolous fault. I think she was much more complex than that and an unfair victim of shaming.
But when it comes to the ordeal of the stolen vineyard and the killing of its innocent owner in our chapter Jezebel is def. the evil doer - portrayed as a corrupt and cruel queen, while her husband, at best complicit, is equally in the wrong. It’s worth exploring what is going on here and how on some level this is a story about the corruption of power, greed and guilt, but also miscommunication, and the purposeful distortion of truths. And at the end of the day -this story has much more to tell us today about what happens when ancestral land becomes a pawn in political play for power and position, no matter the moral costs.
This is the playbook of Colonialism.
We already know that Ahab is known as the one of the great builders of the generation - under his watch the Kingdom of Israel prospers and the capital Samaria boasts impressive buildings that archeologists are still researching today. The story begins as the king covets a lush plot of land alongside his palace in the Jezrel Valley. A certain Navot has a vineyard there, as his ancestors have had before him. He refuses to sell, citing religious and personal reasons — By God, he says - how can I sell the plot handed over by my ancestors?
The angry king who does not like to get no for an answer reports back to his wife who then takes the matter into her own hands.
When happens next is a series of brutal acts in which Navot, who is innocent, is framed for heresy, and killed on the spot, with the queen’s commands and the local elders’ scared submission. She comes to her husband with a done deal - Navot is dead, the land is yours. Asking no question, Ahab takes over the plot to turn into a vegetable garden.
This is when Elijah, long absent, comes back on the scene.
The prophet comes before the king and names the crime with an expression that would make it into the hall of fame of accusation, “an expression that has been utilized throughout the ages to designate a particularly nefarious deed that has illicitly enriched its perpetrator”, and is still quite commonly used in modern Hebrew today.
Elijah quotes YHWH to the king:
וְדִבַּרְתָּ֨ אֵלָ֜יו לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה הֲרָצַ֖חְתָּ וְגַם־יָרָ֑שְׁתָּ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֨ אֵלָ֜יו לֵאמֹ֗ר כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה בִּמְק֗וֹם אֲשֶׁ֨ר לָקְק֤וּ הַכְּלָבִים֙ אֶת־דַּ֣ם נָב֔וֹת יָלֹ֧קּוּ הַכְּלָבִ֛ים אֶת־דָּמְךָ֖ גַּם־אָֽתָּה׃
Say to the king, ‘Thus said YHWH: Would you murder and then take possession? Thus said YHWH: In the very place where the dogs lapped up Nabot’s blood, the dogs will lap up your blood too.’”
Kings 1 21:19
Elijah’s condemnation is effective. Ahab repents, full or remorse. Although no word is heard about his wife’s reaction. Elijah delivers to the king YHWH’s response to the sincere atonement - it will not be Ahab himself who will lose the crown for this misdeed - but his future progeny.
What’s the purpose of this story? Other than a Judean author seizing a possible historical fragment of land dispute and abuse to further frame the couple, what may be lurking here is a deeper and nowadays really important conversation about the sanctity of inherited land.
The reason for Nabot’s refusal to sell shows up four time in the chapter, a progression of a problem that changes its tone. When he first responds to the king’s request he cites religious reasons and ancestral fidelity - God gave this land to his fathers, and he can not betray this birthright. But by the fourth time Jezebel responds that the issue is Nabot’s greedy refusal to sell his land for money - nothing is said of religious reasons or ancestral rights.
Alex Israel comments - ’This is a classic case of how we deal with cognitive dissonance, refashioning events to justify our emotions and frustrations. Rather objectively accepting Nabots’ refusal as a principled affirmation of Jewish heritage, backed by Torah law, Ahab grotesquely twists Naobt’s ethical stand into an egotistical gesture of greed.”
In his commentary on this story, Biblical scholar Yair Zakovitch comments:
“The scathing rhyme.. “Have your murdered and also taken possession” that is, have you added shameful insult to criminal injury - is the whole intent of the story. In a nutshell. The tale is a lesson in the responsibility of rule. The king may not avail himself of the claim of ignorance, especially in view of such clear indications that he was not aware of all that was afoot.”
There are some scholars are claim that this story is also hinting at the very legal code at the core of Judaism - the Ten Commandments. Ahab and Jezebel are together guilty of 7 out of the 10 - from worshipping false idols, to coveting, stealing, killing and desecrating the honor of the ancestors.
Jeremy Bernstein writes: “In 16 verses, the Biblical author has given us a memorable “anti-vision” of the ideal society: how indulging the very personal act of coveting can cause civilization to unravel. This story, then, is not about Ahab and Jezebel and poor Nabot - but about ourselves and how we build a just, compassionate society, or not.”
Nabot’s vineyard turned royal garden will show up once more in the story, demonstrating the eventual fulfillment of Elijah’s harsh prophecy and warning to the king. The terrible fate he’s warned the queen about will also come true - dogs will devour her corpse.
But the real horror of this story is how it’s current reality.
In the name of ancestry and god-given homeland, covered by pious facades and citing chapter and verse, Jewish settlers continue to steal Palestinian land, attack its rightful owners, and legally transform the deeds to slowly become their property. Few prophets rail though dedicated activists are hard at work to stand up to this ongoing project of ‘redemption of the land.’
Not all land involved in the Israeli-Palestine conflict is the same ad Nabot’s vineyard, at the heart of the area known today, still, as Samaria.
But there are many such plots. And a lot of denial.
The words of the prophets echo even as few in Israel want to hear:
How will you kill the owner of the land and then possess the land?
What are the consequences? What will be the price paid by future generation for this continued cruel criminal intent?
The dogs will lick your blood, Elijah warns Ahab and Jezebel, and it will be so. But the land was not returned to Nabot’s heirs.
The seeds of violence and destruction for the royal house of Ahab and the Kingdom of Israel have been sown. Perhaps it’s time to learn the lessons and to change our ways, again?
Image: Elijah meeting Ahab and Jezebel in Naboth's vineyard, Sir Francis Dicksee, 1876, NY Public Library Collection
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What I continue to admire---as you. Amichai. guide us through the machinations, conflicts, shadowy and partisan histories of the kings---is his refusal to whitewash or ignore the ugliness in these accounts. No one can say that the Hebrew Bible is hagiographical, but much of it is ignored---as is the case with the Torah, though that at least gets read every year. But the real achievement for me in what Amichai, you are up to, is salvaging what we can learn and respect in these stories, and your intent always to bring them into our present as mirrors, warnings, and inspirations. I may not be enjoying this daly dose of ancient lore, I never lose sight of the conscientious and caring persistence you maintain in facing every verse, nuance, and in consulting the most credible commentaries to illuminate the texts. Stay strong, and come back home to our flagrant Spring.
Peter
I think your comment, that Navot's heirs didn't get the land back (so Ahab felt sorry but changed nothing? How is that repentance?) is the most chilling.