¹And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria, ²and Ahab spoke to Naboth and said, “Give me your vineyard, so it can be my vegetable garden, for it is nearby my house, and I will give you a better vineyard than it in exchange for it. Or if it meets with your approval, I will give you its value in money.” ³But Naboth said to Ahab, “Far be it from the Lord for me to give you the inheritance of my fathers.” ⁴At this Ahab went to his house sullen and resentful on account of the words which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, when he said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers”, and he lay on his bed, and he turned his face away, and he did not eat any bread. ⁵But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “What is this sullen spirit you have? And you aren't eating any bread.” ⁶And he said to her, “It is because I was speaking to Naboth the Jezreelite, and I said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or if you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in exchange for it.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ” ⁷At this Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you exercise kingship over Israel or not? Get up and eat bread and cheer up. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” ⁸And she wrote communiqués in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the communiqués to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived alongside Naboth. ⁹And she wrote the communiqués as follows: “Call for a fast, and seat Naboth in front of the people. ¹⁰And seat two good-for-nothing men opposite him, who will testify against him and say, ‘You have cursed God and the king’, and carry him out and stone him, and he will die.” ¹¹And the men of his city – the elders and the nobles who lived in his city – did according to what Jezebel sent to them, according to what was written in the communiqués which she had sent to them. ¹²They called for a fast and seated Naboth in front of the people. ¹³And the two good-for-nothing men came and sat opposite him, and the good-for-nothing men testified against him – Naboth – in the presence of the people and said, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” Then they brought him outside the city and stoned him, and he died. ¹⁴Then they sent word to Jezebel and said, “Naboth has been stoned and has died.” ¹⁵And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and had died, that Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, inherit the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite who refused to give it to you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” ¹⁶And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to inherit it. ¹⁷And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite and said, ¹⁸“Arise and go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria. Look, he is in Naboth's vineyard, where he has gone down to inherit it, ¹⁹and speak to him and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: «Have you committed murder, and have you also received the inheritance?» ’ And you will speak to him and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: «In the place where the dogs licked Naboth's blood, the dogs will lick your blood – yours too.» ’ ” ²⁰Then Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” And he said, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ²¹Now I am about to bring evil on you, and to eradicate you, and I will cut off from Ahab whoever urinates against a wall, leaving him shut off and abandoned in Israel. ²²And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the anger to which you have provoked me and because you have caused Israel to sin.” ²³And the Lord also spoke to Jezebel and said, “The dogs will eat Jezebel at the fortification of Jezreel. ²⁴Dogs will eat whoever of Ahab's house dies in the city, and birds of the sky will eat whoever dies in the field.” ²⁵There was no-one anything like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited, who sold himself in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶And he acted most abominably in walking after the idols, like everything which the Amorites did, whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. ²⁷And it came to pass, when Ahab heard these things, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth, and he went around slowly. ²⁸The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite and said, ²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days. In his son's days, I will bring the evil on his house.”