The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 503

hee.r bis pitiful, o.lmost childish, cowple.int, tho.t he ce.nnot he.ve the vineyard he so much covets, e.nd we stre.ightway see a look of something like scorn upon her face. We hear her almost contemptuous rejoinder, "Art thou, then, so helpless, so utterly without resources, as to lie here and grieve like 11, spoilt child ? Is it for nothing that thou art a king, or art thou king in name only? If thou e.rt baffled, I am not. Arise, and eat bread. Banish dull oare and give thyself up to feasting. I will give thee the vineyard of this wretched peasant." The next tableau introduces us to another chamber of this same royal residence. The king may keep hie bed if he will, but the queen is up and doing. The scribes are now writing at her command. She it is who dictates the words, who stamps the writings with the king's seal. The scribe's hand may well tremble as he pens the infamous decree, for the letter consigns Naboth to death; but she knows no fear, has no scruples. The letters are despatched, the royal posts carry their sealed orders to J ezreel, and the murderess sits down to eat and drink, and rises up to play. Again the scene changes. We find ourselves in a village convocation. The elders of J ezreel, the officers of the royal borough, have proclaimed a fast. Their town has incurred the wrath of God, and they must find out and expiate the sin. N aboth is there. He fears this meeting bodes him no good, but he is compelled to attend. He finds himself, to his great surprise, set " at the head of the people." But who shall picture the astonishment and po.in in this man's face, when there rise up in that assembly, two miserable varlets who swear that he, Naboth, the humble servant of the Lord, the man who has honestly striven to keep the law, even against his king, has committed a horrible breach of law, has blasphemed God and the anointed of God. He thinks, perchance, at the first, that the charge is so utterly reckless and improbable, that none of these his neighbours, who know him so well, and have known him from his youth up, will entertain it for 11, moment. But he is speedily undeceived. He :finds that he has not a cha.nee with them, that all steel their faces and hearts against him. He perceives that there is a conspiracy against him. In vain he protests hie innocence; in vain he appeals to his blameless life. His cries and those of his wife and children are alike unheeded. In a trice he is condemned to die the death of the blasphemer. And now we find ourselves hurried along by a tumultuous crowd. We pass through. the city gate, we reach the open space outside the walls. So far, No.both he.a hardly realized that they are in ea.meat, so suddenly has the thing come upon him. Surely it is some grim jest that hie neighbours play upon him. It can- not be that he is to die, to look for the last time on the faces of those be loves, on his native fields, on the blessed light of the sun. But if he has any lingering hopes of deliverance they are rapidly dispelled. He sees them making prepa- rations for his execution. They are going to stone him on the spot. " 0 God in heaven I'' he thinks, "is it for this I have kept Thy law? Is this agony and death the reward of mine integrity ? Must I then die, when life is so sweet I Is there no power to rescue me out of the jaws of the lion 'I Hae God forgotten me? or will He look on it and require it?" (2 Chron. xxiv. 22.) It is true the history ea.ye nothing of any such thoughts, of any prayers, e.ppee.le, entreaties, throatenings; but the history, it must be remembered, is but an outline, and that outli.ue it is left for us to fill up. And we cannot doubt that Ne.both had some such thoughts as these. But whatever they were, they were speedily brought to a close. " 'l'ha king's business required haste." Time for reflection would mean time for repent- ance. The witnesses speedily divest themselves of their abbas; they la.y them down at the feet of the elders; they take up stones and rush upon him. At the :first blow he quivers from head to foot with a great throb of pa.in, but blow follows fast upon blow; he sinks senseless ; the blood streams from his wounds ; the dear life is crushed out of him, and Naboth's name and the names of his sons are added to those on the glory roll of the noble army of martyrs. But it is now for us to ask what led to this shameful deed. There wero five parties to this tragedy-No.both, the king, the queen, the elders, the witnesses. Let 1lS see how each of these contributed, though in very clifferent ways, to twa 1 KINGS. 2L  TilE FIRS'l' BOOB.. OF KINGS. [en. xu. 1-29.