In his desire to improve his grounds Ahab cast his eyes on a fertile vineyard belonging to a distinguished and wealthy citizen named Naboth, which had been in the possession of his family even since the conquest.  The king at first offered a large price for this vineyard, which he wished to convert into a garden of flowers, but Naboth refused to sell it for any price.  “God forbid,” said he, with religious scruples blended with the pride of ancestry, “that I should give to thee the inheritance of my fathers.”  Powerful and despotic as was the king, he knew he could not obtain this coveted vineyard except by gross injustice and an act of violence, which even he dared not commit.  It would be an open violation of the Jewish Constitution.  By the laws of Moses the lands of the Israelites, from the conquest, were inalienable.  Even if they were sold for debt, after fifty years they would return to the family.  The pride of ownership in real estate was one of the peculiarities of the Hebrews until after their final dispersion.  After the fall of Jerusalem by Titus, personal property came to be more valued than real estate, and the Jews became the money lenders and the bankers of the world.  They might be oppressed and robbed, but they could hide away their treasures.  A scrap of paper, they soon discovered, was enough to transfer in safety the largest sums.  A Jew had only to give a letter of credit on another Jewish house, and a king could find ready money, if he gave sufficient security, for any enterprise.  Thus rare jewels pledged for gold accumulated among the Hebrew merchants at an early date.

Ahab, disappointed in not being able without a crime to get possession of Naboth’s vineyard, abandoned himself to melancholy.  In his deep chagrin he laid himself down on his bed, turned his face to the wall, and refused to eat.  This seems strange to us, since he had more than enough, and there was no check on his ordinary pleasures.  But covetous men never are satisfied.  Ahab was miserable with all his possessions so long as Naboth was resolved to retain his paternal acres.  It seems that it did not occur even to this unprincipled king that he could get possession of the coveted vineyard if he resorted to craft and violence.

But his clever and unscrupulous wife came to his assistance.  In her active brain she devised the means of success.  She saw only the end; she cared nothing for the means.  It is probable, indeed, that Jezebel hankered even more than Ahab for a garden of flowers.  Yet even she dared not openly seize the vineyard.  Such an outrage might have caused a rebellion; it would, at least, have created a great scandal and injured her popularity, of which this artful woman was as tenacious as the Jew was of his property.  Moreover, Naboth was a very influential and wealthy citizen, and had friends to support him.  How could she remove the grievous eye-sore?  She pondered and consulted the doctors of the law, as Henry VIII. made use of