“Why is thy countenance so sad?”

“And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for that.”

Naboth had said, God forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.

The faithful Israelite may have recoiled from the thought of its passing into the hands of the unholy worshippers of Baal and Ashtaroth and being polluted by their orgies.  But Ahab did not give the denial in its full force.  He represents Naboth as simply refusing.  “I will not give thee my vineyard.”

We seem to see the actors before us, in the spirited, yet simple narration, as it proceeds.  Ahab, heavy, sullen, morose—­with clouded brow and furrowed cheek.  Jezebel, with her flashing eye, her queenly gait, her haughty aspect, and all the workings of pride and craft and ambition expressed in her faded but still striking features.  With what utter contempt would she look upon the husband who sank into despondency because he had not the skill to devise, or the will to perpetrate, the iniquity which would insure the attainment of his desires!

“Dost thou govern Israel?  Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

And a darker plot, or one more artfully devised, has seldom been unravelled among all the iniquitous intrigues of courts and statesmen.  Naboth was doubtless a true worshipper; and for once Jezebel professed all honour to the laws of Jehovah.  He was arraigned and tried by the laws of Moses—­long trampled upon and disused.  And all the solemnities of religion were resorted to, to aid her plans and advance her purpose.

Falsely arraigned, accused, and condemned, Naboth was executed, and his sons perished with him.  The hands of his brethren were imbrued in their blood.  She who managed the plot found other agents to execute her designs.  With impious hypocrisy, she insulted heaven by ordaining a solemn fast, for God and the king had been blasphemed.  These transactions display the deep depravity of the Queen of Israel, while they show the influence of her character and example upon her people.  The very ministers of justice were made the abettors of her guilt; and law, with all its formalities and solemnities, was made to sanction crime.  How many sins were committed to gratify one idle, covetous desire!  God was insulted and defied and blasphemed; justice was corrupted; and falsehood, perjury, and murder were all used to accomplish the wicked will of Jezebel.  And how many victims have been thus arraigned, and perished thus, in later days!  This deed awoke the vengeance of Jehovah.  Even as Ahab took possession of his blood-stained field, the prophet of the Lord met him and denounced the doom of the perpetrators of the dark crime.  All were to perish, and all were to die deaths of blood and shame.  Husband, wife,