{"id":62950,"date":"2019-09-16T13:48:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T10:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=62950"},"modified":"2023-04-10T17:43:12","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T14:43:12","slug":"what-did-naboth-do-wrong-and-what-did-ahab-do-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-did-naboth-do-wrong-and-what-did-ahab-do-right\/","title":{"rendered":"What Did Naboth Do Wrong And What Did Ahab Do Right?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[383,547,573,400],"acf":{"old_id":"62950","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"308","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Exploring the suffering of the righteous, and the prospering of the not-at-all righteous","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our chapter, wicked King Ahab and wicked Queen Jezebel conspire to acquire a desirable piece of private property (a vineyard) by eliminating its owner (Naboth) and then exercising their royal prerogative to make it their own. This unholy transaction provided the prophet Elijah with the opportunity to utter a singular accusation: \u201cWould you murder and take possession?\u201d (19), an expression that has been utilized throughout the ages to designate a particularly nefarious deed that has illicitly enriched its perpetrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A question not often asked of this episode involves the victim: Naboth the Jezreelite. Based on the assumption that God is always just, Naboth\u2019s death begs justification beyond the obvious wickedness of Ahab and Jezebel. What did he do to deserve to be the victim of this conspiracy? A classical Midrash (Pesikta Rabbati 25) provides an answer:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHonor the Lord from your treasure\u201d [<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hon\u2019kha<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">] (Proverbs 3:9) is to be read as \u201cfrom your gifts\u201d [c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hen\u2019kha<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">]. If you have a pleasant voice and you are present in a synagogue, honor the Lord with your voice. Naboth [the Jezreelite] had a pleasant voice. At pilgrimage times, all Israel would gather in Jerusalem to hear his voice. Once upon a time, he didn\u2019t make the pilgrimage and the corrupt witnesses testified against him and he was a goner. What caused this? His failure to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to honor God with what He had gifted him<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The continuation of the story also demands interpretation:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Ahab heard these words [Elijah\u2019s prophecy of doom], he rent his clothes and put sackcloth on his body. He fasted and lay in sackcloth and walked about subdued\u201d (27), <br \/>\nwhereupon God declared <br \/>\n\u201cBecause he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the disaster in his lifetime; I will bring the disaster upon his house in his son\u2019s time\u201d (29). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naboth, an ostensibly righteous man, misses a single pilgrimage and suffers death, while Ahab, of whom our chapter says \u201cthere never was anyone like Ahab, who committed himself to doing what was displeasing to the LORD\u201d (25) experiences momentary regret and gets his sentence suspended.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No wonder the question of theodicy\u2014commonly phrased as \u201cthe righteous suffer while the wicked prosper\u201d\u2014remains a perennial challenge to believers.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":62951,"id":62951,"title":"1kings21-right wrong","filename":"1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-did-naboth-do-wrong-and-what-did-ahab-do-right\/1kings21-right-wrong\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings21-right-wrong","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62950,"date":"2019-09-16 10:48:18","modified":"2019-09-16 10:48:30","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1483,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-300x232.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":232,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-768x593.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":593,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-1024x791.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":791,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1186,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1483,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-1200x927.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":927,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-544x420.jpg","home_baner-width":544,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"What Did Naboth Do Wrong And What Did Ahab Do Right?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Exploring the suffering of the righteous, and the prospering of the not-at-all righteous","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":62951,"id":62951,"title":"1kings21-right wrong","filename":"1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-did-naboth-do-wrong-and-what-did-ahab-do-right\/1kings21-right-wrong\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"1kings21-right-wrong","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":62950,"date":"2019-09-16 10:48:18","modified":"2019-09-16 10:48:30","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1483,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-300x232.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":232,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-768x593.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":593,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-1024x791.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":791,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1186,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1483,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-1200x927.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":927,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/1kings21-right-wrong-544x420.jpg","home_baner-width":544,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62950"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114066,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62950\/revisions\/114066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}