Naboth’s Vineyard: We have heard of Ahab’s death (20:41–42). We await still the announcement of judgment on his house, delayed since chapter 16 (cf. the commentary on 15:25–16:34). It is of such matters that we shall read in the current chapter, as a reinvigorated Elijah appears again in Jezreel to denounce a new and heinous crime and finally to foretell the destruction of Ahab’s family.

21:1–3 The occasion for Elijah’s reappearance is a battle over a vineyard. Ahab wants it (v. 2) but Naboth (the owner) refuses to give it up, because it is the inheritance of his fathers (v. 3). It is fundamental to the OT understanding of land that it belonged, not to the families who technically “owned” it, but to God (Lev. 25:23). God had brought Israel into the land in fulfillment of the Abrahamic promi…