CHAPTERS FROM THE BIBLICAL LAW. VI.
THE CASE OF NABOTH'S VINEYARD. BY DAVID WERNER AMRAM. THIS case has been made famous in song and story on 'account of the magnifi cent dramatic effect with which it is told in the Bible, and more especially because of the manner in which the Divine wrath took ven geance upon the son of King Ahab for the crime committed by the father, illustrating by a shining example the words of the com mandment, " For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." But apart from the dramatic interest attached to this story, apart from its literary value and its usefulness as an illustration of cer tain ethical principles, it has numerous and interesting legal elements. The record . of the case will be found in the first Book of Kings, chapter xxi, and second Book of Kings, Naboth, chapter a wealthy ix, verses landowner 22 to 26. in Northern Palestine, and one of the leading men of the city of Jezreel, owned a vineyard next to the grounds surrounding the summer palace of Ahab, King of Samaria. The King, on one of his visits to his summer palace, cast a covetous eye on the vineyard of Naboth, and, having sent for him, said, " Give me thy vineyard that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it, or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money." This was a fair proposition judged from a modern point of view, but not so to Naboth whose natural attachment to his patrimonial estate was strengthened by the immemorial custom among the Hebrews, of preserving the es
tate in the family, unless dire necessity re quired its alienation. Originally lands were entirely inalienable, but with the growth of commercial life under the reign of the Kings, concessions were gradually made in favor of the alienation of landed property, with a proviso, however, that in the year of the Jubilee, all lands were to revert to the family of the owner who had aliened them. To men like Naboth who had no reason for parting with their estates, the very thought of giving away or selling their estate was akin to sacrilege, and thus Naboth answered the King, " It is forbidden me by Jehovah that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee," and the King had to be satisfied with this answer. The King ship was still something new in Israel and the ancient liberties of the people had not yet been entirely destroyed by monarchial rule. The King, having returned to his capital, showed marked signs of his displeasure at the treatment that he had received from Naboth. His wife, Queen Jezebel, whose name has since become a synonym for devil try, asked him, " Why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no bread? " The King then told her the story, saying that after he had made his offer to Naboth, the latter replied, "I will not give thee my vineyard." ' Now, Jezebel was the daughter of a Phoe nician King, the King of Sidon, who ruled as an absolute oriental despot. Jezebel, who had been brought up in her father's house to look upon the mere whim and ca price of the King as higher and stronger than any law or custom, lost patience when
