Chapters from Иге Biblical Law. her husband meekly told her of Naboth's re fusal of his request. With bitter irony, she said to him, " Dost thou now indeed reign over Israel?" Then she added, "Arise and eat and let thy heart be merry, for / will give thee the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite." The manner in which she kept her promise showed how deep were the inroads which royal usurpation had made upon the ancient liberties of the people. It must be premised that under the ancient constitution of the Hebrew Commonwealth, each community was practically independent and was ruled by its own elders. With the establishment of the Kingship, new officials appear, namely, the royal judges who sit with the elders in the various cities of the Kingdom. As the Kingship grew stronger, the autonomy of the elders declined. By force or by intrigue their authority was undermined, and as we see in the present case under royal influence corrupt men were put into office, and be came pliant tools in the hands of their royal masters. The Queen evidently knew upon whom she could rely to carry out her purpose, for she issued orders in the name of the King and sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and princes who were in Na both's City and who sat with him in the local council.1 It is not to be presumed that she issued these writs or orders to all the elders indis criminately. She probably had several men in office in the town of Jezreel upon whom she could rely to carry out her orders. They were as follows : 1 The end of the 8th verse is translated as though the orders or writs of the Queen were sent to the elders and to the princes that were in Naboth's City and dwelt there with him. The word " dwelling," translated liter ally means " sitting " and seems to be used in this place in the technical sense similar to that in which we use the word when we speak of the judge sitting to try a case. Naboth was himself one of the council and the Queen's writs were directed to the other members of the council who sat with him. They were his peers and they were to try him.
505
"Proclaim a fast and place Naboth in the assembly of the people and let him be con fronted with two worthless fellows that they may testify against him, saying, ' Thou didst blaspheme God and the King,' and then let him be taken out to the place of execution and be stoned to death." The order to proclaim a fast is not to be taken literally. It probably meant nothing more than to gather an assembly for some important business, and this term was probably a survival of the time when all such assemblies were commenced with a period of fasting. The order to place Naboth in the assembly was in fact an order to place him on trial by his peers, the members of the council of ciders who " sat with him." Her order to have witnesses suborned to perjure them selves, and the fact that her orders were car ried out to the letter, throw a clear light upon the administration of the law under a despotic ruler. It is probable that in her secret in structions to her tools, she told them what Naboth had actually said to the King, and how this might be perverted into blasphemy and lise-majcsie. Although the Queen thus violently de bauched justice, it was done according to strict form of law, because as was said before, the royal power in Israel was not yet strong enough to violate all the traditions- of the peo ple, and to accomplish its ends by arbitrary measure without regard to the common forms of procedure. The elders of Jezreel having received their orders from the Queen, pro ceeded to carry them out to the letter. They gathered the assembly and placed Naboth on trial, produced the perjured witnesses, who testified against Naboth in accordance with her instructions, " Naboth has blasphemed God and the King," and thereupon he was convicted and taken to the common place of execution, without the city, and there stoned to death. Naturally the elders in this case contented themselves with following the mere form of
