Naboth's Vineyard

21 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in ^(A)Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

Ahaz's Idolatry

²² In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz.

⁴⁵ And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to ^(A)Jezreel. ^46 (B)And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, ^(C)and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of ^(D)Jezreel.

³³ Now ^(A)all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in ^(B)the Valley of Jezreel.

⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while ^(A)I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and ^(B)I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ And on that day ^(C)I will break the bow of Israel ^(D)in the Valley of Jezreel.”

¹³ And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for ^(A)our great guilt, seeing that you, our ^(B)God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a ^(C)remnant as this, ¹⁴ shall we break your commandments again and ^(D)intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us ^(E)until you consumed us, so that there should be no ^(F)remnant, nor any to escape?

A Prophet Condemns Ben-hadad's Release

³⁵ And a certain man of ^(A)the sons of the prophets said to his fellow ^(B)at the command of the Lord, “Strike me, please.” But the man refused to strike him. ³⁶ Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon as you have gone from me, a lion shall strike you down.” And as soon as he had departed from him, ^(C)a lion met him and struck him down. ³⁷ Then he found another man and said, “Strike me, please.” And the man struck him—struck him and wounded him. ³⁸ So the prophet departed and waited for the king by the way, ^(D)disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹ And as the king passed, he cried to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle, and behold, a soldier turned and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, ^(E)your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent^[a] of silver.’ ⁴⁰ And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” The king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.” ⁴¹ Then he hurried to take the bandage away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² And he said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction,^[b] therefore ^(F)your life shall be for his life, and your people for his people.’” ⁴³ And the king of Israel ^(G)went to his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria.