Naboth's Vineyard

21 Near King Ahab's palace in Jezreel there was a vineyard owned by a man named Naboth. ² One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard; it is close to my palace, and I want to use the land for a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will pay you a fair price.”

³ “I inherited this vineyard from my ancestors,” Naboth replied. “The Lord forbid that I should let you have it!”

⁴ Ahab went home, depressed and angry over what Naboth had said to him. He lay down on his bed, facing the wall, and would not eat. ⁵ His wife Jezebel went to him and asked, “Why are you so depressed? Why won't you eat?”

⁶ He answered, “Because of what Naboth said to me. I offered to buy his vineyard or, if he preferred, to give him another one for it, but he told me that I couldn't have it!”

⁷ “Well, are you the king or aren't you?” Jezebel replied. “Get out of bed, cheer up, and eat. I will get you Naboth's vineyard!”

⁸ Then she wrote some letters, signed Ahab's name to them, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the officials and leading citizens of Jezreel. ⁹ The letters said: “Proclaim a day of fasting, call the people together, and give Naboth the place of honor. ¹⁰ Get a couple of scoundrels to accuse him to his face of cursing God and the king. Then take him out of the city and stone him to death.”

¹¹ The officials and leading citizens of Jezreel did what Jezebel had commanded. ¹² They proclaimed a day of fasting, called the people together, and gave Naboth the place of honor. ¹³ The two scoundrels publicly accused him of cursing God and the king, and so he was taken outside the city and stoned to death. ¹⁴ The message was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been put to death.”

¹⁵ As soon as Jezebel received the message, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now go and take possession of the vineyard which he refused to sell to you.” ¹⁶ At once Ahab went to the vineyard to take possession of it.

¹⁷ Then the Lord said to Elijah, the prophet from Tishbe, ¹⁸ “Go to King Ahab of Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard, about to take possession of it. ¹⁹ Tell him that I, the Lord, say to him, ‘After murdering the man, are you taking over his property as well?’ Tell him that this is what I say: ‘In the very place that the dogs licked up Naboth's blood they will lick up your blood!’”

²⁰ When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “Have you caught up with me, my enemy?”

“Yes, I have,” Elijah answered. “You have devoted yourself completely to doing what is wrong in the Lord's sight. ²¹ So the Lord says to you, ‘I will bring disaster on you. I will do away with you and get rid of every male in your family, young and old alike. ²² Your family will become like the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the family of King Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have stirred up my anger by leading Israel into sin.’ ^23 (A)And concerning Jezebel, the Lord says that dogs will eat her body in the city of Jezreel. ²⁴ Any of your relatives who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures.”

(²⁵ There was no one else who had devoted himself so completely to doing wrong in the Lord's sight as Ahab—all at the urging of his wife Jezebel. ²⁶ He committed the most shameful sins by worshiping idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the people of Israel advanced.)

²⁷ When Elijah finished speaking, Ahab tore his clothes, took them off, and put on sackcloth. He refused food, slept in the sackcloth, and went about gloomy and depressed.

²⁸ The Lord said to the prophet Elijah, ²⁹ “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has done this, I will not bring disaster on him during his lifetime; it will be during his son's lifetime that I will bring disaster on Ahab's family.”

1 ^(A)This is the message which the Lord gave Hosea son of Beeri during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

Hosea's Wife and Children

² When the Lord first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea, “Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be just like her.^[a] In the same way my people have left me and become unfaithful.”

³ So Hosea married a woman named Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. After the birth of their first child, a son, ^4 (B)the Lord said to Hosea, “Name him ‘Jezreel,’ because it will not be long before I punish the king of Israel for the murders that his ancestor Jehu committed at Jezreel.^[b] I am going to put an end to Jehu's dynasty.^{[c] 5} And in Jezreel Valley I will at that time destroy Israel's military power.”

⁶ Gomer had a second child—this time it was a daughter. The Lord said to Hosea, “Name her ‘Unloved,’ because I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. ⁷ But to the people of Judah I will show love. I, the Lord their God, will save them, but I will not do it by war—with swords or bows and arrows or with horses and horsemen.”

⁸ After Gomer had weaned her daughter, she became pregnant again and had another son. ⁹ The Lord said to Hosea, “Name him ‘Not-My-People,’ because the people of Israel are not my people, and I am not their God.”

Israel Is to Be Restored

^10 (C)The people of Israel will become like the sand of the sea, more than can be counted or measured. Now God says to them, “You are not my people,” but the day is coming when he will say to them, “You are the children of the living God!” ¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited. They will choose for themselves a single leader, and once again they will grow and prosper in their land. Yes, the day of Jezreel^[d] will be a great day!

Jesus Is Greater than Moses

3 My Christian friends, who also have been called by God! Think of Jesus, whom God sent to be the High Priest of the faith we profess. ^2 (A)He was faithful to God, who chose him to do this work, just as Moses was faithful in his work in God's house. ³ A man who builds a house receives more honor than the house itself. In the same way Jesus is worthy of much greater honor than Moses. ⁴ Every house, of course, is built by someone—and God is the one who has built all things. ⁵ Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, and he spoke of the things that God would say in the future. ⁶ But Christ is faithful as the Son in charge of God's house. We are his house if we keep up our courage and our confidence in what we hope for.

A Rest for God's People

^7 (B)So then, as the Holy Spirit says,

¹² My friends, be careful that none of you have a heart so evil and unbelieving that you will turn away from the living God. ¹³ Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the word “Today” in the scripture applies to us. ¹⁴ For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.

^15 (C)This is what the scripture says:

^16 (D)Who were the people who heard God's voice and rebelled against him? All those who were led out of Egypt by Moses. ¹⁷ With whom was God angry for forty years? With the people who sinned, who fell down dead in the desert. ¹⁸ When God made his solemn promise, “They will never enter the land where I would have given them rest”—of whom was he speaking? Of those who rebelled. ¹⁹ We see, then, that they were not able to enter the land, because they did not believe.

Someone Saved from Death Praises God

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²⁶ Don't promise to be responsible for someone else's debts. ²⁷ If you should be unable to pay, they will take away even your bed.

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²⁸ Never move an old property line that your ancestors established.

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²⁹ Show me someone who does a good job, and I will show you someone who is better than most and worthy of the company of kings.