(8) So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. (9) And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people: (10) And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. (11) And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them. (12) They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. (13) And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died. (14) Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.
Nothing can exceed the deliberate purposes of sin in this most atrocious deed. Religion is first called in to the aid of it. A fast is to be proclaimed, as if under the judgments of the Lord, the nations were to be assembled to humble themselves before him. Justice and judgment also to men, shall be apparently regarded for the poor unconscious Naboth, for the accomplishment of whose death, this mockery, both of religion and justice, was to be observed, shall be confronted by witnesses, as if jealous of God's honor and glory. Reader! let me beg of you, never to peruse such instances of cruelty and oppression, without pausing to consider, to what a state of sin our nature is sunk; and what mercy it must have been in our Jesus, to recover our nature from it.