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.
There came in two men - worthless fellows, who had been bribed to swear a falsehood. The law required two witnesses in capital offences (Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:15; Numbers 35:30; Matthew 26:60). Cursing God and cursing the king are mentioned in the law (Exodus 22:28) as theocratic offences closely connected, the king of Israel being the earthly representative of God in his kingdom. Thus, this mock trial was conducted, and a conviction established by the local authorities for an alleged transgression of the Mosaic law. Neither the king nor the queen appeared to take part in it, although the latter was the secret instigator of the whole proceedings. The magistrates acted entirely through her influence and according to her instructions; so that although they were the obsequious agents in consummating this judicial murder, the guilty responsibility of the plot and its execution lay on the king and queen.
They carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him. The law, which forbade cursing the rulers of the people, does not specify the penalty for this offence; but either usage had sanctioned, or the authorities of Jezreel had originated, stoning as the proper punishment. It was always inflicted out of the city (Acts 7:58). 'The act of Naboth dying for his vineyard has been often adduced as a prophecy, not by word, but by deed, of the death of Christ, and the purpose of that death' (Trench, 'On the Parables,' p. 204) (cf. as to His suffering for alleged blasphemy, without the camp, John 19:17; Hebrews 13:12-13).
The whole of this infamous proceeding, conducted ostensibly according to the regular forms of criminal prosecution, furnishes dear proof that the constitution of the northern remained exactly the same as that of the southern kingdom. The regulation which required two witnesses (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 18:6-7; Deuteronomy 19:5), the charge made upon a ground purely theocratic (Exodus 22:28), the punishment left to the discretion of the magistrate, but awarded according to analogous cases (Deuteronomy 13:11; Deuteronomy 17:5), and the 'carrying out,' resting on Deuteronomy 17:5.-all combine to show that the Mosaic law remained the established national code in Israel (see Michaelis, 'Laws of Moses,' article 1:, sec. 59; 6:, sec. 295; 6:, sec. 299). Accordingly, Ahab, when he could not prevail upon Naboth to part with an inheritance of which the law gave him the sole and independent right of disposing, thought of nothing else than submitting to the authority of constitutional law; and even Jezebel, unprincipled and lawless as she was, durst not openly use violent measures, but was obliged to seek the attainment of her iniquitous end by pursuing an apparent course of legal investigation into a calumnions charge.