1 Kings 21 - Easy To Read Version

¹ King Ahab’s palace [227] was in the city of Samaria. Near the palace there was a field of grapes. A man named Naboth owned this field. He was from Jezreel.

² One day Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your field. I want to make it a vegetable garden. Your field is near my palace. I will give you a better grape field in its place. Or, if you prefer, I will pay you its value in money.”

³ Naboth answered, “I will never give my land to you. This land belongs to my family.”

⁴ So Ahab went home. He was angry and upset at Naboth. He did not like the things that man from Jezreel said. (Naboth had said, “I will not give you my family’s land.”) Ahab lay down on his bed. He turned his face away and refused to eat.

⁵ Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, went to him. Jezebel said to him, “Why are you upset? Why do you refuse to eat?”

⁶ Ahab answered, “I asked Naboth, the man from Jezreel, to give me his field. I told him that I would pay him the full price. Or if he preferred, I would give him another field. But Naboth refused to give his field to me.”

⁷ Jezebel answered, “But you are the king over Israel! Get out of your bed. Eat something and you will feel better. I will get Naboth’s field for you.”

⁸ Then Jezebel wrote some letters. She signed Ahab’s name to the letters. She used Ahab’s own seal to seal the letters. Then she sent them to the elders (leaders) and important men who lived in the same town as Naboth.

⁹ This is what the letter said:

¹⁰ Find some men that will tell lies about Naboth. Those people should say that they heard Naboth speak against the king and against God. Then take Naboth out of the city and kill him with rocks.

¹¹ So the elders (leaders) and important men of Jezreel obeyed that command.

¹² The leaders announced that there would be a day when all the people would eat nothing. On that day they called all the people together for a meeting. They put Naboth in a special place before the people.

¹³ Then two men told the people that they heard Naboth speak against God and against the king. So the people carried Naboth out of the city. Then they killed him with rocks.

¹⁴ Then the leaders sent a message to Jezebel. The message said: “Naboth has been killed.”

¹⁵ When Jezebel heard this, she said to Ahab, “Naboth is dead. Now you can go and take the field that you wanted.”

¹⁶ So Ahab went to the field of grapes and took it for his own.

¹⁷ At this time the Lord spoke to Elijah. (Elijah was the prophet from Tishbe.) {The Lord said,}

¹⁸ “Go to King Ahab in Samaria. Ahab will be at Naboth’s field of grapes. He is there to take the field as his own.

¹⁹ Tell Ahab that I, the Lord, say to him, ‘Ahab! You killed the man Naboth. Now you are taking his land. So I tell you this! In the same place that Naboth died, you will also die. The dogs that licked Naboth’s blood will lick your blood in the same place!’”

²⁰ So Elijah went to Ahab. Ahab saw Elijah and said, “You have found me again. You are always against me.”

²¹ So the Lord says to you, ‘I will destroy you. I will kill you and every male in your family.

²² Your family will be the same as the family of King Jeroboam son of Nebat. And your family will become like the family of King Baasha. Both of these families were completely destroyed. I will do this to you because you have made me angry. You have caused the people of Israel to sin.’

²³ And the Lord also says, ‘Dogs will eat the body of your wife Jezebel in the city of Jezreel.

²⁴ Any person in your family that dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. Any person that dies in the fields, will be eaten by birds.’”

²⁵ There is no other person that has done so many wrong things or sinned so much as Ahab. His wife Jezebel caused him to do those things.

²⁶ Ahab did a very bad sin and worshiped those blocks of wood (idols). This was the same thing that the Amorite people did. And the Lord took the land from them and gave it to the people of Israel.

²⁷ After Elijah finished speaking, Ahab was very sad. He tore his clothes to show that he was sad. Then he put on special clothes of sadness. Ahab refused to eat. He slept in those special clothes. Ahab was very sad and upset.

²⁸ The Lord said to Elijah the prophet,

²⁹ “I see that Ahab has become humble before me. So, I will not cause the trouble to come to him during his life. I will wait until his son is king. Then I will cause the trouble to come to Ahab’s family.”