The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones.
Parallel Translations
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The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones.
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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.
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And the two men, the base fellows, came in and sat before him; and the base fellows bore witness against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying: 'Naboth did curse God and the king.' Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
Cross-references (32)
Passages linked to 1 Kings 21:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Kings 9:26 ‘Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons,’ says Yahweh; ‘and I will repay you in this plot of ground,’ says Yahweh. Now therefore take and cast him onto the plot of ground, according to Yahweh’s word.”
- Exodus 20:16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
- Leviticus 24:11-16 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name, and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. They put him in custody until Yahweh’s will should be declared to them. Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring him who cursed out of the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. You shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The foreigner as well as the native-born shall be put to death when he blasphemes the Name.
- Numbers 15:35-36 Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp.” All the congregation brought him outside of the camp, and stoned him to death with stones, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Deuteronomy 5:20 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
- Deuteronomy 13:10 You shall stone him to death with stones, because he has sought to draw you away from Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
- Deuteronomy 19:16-21 If an unrighteous witness rises up against any man to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before Yahweh, before the priests and the judges who shall be in those days; and the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and behold, if the witness is a false witness, and has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he had thought to do to his brother. So you shall remove the evil from among you. Those who remain shall hear, and fear, and will never again commit any such evil among you. Your eyes shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
- Deuteronomy 21:21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
- Deuteronomy 22:21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
- Deuteronomy 22:24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.
- Joshua 7:24-25 Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his cattle, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had; and they brought them up to the valley of Achor. Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us? Yahweh will trouble you today.” All Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned them with fire and stoned them with stones.
- Job 1:5 It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.
- Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”
- Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”
- Psalms 27:12 Don’t deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.
- Psalms 35:11 Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.
- Proverbs 6:19 a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.
- Proverbs 19:5 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who pours out lies shall not go free.
- Proverbs 19:9 A false witness shall not be unpunished. He who utters lies shall perish.
- Proverbs 25:18 A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
- Ecclesiastes 10:20 Don’t curse the king, no, not in your thoughts; and don’t curse the rich in your bedroom: for a bird of the sky may carry your voice, and that which has wings may tell the matter.
- Isaiah 8:21 They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry. It will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward,
- Amos 7:10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the middle of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.
- Malachi 3:5 I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Matthew 9:3 Behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes.”
- Mark 14:56-59 For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony didn’t agree with each other. Some stood up, and gave false testimony against him, saying, “We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.’ ” Even so, their testimony didn’t agree.
- Luke 23:2 They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”
- John 19:12 At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”
- Acts 6:11 Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
- Acts 7:57-59 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord. They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
- Acts 24:5 For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Hebrew, bless.
Hebrew, bless.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1Ki 21:13 And there came in two men, children…
1Ki 21:13 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.
Ver. 13. And stoned him with stones.] Among many others - for treason was ever unicum crimea eorum qui crimine vacabant {a} - we read in the martyrologies of one John Cowper, who, like another Naboth, was hanged in Queen Mary’s days for a traitor, upon false accusation. But if Naboth had been guilty, what reason was there that his sons should also suffer death with him? as it appeareth they did, {2Ki 9:26} against an express law. {Deu 24:16} Was it because Jezebel would never suffer a rub to lie in the way, that might hinder the true running of her bowl?
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{a} Tacit.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain And his sons with him, as may be thought…
And his sons with him, as may be thought from 2Ki 9:26, that so the king might have an undisturbed possession; for which they might pretend those examples, Num 16:32; Jos 7:24. But these were examples of extraordinary vengeance, and by special warrant from God; and the law of God was positively contrary to it, Deu 24:16.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that…
And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead,.... Of which he was informed by Jezebel:
that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it; if it was in Jezreel, that was sixteen miles from Samaria, and lay lower than that, in a valley, and therefore he is said to go down to it; and which he did very likely in great state and pomp, many of his nobles and captains accompanying him, as we read that Jehu and Bidkar did ride after him at this time, Kg2 9:25.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Stoned him - And it seems his sons too,…
Stoned him - And it seems his sons too, either with him or after him. For God afterward says, (2 Kings ix, 26) I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons. Let us commit the keeping of our lives and comforts to God; for innocence itself will not always be our security.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. And stoned him with stones] As they…
Verse 13. And stoned him with stones] As they pretended to find him guilty of treason against God and the king, it is likely they destroyed the whole of his family; and then the king seized on his grounds as confiscated, or as escheated to the king, without any heir at law. That his family was destroyed appears strongly intimated, 2Kg 9:26; Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, AND THE BLOOD OF HIS SONS, saith the Lord.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ki 21:13. They stoned him — And, it seems,…
1Ki 21:13. They stoned him — And, it seems, his sons too, either with him, or after him; for God afterward says, (2Ki 9:26,) I have seen the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons. Let us commit the keeping of our lives and comforts to God, for innocence itself will not always be our security. This account of Ahab’s unjust and barbarous conduct toward Naboth, placed, as it is by the sacred historian, immediately after his gentle treatment of Ben-hadad, shows the great inconsistency and extreme wickedness of his conduct. He spares the proud, boasting, and blaspheming heathen, and even terms him his brother, and honours him by taking him into his chariot; nay, and enters into a covenant with him: but he basely and barbarously murders, or, at least, connives at his wife’s murdering, the just and pious Israelite; and that under colour of justice, and with the formalities of a legal process! which was a great aggravation of the crime. For, to use that power for the preservation of the guilty and the murdering of the innocent, which ought to have been used for the punishment of the former and the protection of the latter, was such a violent perversion of justice and judgment, as cannot easily be paralleled. But there is a judgment to come when such iniquitous judgments as these will be called over again!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Naboth had sons who were also put to death…
Naboth had sons who were also put to death at this time (marginal reference). It is not improbable that they were stoned together with their parent (compare Jos 7:24-25). In the East, a parent’s guilt constantly involves the punishment of his children. Contrast 2Ki 14:6.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Devil. Hebrew Belial, ver. 10. Protestants, "and the men…
Devil. Hebrew Belial, ver. 10. Protestants, "and the men of Belial witnessed against him." --- City, as was requisite. (Calmet) --- Stoned him, for blasphemy, Leviticus xxiv. 16., and 23.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain there came in two men--worthless fellows who had been…
there came in two men--worthless fellows who had been bribed to swear a falsehood. The law required two witnesses in capital offenses (Deu 17:6; Deu 19:15; Num 35:30; Mat 26:60). Cursing God and cursing the king are mentioned in the law (Exo 22:28) as offenses closely connected, the king of Israel being the earthly representative of God in His kingdom.
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 offense 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 (Act 7:58).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. And there came in two men, children of…
13. And there came in two men, children of Belial] R.V. And the two men, sons of Belial, came in. The Hebrew noun is definite and the sense requires that it should be indicated.
witnessed] R.V. bare witness. As in 1Ki_21:10.
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even against Naboth, in the presence of the people] These words are omitted by the LXX. As much publicity as possible was given to the accusation, that thus it might have the colour of being legally carried out.
did blaspheme] R.V. did curse. The word is the same as in 1Ki_21:10. But a different word is used for ‘blaspheme’ in Lev_24:16.
they carried him forth out of the city] This explains what is meant by ‘carry him out’ in 1Ki_21:10. The place of execution was to be outside the walls, according to the legal ordinance (Lev_24:14), ‘Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp … and let all the congregation stone him.’ From this we see that this enactment was before the Exile.
that he died] Not only was Naboth put to death, but, according to another passage (2Ki_9:26), his sons were included in the destruction.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Carried him forth—as usual, in order to avoid…
(13) Carried him forth—as usual, in order to avoid polluting the city with blood—possibly to his own ground, the coveted vineyard itself.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And there came in Heb. came. The assembly was…
And there came in Heb. came. The assembly was probably held al fresco. From the word vma A.V yesterday, but strictly, yesternight, Stanley suggests that the trial took place by night. But the word is often used in the wider sense of "yesterday" (Gesenius) 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 The whole congregation was interested in a charge of blasphemy. If unpunished, the guilt rested on the congregation. Hence the provision of, Deu_24:14. By the imposition of hands they testified that the guilt of the blasphemer thenceforth rested upon his own head saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth Heb. made him to go forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died. It appears from 2Ki_9:26 that the children of Naboth, who otherwise might have laid claim to their patrimony, were put to death at the same time, and probably in the same way; cf. Jos_7:24, Jos_7:25; Num_16:27. This was the rule of the East. (Dan_6:24) The principle of visiting the sins of the parents upon the children seems to have been carried to an excess, as we find Joash (2Ki_14:6) instituting a more merciful rule.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 21:13-14 As with Achan (Josh 7:24-26), Naboth’s sons were…
21:13-14 As with Achan (Josh 7:24-26), Naboth’s sons were killed at the same time (see 2 Kgs 9:26), in this case to prevent the property from passing on to them. Because the charge carried the penalty of state execution (Deut 13:10-11; 17:5) and because Naboth no longer had male heirs, Ahab exercised the royal prerogative of confiscating the property (see 1 Sam 8:14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.