And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned,
and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab
To whom she communicated the news as soon as possible:
arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which
he refused to give thee for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead;
some think that Naboth was a near relation to Ahab, his father's brother's son F5; which they endeavour to support from his estate lying next to Ahab's, and from his being ordered to be set in an high place among the people; and Josephus, as before observed, says he was of illustrious descent; and so Ahab upon his death, his sons being also put to death with him, was next heir to his estate; and therefore Jezebel bid him enter on the possession of it, he being dead, and his sons also, and therefore there was nothing in his way to obstruct him: but rather her meaning is, that Naboth was dead, not of a natural but violent death, by the hand of the civil magistrate; as for blasphemy against God, so for treason against the king, in virtue of which his estate was forfeited to the crown, and that Ahab had a right to possess it; and so it was certainly condemned in later times however among the Jews, that if a man was condemned to die by the sanhedrim, his goods came to his heirs, but if for treason against the king, they ceded to him F6.