Nabot

This article deals with the person of Nabot or Naboth in the Old Testament. For the German mathematician, astronomer, astrologer and university professor Valentin Naboth (1523–1593) see Valentin Naboth , for the French telemarker see Elie Nabot .

Nabot ( Hebrew נָבוֹת) was a person in the Old Testament who, according to the biblical story, owned a vineyard in Jezreel that King Ahab sought and was killed for it.

Name meaning

The meaning of the name Nabot is uncertain. In the relevant dictionaries, the possible meanings offspring or noble are considered.

history

Nabot's stoning in front of the vineyard, from a manuscript in the World Chronicle of Rudolf von Ems, 14th century

Nabot was an Israelite and owned a vineyard that was adjacent to the property of Ahab , king of Israel. Ahab wished to buy this vineyard or trade it for another. But Nabot refused to sell his fathers' inheritance, according to the law at Lev 25.23  EU . Jezebel , Ahab's wife, noticed her husband's anger at this refusal and wrote to the elders and nobles of the city where Nabot lived to proclaim a fast and to place Nabot in a prominent place at the feast. He was to be confronted with two worthless men who would accuse him of blaspheming God and the king and then stone him to death. The elders and nobles carried out the instructions and then sent word to Jezebel that they had stoned Nabot for the false statements. Jezebel reported this to her husband and he went out to take possession of the vineyard; but God sent Elijah the prophet to tell him his fate and that of Jezebel.

God announced to Ahab that he would take revenge on him and his sons for this reprehensible act. As already happened with the house of Jeroboam and the house of Basha , his house should also be exterminated, not even an orderly burial should be granted to his family ( 1 Kings 21: 1–29  EU ). But since Ahab himself to the warning of the Lord toward repentance did God announced to make the threat only to his sons true. The prophecy was fulfilled for Joram , Ahab's son ( 2 Kings 9:24  EU ).

Web links

Commons : Nabot  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sermon-online.de
• Nabot in the online Bible lexicon from Bibelkommentare.de
• Barbara Schmitz:  Nabot. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.