And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, near by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
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Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
An ancient story tells of the two neighbors, King Ahab and a poor man, Naboth. Which of these do we consider the poorer, which the richer: the one who had been endowed with a king’s measure of wealth, insatiable and unsatisfied with his wealth, who longed for the little vineyard of the poor man; or the other, heartily despising a “king’s fortune of much gold” and imperial wealth, who was satisfied with his vineyard? Does he not seem richer and more a king, since he had enough for himself and regulated his desires so that he wanted nothing that belonged to others? But was he not very poor whose gold was of no account, while he considered the other’s vines of priceless value? Understand why he was so very poor: because riches amassed unjustly are disgorged, but the root of the righteous remains and flourishes like a palm tree. - "Letter 55(38).8"
The story of Naboth is old in time but daily in practice. For who of the rich does not daily covet the goods of others? Who of the wealthy does not strive to drive off the poor person from his little acre and turn out the needy from the boundaries of his ancestral field? Who is content with his own? What rich person’s heart is not set on fire by a neighbor’s possession? Not, therefore, was one Ahab born, but, what is worse, daily is Ahab born and never dies in this world. If one perishes, many others spring up; there are more to steal than there are to suffer loss. Not one poor man, Naboth, was killed: daily is Naboth struck down, daily is a poor person put to death. Alarmed by this fear, the human race is now departing from its lands; the poor man, carrying his latest born, wanders forth with his little ones; his wife follows in tears, as if accompanying her husband to his tomb. Less, however, does she grieve who weeps over the bodies of her dead: for, although she has not her sons ye...
Who was. Hebrew, Chaldean, place this after vineyard, and read which, referring it to the ground; which we might naturally suppose would be the place of Naboth's nativity, as it was his paternal estate, 4 Kings ix. 21. Josephus calls the place Azari, and says it was a field contiguous to the king's palace. Septuagint alo, "threshing-floor."
