Psalms 73:8

¹⁶These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

¹⁰They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.

²In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak. They are caught in the schemes that they devise.

⁴who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?” ⁵“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations? ¹¹Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it,” says the LORD.

¹⁸For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;

¹⁰but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,

¹The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good. ²God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God. ³Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one. ⁴Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?

¹⁰The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength. ¹¹He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”

⁷Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let your heart be merry. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” ⁸So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city, who lived with Naboth. ⁹She wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. ¹⁰Set two men, wicked fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king!’ Then carry him out, and stone him to death.”

¹¹The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had instructed them in the letters which she had written and sent to them. ¹²They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people. ¹³The 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. ¹⁴Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”

¹⁵When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”

¹⁶When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

¹⁷The LORD’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸“Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. ¹⁹You shall speak to him, saying, ‘The LORD says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘The LORD says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.”’”

²⁰Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in the LORD’s sight.

²¹Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall,^[+] and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. ²²I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin.” ²³The LORD also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. ²⁴The dogs will eat whoever dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat whoever dies in the field.”

²⁵But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. ²⁶He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

²⁷When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his body, fasted, lay in sackcloth, and went about despondently.

²⁸The LORD’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹“See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but I will bring the evil on his house in his son’s day.”