Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)]

On Fri 17 Mar 2006 (22:50:07), kwrandolph AT email.com wrote:
> Could it be that we are not dealing with a curse 
> per se, rather that not proper respect is intended? 
> Look at the action involved with kneeling: it is a 
> descending down to be lower than the other. It is 
> an acknowledgment that one is inferior to the 
> other. So is it that Naboth was accused of treating 
> God and the king as lower than himself?

 We are dealing with a *false* accusation of Blasphemy. Jezebel wanted
 to secure Naboth's vineyard for her husband the king, in spite of
 Naboth's correct refusal to sell his patrimony, even to the King.

 So a false but credible accusation of a Capital crime was required,
 and Jezebel's two "sons of Belial" were no doubt paid to provide
 the false witness. The experience of countries where there is a
 strict law of the death penalty for Blasphemy (e.g. Pakistan) shows
 how easy it is to get a charge of Blasphemy to stick, even if it is
 false. Naboth was falsely convicted of *cursing* God (and the King),
 not "blessing God". It seems he was lynched by the mob, without recourse
 to proper legal process. In Pakistan, some accused of Blasphemy and then
 acquitted by the Courts have been subsequently assassinated; some have
 fled the country to escape assassination.

 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF                                       ZFC Hf
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