[755] The signet was carved with the king's name. Rawlinson aptly compares Lady Macbeth's "Infirm of purpose give me the daggers!"
[756] Josephus calls it an ἐκκλησία. "Set Naboth on high" (Heb.) "at the head of the people"; LXX., ἐν ἀρχῇ τοῦ λαοῦ; Vulg., inter primos populi.
[757] The charge was that "he cursed God and the king." LXX. (by euphemism), εὐλόγησε; Vulg., Benedixit. The Hebrew word has both meanings (comp. Exod. xxii. 28, where some would render Elohim not "God," but "the judges." See marg. of R.V.). Stoning was the punishment of blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 16), and took place outside the city (Acts vii. 58).
[758] 2 Kings ix. 26.
[759] 2 Sam. xvi. 4.
[760] In 1 Kings xxi. 16 the LXX. curiously says, that "when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead he rent his garments, and clothed himself in sackcloth; and after this he also arose," etc. This mourning for the means but acceptance of the fact would not be in disaccord with Ahab's moral weakness.
[761] 2 Kings ix. 25, 36.
[762] LXX.
[763] 2 Kings ix. 36. LXX., ἐν τῷ προτειχίσματι. The חֵל of an Eastern city is the desert space outside the walls where the "pariah dogs prowl on the mounds."
[764] אַט, LXX., κλαίων; Josephus, Chaldee, and Peshito, "shoeless."