Naboth the Izraelite owned a vineyard very close to the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. Ahab offered Naboth to exchange the vineyard for a better one, or pay for it in silver. Naboth rejected the offer saying that the land belonged to his ancestors for generations. King Ahab got mad, and stopped eating. His wife Jezebel promised him that she will get the vineyard for him. To make a long story short, Queen Jezebel set Naboth up to be stoned by the men of the village for “cursing God and the king”. Later, when Naboth’s death was confirmed, Queen Jezebel told her husband King Ahab to go claim the prize and take possession of the much desired vineyard. But at the vineyard, Elijah the Profit was already waiting for him, with the word of God in his mouth: “Haven’t you committed murder and taken possession of the property of the deceased?” The punishment was quick, decisive and appropriate. Every last male of the Ahab dynasty was killed, and so was Jezebel. But since Ahab showed remorse in front of God, the punishment was not carried out during his own lifetime, but during his successor’s.
In a completely unrelated story. AIG officials did everything wrong. They bet people’s money on derivatives, and managed to have lost a huge amount of money. Possibly the largest amount of money lost by a single organization in the history of mankind. If it wasn’t for the American Federal Reserve Bank, who bailed AIG out with an astonishing amount of money (roughly $160B), AIG would have collapsed. To return the favor to the Fed and to the American Taxpayer, AIG distributed a bonus for the “2008 performance” of its top executives. $160M worth. Yes, make no mistake, the same executives who were responsible for the evaporation of billions of dollars. And as if this isn’t outrageous enough, look who came in to support the claim: Citibank. Executives at Citibank support the bonus claiming that otherwise, “their best and brightest professionals” will leave.
Your homework for today is as follows:
1. Compare the two stories, how do they resemble each other, and how do they differ?
2. Identify the following characters in the second story: King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, God, Elijah the Profit, Naboth the Izraelite.
3. Explain the phrase: “Murder and Take Possession”.
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