"... According to the law, “the punishment for the false witness is to be the same as the one he would have brought upon his victim if he had succeeded with his charge: ‘life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.’ In the story much care is taken to show that Ahab, upon whom the responsibility was laid for Naboth’s death, was treated in a way that closely paralleled the treatment of Naboth. Indeed the detailed attention to retaliation is remarkable. Ahab wrongfully appropriated Naboth’s land, and he died attempting to appropriate land, the city of Ramoth-gilead—one of the original cities of refuge in ancient Israel. Lies and deception in the mouths of the elders of Jezreel and certain established prophets, respectively, brought about both men’s deaths. Curiously, lies originate in the heavenly sphere as well as the earthly; for the lie that sends Ahab to his death was put on the lips of Zedekiah and the four hundred prophets in Ahab’s court by spirit” (רוח), which was sent by YHWH himself for that express purpose ... (1 Kings 22:22). The means to that end was a deliberate lie, as the spirit had already indicated ... The actions in each case have a judicial setting, an early court trafficking in lies in the case of the elders, and a heavenly one in the case of the prophets who come under its influence in speaking lies to Ahab about the successful outcome of the battle ..."