Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Kings 21:11

"And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, according as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them." — 1 Kings 21:11 (ASV)

And the men of his city ... did. —The pains taken in the invention of this foul plot, and the ready acquiescence of the rulers of the city in carrying it out, are characteristic of the more corrupt forms of organized Eastern despotism—not venturing to take life by simple violence without some apparent justification, and yet always able to poison the springs of justice and commit murder under form of law. In Israel, where the king was considered to be only a vicegerent of God, subject, in theory, under the old constitution or “manner of the kingdom” (1 Samuel 10:25), to the supreme law, the need to clothe crime with legal form would be especially felt.