Frustrated at not being able to procure the vineyard, Ahab returned to his palace and went to bed without eating anything. His wife, Jezebel, after learning the reason for his being upset, asked mockingly, "Are you not the king?" She then said that she would obtain the vineyard for him. To do so, she sent a letter, under Ahab's name, to the elders and nobles of Naboth's city, instructing them to set Naboth up by proclaiming a fast and ordering Naboth to sit in a "prominent place". Two witnesses, referred to as "scoundrels" by Jezebel, were then called forth to (falsely) accuse Naboth of cursing God and the king. After that, they would take him outside the city and stone him to death. The elders and nobles agreed to carry out the letter's instructions as the letter mentioned using two witnesses to accuse Naboth, which according to Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15, was sufficient to charge an offender, accused of committing offenses that were worthy of the death penalty, guilty. Being written under Ahab's name and including Naboth's alleged crime of cursing the "king", the letter also possibly convinced the elders and nobles that the crimes Naboth was to be executed for actually took place. After the letter's instructions were completely carried out, dogs outside of the city licked the blood of Naboth's corpse. Emil G. Hirsch points out that "It seems from II Kings ix. 26 that Naboth's sons perished with their father, probably being killed soon afterward by order of Jezebel in order that they might not claim the vineyard as their inheritance." After Naboth was executed, the Queen told Ahab to take possession of the vineyard.