Jezreel

A city of Judah. (Joshua xv. 56. Hos. 2: 22.) The name means, seed of God; from Zeruah, seed, and El, God. Children were called by this name. (1 Chron. 4: 3. Hos. i. 4.) The Jezreel, where Ahab’s palace was, lay distant from the city of Judah. (2 Kings ix. 10.)

a royal city of the kings of Israel, who sometimes resided here as well as at Samaria. Ahab, in particular, is known to have made this his residence: near to whose palace was the vineyard of the unfortunate Naboth. The name of Jezreel was by the Greeks moulded into that of Esdraela; which is described by Eusebius and Jerom, in the fourth century, as a considerable town. In like manner, the valley of Jezreel obtained the name of the valley or plain of Esdraelon; which is still described as very fertile, and much frequented by the Arabs for its fine pasturage. This is the largest, and at the same time the most fertile, plain in the land of Canaan; and is called, by way of eminence, the Great Plain. It may be estimated at thirty miles in length, and twenty in breadth. The river Kishon flows through it. See ESDRAELON.

Jez´reel, a town in the tribe of Issachar (Jos 19:18), where the kings of Israel had a palace, and where the court often resided, although Samaria was the metropolis of the kingdom. It is most frequently mentioned in the history of the house of Ahab. Here was the vineyard of Naboth, which Ahab coveted to enlarge the palace-grounds (1Ki 18:45-46; 1 Kings 21), and here Jehu executed his dreadful commission against the house of Ahab, when Jezebel, Joram, and all who were connected with that wretched dynasty, perished (2Ki 9:14-37; 2Ki 10:1-11). These horrid scenes appear to have given the kings of Israel a distaste to this residence, as it is not again mentioned in their history. It is, however, named by Hosea (Hos 1:4; comp. 1:11; 2:22); and in Judith (Jdt 1:8; Jdt 4:3; Jdt 7:3) it occurs under the name of Esdraelon. In the days of Eusebius and Jerome it was still a large village, called Esdraela. Nothing more is heard of it till the time of the crusades, when it was called by the Franks Parvum Gerinum, and by the Arabs Zerin; and it is described as commanding a wide prospect—on the east to the mountains of Gilead, and on the west to Mount Carmel. But this line of identification seems to have been afterwards lost sight of, and it is only of late that the identification of Zerin and Jezreel has been restored.

Zerin is seated on the brow of a rocky and very steep descent into the great and fertile valley of Jezreel, which runs down between the mountains of Gilboa and Hermon. Lying comparatively high, it commands a wide and noble view, extending down the broad valley on the east to Beisan (Bethshean), and on the west quite across the great plain to the mountains of Carmel. It is described by Dr. Robinson (Researches, iii. 163) as a most magnificent site for a city, which, being itself a conspicuous object in every part, would naturally give its name to the whole region. In the valley directly under Zerin is a considerable fountain, and another still larger somewhat farther to the east, under the northern side of Gilboa, called Ain Jalud. There can, therefore, be little question that, as in Zerin we have Jezreel, so in the valley and the fountain we have the ’valley of Jezreel,’ and the fountain of Jezreel, of Scripture.

Zerin has at present little more than twenty humble dwellings, mostly in ruins, and with few inhabitants.

1. A celebrated city of Issachar, Jos 19:18, lying westward of Bethshean, 2Sa 4:4 . Ahab had here a palace; and this city became famous on account of his seizure of Naboth’s vineyard, 1Ki 21:1-29 ; and the vengeance executed on Ahab, 2Ki 9:10,14 -37 10:1-11. Jezreel was called Esdraela in the time of the Maccabees, and is now replaced by a small and ruinous Arab village, called Zerin, at the northwest point of mount Gilboa. Its elevated site gives one a fine view of the great plain of Esdraelon on the west, and the hills that border it; and towards the east it overhangs the wide and fertile "valley of Jezreel," Jos 17:16 Jdg 6:33 Hos 1:5, which runs down east-south-east from the great plain to the Jordan, between Gilboa and little Hermon. In this valley, below and east of Zerin, is the copious "fountain of Jezreel," near which Saul perished, 1Sa 29:1 31:1\par 2. The great plain lying between Jezreel and Acre, called from two cities on its border in one part, "the valley of Megiddo," 2Ch 35:22, and in its western part or branch the "plain or valley of Jezreel," afterwards Esdraelon. The body of this beautiful plain forms a triangle, rising gradually from the Mediterranean four hundred feet, and being about thirteen or fourteen miles long on the north side, seventeen on the east, and twenty on the south-west. The western part is level; on the east it is more undulating, and is at length broken by mount Gilboa and "little Hermon" into three valleys two or three miles wide, which sink down into the valley of the Jordan. Of these, the middle valley, described above, is the proper "valley of Jezreel." The river Kishon traverses this plain. It was formerly well watered and astonishingly fertile, but is now under the blight of tyranny and insecurity, comparatively uncultivated and deserted. The highways are unoccupied, the villages have ceased in Israel, Jdg 5:6 . There are a few small hamlets, particularly on the higher grounds that border it; and the abundant crops that it yields, even with poor cultivation, show that it might again be made the granary of Syria. Across this plain, from Carmel to Jezreel, Elijah ran before the chariot of Ahab, 1Ki 18:46 . It has been the chosen battleground of many armies. Here the hosts of Sisera were swept away, Jdg 4:1-24 ; and here Josiah fell, fighting against Pharaohnecho, 2Ki 23:29 . Battles were fought here in the later periods of the Romans, and of the Crusaders; and in our own century, near mount Tabor, fifteen hundred French under General Kleber sustained the assault of twenty-five thousand Turks for half a day, and were succored by Napoleon.\par

Jez’re-el. (seed of God).

1. A descendant of the father, or founder of Etam, of the line of Judah. 1Ch 4:3. (B.C. about 1445).

2. A city, situated in the plain of the same name, between Gilboa and Little Hermon, now generally called Esdraelon. See Esdraelon. It appears in Jos 19:18, but its historical importance dates, from the reign of Ahab, B.C. 918-897, who chose it for his chief residence. The situation of the modern village of Zerin, still remains to show the fitness of his choice. In the neighborhood, or within the town probably, were a temple and grove of Eastward, with an establishment of 400 priests supported by Jezebel. 1Ki 16:33; 2Ki 10:11.

The palace of Ahab, 1Ki 21:1; 1Ki 18:46, probably containing his "ivory house," 1Ki 22:39, was on the eastern side of the city, forming part of the city wall. Compare 1Ki 21:1; 2Ki 9:25; 2Ki 9:30; 2Ki 9:33. Whether the vineyard of Naboth was here, or at Samaria is a doubtful question. Still in the same eastern direction are two springs, one 12 minutes from the town, the other 20 minutes. The latter, probably, from both its size and its situation, was known as "the spring of Jezreel." With the fall of the house of Ahab, the glory of Jezreel departed.

3. A town in Judah, in the neighborhood of the southern Carmel. Jos 15:56. Here David, in his wanderings, took Ahinoam, the Israelitess, for his first wife. 1Sa 27:3; 1Sa 30:5.

4. The eldest son of the prophet, Hosea. Hos 1:4.

("God has sown".) Esdraelon. Now Zerin at the foot of Mount Gilboa, ten miles S.E. of Nazareth. In Issachar: Jos 19:18. Ahab’s royal residence was on the E. of the city, and near it was the Jezreelite Naboth’s vineyard; whereas Samaria (in the sense of the city) was his capital (1Ki 18:46; 1Ki 21:1; 1Ki 22:10; 2Ki 9:15). By the fountain of Jezreel Israel pitched before the battle of Gilboa (1Sa 29:1). A large fountain still flows out of a cavern in the conglomerate rock at the northern base of Mount Gilboa. Zerin commands an extensive view to the mountains E. of Jordan and along the great plain to Mount Carmel. On the N.E., the hill on which Jezreel stood, is a steep descent of rock, 100 ft. high. Strong and central, the site was admirable for a city. Jezebel’s apartments were on the city wall, with a window facing E., and a watchtower for noticing arrivals from the Jordan quarter.

An old square tower still standing may occupy its site. The city’s eastern gateway was the palace gateway, in front of which was the open space, usual in Eastern cities, called "the mounds," where the dogs, their scavengers, devoured Jezebel’s carcass. (See JEZEBEL.) Hosea’s oldest son by Gomer was named Jezreel (Hos 1:4), to imply that as Ahab’s family miserably perished there, so would their destroyer Jehu’s family perish, because the latter had retained the sin which he had been elevated in order to root out. (See HOSEA.) God saith "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel (2 Kings 9; 2Ki 10:11; 2Ki 10:14) upon the house of Jehu," because the blood so shed by Jehu was not with a view to doing God’s will, but to further his own ambition; this he proved by soon disobeying God when the retaining of the calf worship seemed to him politic.

Jezreel means both "God scatters" and "God sows." As He "scattered" them under Jehu, and finally by the Assyrian deportation, so He will "sow" them again; and so Jezreel will represent the similarly sounding Israel; "great shall be the day of Jezreel" when "Judah and Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint (unto) themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land" (of the Gentiles) where God. sowed them (Zec 10:9; Hos 1:11). They shall then be the seed of God sown in their own land (Hos 2:23; Eze 36:9; Jer 31:27; Jer 32:41; Amo 9:15). THE VALLEY OF JEZREEL (or ESDRAELON, as it is called in Jdt 3:9) stretches across the center of Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, separating Carmel and Samaria’s mountain ranges from those of Galilee.

The western portion is the plain of Accho. The main body is an irregular triangle, its base stretching from Engannim to the hills below Nazareth, about 15 miles: one side formed by the Galilee hills, about 12 miles; the other 18, running on the northern side of the Samaritan range. The top of the triangle is the pass, half a mile wide, opening into Accho plain. It is the ancient Megiddo plain, the Armageddon of Rev 16:16. (See ARMAGEDDON.) The Kishon drains it, flowing W. by Accho into the Mediterranean.

From this triangular plain’s base three branches stretch E., divided by bleak Mount Gilboa and Little Hermon. (See Porter, Handbook to Syria.) Though rich and luxuriant in spring, only about a sixth of it is cultivated, and there is not an inhabited village in the main portion, chiefly owing to the insecurity from Bedouin marauders. It mainly belonged to Issachar, which, exposed to every incursion, lived in a nearly nomadic state and sought David’s protection (Gen 49:14-15 "tents," 1Ch 12:32; 1Ch 12:40), and formed Zebulun’s frontier (Deu 33:18). It was Israel’s great field of battle with invaders: Sisera, Judges 4 and 5; Midian, Judges 7; the Philistines at Gilboa, 1 Samuel 29,31; Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo, 2Ki 23:29.

Jezreel, Valley of. A triangular plain extending from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, and from the ridge of Carmel to the mountains in Galilee. It is about 25 miles long from east to west, and 12 miles wide from north to south. There Barak and Gideon triumphed; Deborah sung her war song; Saul and Jonathan fell near by, on the mountains of Gilboa; here king Josiah was mortally wounded by the Egyptians. From the base of this triangular plain three branches stretch out eastward, divided by two bleak gray ridges, one called Mount Gilboa, the other Little Hermon. The central branch is the richest as well as the most celebrated. It is the valley of Jezreel proper; the battle-field where Gideon triumphed and Saul and Jonathan were overthrown. Jdg 7:1, ff.; 1Sa 29:1-11; 1Sa 31:1-13. The plain is noted for its wonderful richness.

[Jez’reel]

1. Descendant of ’the father of Etam.’ 1Ch 4:3. (Six Hebrew MSS, the LXX, and the Vulgate read ’sons’ instead of ’father.’)

2, 3. Symbolical name both of the son of Hosea and of Israel. Hos 1:4; Hos 1:11. Jezreel is interpreted both ’God scatters’ and ’God sows.’ Hos 1:4 refers to judgement upon the house of Jehu and the house of Israel; and Hos 1:11 to blessing, when of both Israel and Judah it will be said, "Ye are the sons of the living God." Then "great shall be the day of Jezreel:" cf. Hos 2:22-23; "I will sow her unto me in the earth." Then God will say to her, "Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."

4. City of Judah, from whence David married Ahinoam. Jos 15:56; 1Sa 25:43;

1Sa 29:1; 1Sa 29:11.

5. City in Issachar, the abode of Ahab and Jezebel, and principally connected with their history. It was the scene of Jezebel’s tragical end. Jos 19:18; 2Sa 2:9; 2Sa 4:4; 1Ki 18:45-46; 1Ki 21:1; 1Ki 21:23; 2Ki 8:29; 2Ki 9:10-37; 2Ki 10:1-11. Identified with Zerin, 32° 34’ N, 35° 19’ E.

6. The extensive valley or plain in which the last-named city was situated, in southern Galilee. It has been called the battle-field of Palestine. It was where Barak triumphed, and where Josiah was defeated, Jdg 5:19; 2Ch 35:22 - Megiddo being in the same locality. It is also perhaps the place where the great battle of Armageddon will be fought. Rev 16:16. It is a very fertile plain, and is now well cultivated (cf. Hos 2:22); Jos 17:16; Jdg 6:33; Hos 1:5. The name ESDRAELON is given to this valley in the Apocryphal Book of Judith 3:9, etc. Now called Merj Ibn Amir.

(, "God sows").

By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn

1. See Esdraelon.

2. A city of Issachar, mentioned with Chesulloth and Shunem (Josh. xix. 18). Owing to its importance, Jezreel gave its name to the whole district which was subsequently included in the kingdom of Ish-bosheth (II Sam. ii. 8). But Jezreel acquired its greatest fame in the reign of Ahab, who chose it for his residence (I Kings xviii. 45). Ahab had a palace there (ib. xxi. 1). The harem was near the gate, forming a part of the city wall (II Kings ix. 30, 33). Close by was a watch-tower, which perhaps also formed a part of the royal building (ib. ix. 17). It may be that Ahab's ivory palace (I Kings xxii. 39) and Jezebel's establishment for idolatrous priests (ib. xvi. 33, xviii. 39; II Kings x. 11) were also at Jezreel.Close to Ahab's palace was the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, so much coveted by Ahab (I Kings xxi. 1 et seq.). It would seem, from a comparison of I Kings xxi. 19 and xxii. 38, that the assassination of Naboth took place at Samaria. But with reference to the latter passage Josephus ("Ant." viii. 15, § 6) says that Ahab's chariot was washed in the fountain of Jezreel. Besides, a confusion between Samaria and Jezreel is seen in I Kings xxi. 18 and II Kings x. 1. In front of Ahab's palace was an open space where dogs roamed. It was there that they devoured Jezebel's body (II Kings ix. 35-37).Jezreel was also the residence of Joram, son of Ahab (ib. viii. 29, ix. 15); there he met his death at the hands of Jehu (ib. ix. 24, 25). The heads of Ahab's seventy sons were sent by command of Jehu from Samaria to Jezreel, by the gateway of which city they were piled till the following morning (ib. x. 7, 8). Jezreel was also the scene of the massacre of Ahab's family and of all who were suspected of sympathy with his dynasty (ib. x. 11-14).Jezreel was known to the Crusaders as "Parvum Gerinum"; and in 1183 a skirmish with Saladin took place near the city (William of Tyre, xxii. 26). It was called even as late as that time "Zar'in," which is almost the equivalent of the Hebrew "Yizre'el." The same identification was made by Benjamin of Tudela, who describes it as being distant a day and a half from Lod, and three miles from Sepphoris, and having a large fountain. He found there one Jewish inhabitant, a dyer ("Itinerary," ed. Asher, i. 44, Hebr.). It was near this fountain that Saul and his army encamped during their war with the Philistines (I Sam. xxix. 1); it is called "Tubania" by William of Tyre (xxii. 20).Zar'in is now a small village; it is situated at the foot of Mount Gilboa on the western side and has twenty to thirty houses (see Robinson, "Researches," iii. 163-167; Guérin, "Samarie," i. 311-312; Fried. Wilken, "Gesch. der Kreuzzüge," II. ii. 144, Leipsic, 1808; George Adam Smith, "Historical Geography," etc., 1894, pp. 356, 381).

3. A town in the hill country of Judah not far from the Judean Carmel (Josh. xv. 56). Ahinoam one of David's first two wives, was a native of this town (I Sam. xxv. 43).

4. A Judean; son of Etam, according to the Septuagint (I Chron. iv. 3).

5. Hosea's eldest son, being so called by commandof God in token of the divine vengeance which would overtake Jehu for massacring Ahab's family in Jezreel (Hosea i. 4).

6. Name used for Israel in Hosea ii. 24.

JEZREEL.—The Hebrew name from which is derived the name of the Plain of Esdraelon (see Esdraelon). The plain is called ‘the Valley of Jezreel’ in Jos 17:16, Jdg 6:33, Hos 1:5.

1. Primarily, however, it denotes an Important city overlooking the Plain on the south in the border of the tribe of Issachar. Here, by ‘the fountain of Jezreel’—probably the powerful spring known as ‘Ain Jalûd—the Israelites encamped against the Philistines before the battle of Gilboa (1Sa 29:1). It is named as an important town in the short-lived kingdom of Ishbosheth (2Sa 2:9). Under Solomon it was in the administrative district of Baana (1Ki 4:12). But the chief interest of the town’s history centres in the time of the reign of Ahab, who established here a royal residence, to which he retired when the three years’ drought came to an end (1Ki 21:1; 1Ki 18:45), and whence he saw and coveted the vineyard of Naboth (21). It is probable, however, that the ‘ivory palace’ of 1Ki 22:39 was not at Jezreel, but at the capital, Samaria. To Jezreel came Joram to recover from the wounds received in battle with the Syrians (2Ki 8:29); and here, on the revolt of Jehu, were that king and his mother Jezebel slain (ch. 9), as well as all that remained of the house of Ahab (ch. 10). This is the last we hear of Jezreel, which thereafter seems to have sunk into insignificance. The place is represented both in situation and in name by the modern village of Zer‘in, a poor and dirty hamlet. Except a few ruined tombs and fragments of sarcophagi, there are no remains of antiquity to be seen in the neighbourhood.

2. There was a second Jezreel, of which nothing is known save that it was in the territory of Judah (Jos 15:56) and was the native place of one of David’s wives, Abinoam (1Sa 25:43). 3. A Judahite (1Ch 4:3). 4. The symbolical name of Hosea’s eldest son (Hos 1:4). 5. Jezreel (‘whom God soweth’) is a title symbolically applied to Israel in Hos 2:22 f.

R. A. S. Macalister.

(Hebrew: God soweth)

A city of the tribe of Issachar. In the division of the Promised Land, Jezrael was given to the tribe of Issachar (Jos., 19). Gedeon, arriving from the south, defeated the Madianites and the Amalecites, who had encamped near Jezrael (Judges 6). Saul, conquered by the Philistines, died there (1 Kings 31). Achab established a royal residence there and coveted the vineyard of Naboth (3 Kings 21). Massacres, by which Jehu signaled the accession of his house to the throne, commenced there. Returning to Jezrael, in order to surprise the king, Jehu killed with his own hand Joram, who had come out to meet him (4 Kings 9). Jezabel was put to death at the very moment when Jehu was making his entrance into the city. Here Jehu sent from Samaria the bloody trophy of 70 heads of the sons of Achab (4 Kings 10). With the fall of the house of Achab, the glory of Jezrael disappeared; only once more is the name mentioned, when the prophet Osee names the judgment of God, chastising and saving Israel, as the "great day of Jezrael" (Osee 1).

jez´rḗ-el, jez´rēl (יזרעאל, yizr^e‛e’l, “God soweth”):

(1) A city on the border of the territory of Issachar (Jos 19:18).

1. Territory:

It is named with Chesulloth and Shunem (modern Iksāl and Sōlam). It remained loyal to the house of Saul, and is mentioned as part of the kingdom over which Abner set Ishbosheth (2Sa 2:9). From Jezreel came the tidings of Saul and Jonathan’s death on Gilboa, which brought disaster to Mephibosheth (2Sa 4:4). The city plays no important part in the history till the time of Ahab. Attracted, doubtless, by the fine position and natural charms of the place, he made it one of his royal residences, building here a palace (1Ki 21:1). This was evidently on the eastern wall; and the gate by which Jehu entered was over-looked by the quarters of Queen Jezebel (2Ki 9:30 f). The royal favor naturally enhanced the dignity of the city, and “elders” and “nobles” of Jezreel are mentioned (1Ki 21:8, etc.). Under the influence of Jezebel, an institution for the worship of Baal was founded here, from which, probably, the men were drawn who figured in the memorable contest with Elijah on Carmel (2Ki 10:11). “The tower in Jezreel” was part of the defenses of the city. It commanded a view of the approach up the valley from Beth-shean - the way followed by the hordes of the East, who, from time immemorial, came westward for the rich pasture of the plain (2Ki 9:17). It was necessary also to keep constant watch, as the district East of the Jordan was always more unsettled than that on the West; and danger thence might appear at any moment. The garden of Naboth seems to have lain to the East of the city (2Ki 9:21 ), near the royal domain, to which Ahab desired to add it as a garden of herbs (1Ki 21:1 ff). See NABOTH. This was the scene of the tragic meetings between Elijah and Ahab (1Ki 21:17 ff), and between Jehu and Joram and Ahaziah (2Ki 9:21). Joram had returned to Jezreel from Ramoth-gilead to be healed of his wounds (2Ki 9:15). By the gateway the dogs devoured Jezebel’s body (2Ki 9:31 ff). Naboth had been stoned to death outside the city (1Ki 21:13). Josephus lays the scene by the fountain of Jezreel, and here, he says, the dogs licked the blood washed from the chariot of Ahab (Ant., VIII, xv, 6). This accords with 1Ki 21:19; but 1Ki 22:38 points to the pool at Samaria.

2. Identification:

The site of Jezreel must be sought in a position where a tower would command a view of the road coming up the valley from Beth-shean. It has long been the custom to identify it with the modern village, Zer‛ı̄n, on the northwestern spur of Gilboa. This meets the above condition; and it also agrees with the indications in Eusebius, Onomasticon as lying between Legio (Lejjūn) and Scythopolis (Beisān). Recently, however, Professor A.R.S. Macalister made a series of excavations here, and failed to find any evidence of ancient Israelite occupation. This casts doubt upon the identification, and further excavation is necessary before any certain conclusion can be reached. For the “fountain which is in Jezreel,” see HAROD, WELL OF.

(2) An unidentified town in the uplands of Judah (Jos 15:56), the home of Ahinoam (1Sa 27:3, etc.).

Among the important centres of northern Israel was the town of Jezreel in the tribal territory of Issachar (Jos 19:17-18). (This town is to be distinguished from the lesser known Jezreel in the tribal territory of Judah to the south; cf. Jos 15:56; 1Sa 25:43.) Jezreel of the north was situated on the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon, where the plain began to slope down into the Valley of Jezreel. This region was often a battleground in Old Testament times, and Jezreel sometimes became involved in the fighting (e.g. 1Sa 29:11; see PALESTINE).

When, during the time of the divided kingdom, the king of Israel established his capital in Samaria, he also built a summer palace at Jezreel. Ahab later expanded this palace by unjustly seizing the adjoining property belonging to Naboth (1Ki 21:1-2; 1Ki 21:16). Ahab’s wife Jezebel, their son Joram and others of the royal household were killed at Jezreel in Jehu’s bloody revolution (2Ki 8:29; 2Ki 9:16-37; 2Ki 10:11; Hos 1:4-5).