Reference: Jezreel
Easton
God scatters. (1.) A town of Issachar (Jos 19:18), where the kings of Israel often resided (1Ki 18:45; 21:1; 2Ki 9:30). Here Elijah met Ahab, Jehu, and Bidkar; and here Jehu executed his dreadful commission against the house of Ahab (2Ki 9:14-37; 10:1-11). It has been identified with the modern Zerin, on the most western point of the range of Gilboa, reaching down into the great and fertile valley of Jezreel, to which it gave its name.
(2.) A town in Judah (Jos 15:56), to the south-east of Hebron. Ahinoam, one of David's wives, probably belonged to this place (1Sa 27:3).
(3.) A symbolical name given by Hosea to his oldest son (Ho 1:4), in token of a great slaughter predicted by him, like that which had formerly taken place in the plain of Esdraelon (comp. Ho 1:4-5).
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And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, both he and his men, every man with his household; and David with his two wives: Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail, Nabal's wife of Carmel.
And within a little while, heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
After these things were done, it chanced that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.
And so Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Jehoram. And Jehoram had been waiting at Ramoth Gilead, and all Israel with him for fear of Hazael king of Syria; and was returned to be healed in Jezreel, of the wounds which the Syrians had given him as he fought with Hazael king of Syria. Then said Jehu, "If it be your minds, then let no man escape out of the city, to go and tell in Jezreel." read more. And Jehu rode and went to Jezreel: for Jehoram lay there, and Ahaziah king of Judah was come to Jehoram. And the watchmen that stood on the tower in Jezreel spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, "I see a company." And Jehoram said, "Take a horseman and send against them, and let him ask whether it be peace." And there went one on horseback against him and said, "Thus sayeth the king, 'Is it peace?'" And Jehu answered, "What hast thou to do with peace? Turn, and come after me." And the watchman told, saying, "The messenger came to them but he cometh not again." Then he sent out another on horseback, which came to them and said, "Thus sayeth the king, 'Is it peace?'" And Jehu answered, "What hast thou to do with peace? Turn, and come after me." And the watchman told, saying, "He came to them, but he cometh not again, and the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he driveth as he were mad." Then said Jehoram, "Make ready." And they made ready his chariot. And Jehoram king of Israel, and Ahaziah king of Judah, went out either in his chariot against Jehu, and met him in the furlong of Naboth the Jezreelite. And when Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace Jehu?" And he said, "What peace should there be, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so great?" And Jehoram turned his hand and fled, and said to Ahaziah, "There is treason, Ahaziah!" And Jehu took a bow in his hand and smote Jehoram between the shoulders, that the arrow came out at his breast. And he fell down three fold in his chariot. Then he said to Bidkar, a lord of his, "Take and cast him in the plot of ground of Naboth the Jezreelite. For I remember as I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, how the LORD spake these words against him: 'I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and of his sons,' said the LORD, 'and I will quite him in this ground,' sayeth the LORD. Now therefore take him and cast him in the plot of ground according to the word of the LORD." And when Ahaziah the king of Judah saw that, he fled the way to the garden house. And Jehu followed after him and said, "Smite him also." And they smote him in his chariot at the going up to Gur by Ibleam; and he fled to Megiddo, and there died. And his servants carried him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his sepulchre with his fathers in the city of David. Ahaziah reigned over Judah in the eleventh year of Jehoram son of Ahab. And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and starched her eyes and attired her head and looked out at a window. And as Jehu entered at the gate she said, "Had Zimri peace which slew his master?" And he lifted up his eyes to the window and said, "Who is of my side? Who?" And there looked out to him two or three lords that were chamberlains. And he said, "Throw her down." And they threw her down. And he sprinkled of her blood upon the walls and on the horses, and trod her under foot. And then when he was come in and had eaten and drunk, he said, "Go and visit, I pray you, yonder cursed creature; and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." And when they came to bury her, they found no more of her, than the skull and the two feet and the two hands. And they came again and told him. And he said, "It is the word of the LORD which he spake by the hand of his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 'In the field of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the carcass of Jezebel shall be dung upon the earth, in the field of Jezreel, that men shall not say, this is Jezebel.'"
Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria - unto the elders that were lords of Jezreel, and to them that nursed up Ahab's children - saying, "Now at the coming of these letters to you, ye have with you your master's sons, and ye have with you chariots and horses, and a strong city and harness. read more. Therefore choose the best, and him that most pleaseth you of your master's sons, and put him on his father's seat, and fight for your lord's house." And they were accordingly afraid, and said, "See, two kings were not able to stand before him: how shall we then stand?" And the governor of the king's house and of the city and of the elders and the nurses sent to Jehu, saying, "We are thy servants and will do all that thou shalt bid us. We will make no man king: but do thou what seemeth good in thine eyes." Then he wrote another letter to them saying, "If ye be mine and will obey my voice, then take the heads of your master's sons and come to me to Jezreel, by tomorrow this time." And the king's sons were seventy persons with the great men of the city which nourished them. And when the letter came to them, they took the king's children and slew them in number, seventy persons, and put their heads in coffins and sent them to him to Jezreel. And there came a messenger and told him, saying, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons." And he said, "Let them put them on two heaps in the entering of the gate, till it be day." And in the morning he went out and stood and said to all the folk, "Ye be righteous: for see, I conspired against my master and slew him: But who slew these? Consider now how there is nothing of the LORD's word fallen to the earth, which he spake against the house of Ahab: for the LORD hath done that he spake to his servant Elijah." And so Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab, in Jezreel, and all that were great with him, and his companions and his priests, until he had left him nought remaining.
And the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel, for I will shortly avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Israel to an end.
And the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel, for I will shortly avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Israel to an end. Then will I break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."
Hastings
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; Jg 6:33; Ho 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'
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Then the children of Joseph said again, "The hill will not be gotten of us: for all the Cananites that dwell in the low country have chariots of iron, and so have they that inhabit Bethshean, and the towns of the same, and they also that dwell in the valley of Jezreel."
When all the Midianites, the Amalekites and they of the east were gathered together and had gone and pitched in the valley of Jezreel,
The Philistines gathered all their hosts together unto Aphek: And Israel pitched by a fountain in Jezreel.
and made him king over Gilead and over the Asherites, and over Jezreel; and over Ephraim and Benjamin and over all Israel.
Baanah the son of Ahilud had Taanach, Megiddo, and all Bet-Shean which is by Zarethan beneath Jezreel, and from Bet-Shean to Abelmeholah and unto beyond Jokmeam;
And within a little while, heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel.
After these things were done, it chanced that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.
The rest of the deeds of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he made, and the cities that he built, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
Wherefore king Jehoram went back again, to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramoth, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram of son of Ahab in Jezreel because he was sick.
And of these came the father of Etam, Jezreel, Ishma and Idbash, with their sister called Hazzelelponi.
And the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel, for I will shortly avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Israel to an end. Then will I break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."
and the earth shall help the corn, wine, and oil, and they shall help Jezreel.
Morish
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. Ho 1:4,11. Jezreel is interpreted both 'God scatters' and 'God sows.' Ho 1:4 refers to judgement upon the house of Jehu and the house of Israel; and Ho 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. Ho 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;
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; 4:4; 1Ki 18:45-46; 21:1,23; 2Ki 8:29; 9:10-37; 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, Jg 5:19; 2Ch 35:22
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Then the children of Joseph said again, "The hill will not be gotten of us: for all the Cananites that dwell in the low country have chariots of iron, and so have they that inhabit Bethshean, and the towns of the same, and they also that dwell in the valley of Jezreel."
Kings came and fought. Then fought the king of Canaan at Taanach, upon the water of Megiddo. But the silver that they coveted, they carried not away.
When all the Midianites, the Amalekites and they of the east were gathered together and had gone and pitched in the valley of Jezreel,
And of these came the father of Etam, Jezreel, Ishma and Idbash, with their sister called Hazzelelponi.
And the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel, for I will shortly avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Israel to an end.
And the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel, for I will shortly avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Israel to an end. Then will I break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."
Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together again, and chose themselves one head, and then depart out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together again, and chose themselves one head, and then depart out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
and the earth shall help the corn, wine, and oil, and they shall help Jezreel.
and the earth shall help the corn, wine, and oil, and they shall help Jezreel. I will sow them upon earth, for a seed to mine own self, and will have mercy upon her, that was without mercy. And to them which were not my people, I will say, 'Thou art my people.' And he shall say, 'Thou art my God.'"
And he gathered them together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon.
Smith
Jez're-el
(seed of God), a descendant of the father or founder of Etam, of the line of Judah.
(B.C. about 1445).
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And of these came the father of Etam, Jezreel, Ishma and Idbash, with their sister called Hazzelelponi.
Watsons
JEZREEL, 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.