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JEZREEL (Place)
1. Town originally founded by the tribe of Issachar to the south of Shunem, a site that was abandoned in the el-Amarna period by earlier settlers (Jos 19:18). The city became associated with a number of important events in the history of Israel.
It probably gained some of its importance from the decline of the ancient town of Beth-shan during the Iron Age. Jezreel became the center of an important district in Saul’s kingdom (2 Sm 2:9), and a nearby spring served as the rallying point for Saul’s army before they met the Philistines in the battle of Mt Gilboa (1 Sm 29:1). After Saul’s death, the town was, for a short time, part of Ishbosheth’s kingdom (2 Sm 2:8-11). In Solomon’s day it was assigned to the tenth district of Issachar and was excluded from the main Jezreel Valley. It was administered by Jehoshaphat, son of Paruah (1 Kgs 4:17).
In the days of Omri (885–874 BC) it was chosen as the site of the king’s winter capital, and the four kings of his dynasty down to Joram (852–841 BC) all resided there. It was to this place that Joram retired to recover from wounds received in battle (2 Kgs 8:29). Jezreel was a walled city with a gate and a tower from which the countryside could be surveyed (9:17), and it was administered by a council of elders and nobles (10:1). The royal palace was adjacent to the vineyard owned by Naboth, the Jezreelite, which was seized illegally by King Ahab (1 Kgs 21). For this dastardly deed the dynasty of Ahab received severe retribution. Jezebel, Ahab’s Phoenician wife, was thrown to the dogs through an upper window at the time of Jehu’s usurpation of the throne. King Joram, wounded in battle, was slain by Jehu along with his courtiers and his body cast into the field of Naboth (2 Kgs 9:24-26). The remnant of Ahab’s household were killed at the same time (10:1-11).
After the downfall of Omri’s dynasty, the town declined in importance, although it is mentioned as a village by a number of writers in the Christian era. Eusebius (AD 260–340), for example, refers to it as a village between Scythopolis (Beth-shan) and Legio (Onomasticon 108:13ff.). The Crusaders called it “le Petit Gerim” to distinguish it from “le Grand Gerim.”
Today Jezreel is identified with Zer’in, the site of an Israeli kibbutz about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) north of Jerusalem. Archaeological remains found in the area point to an occupation in the Iron Age and the Roman period.
2. Town in the mountains of Judah (Jos 15:56). It was the hometown of Ahinoam, one of David’s wives (1 Sm 25:43), but nothing is known about the site today.