Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
God scatters. ) A town of Issachar (Josh. 19:18), where the kings of Israel often resided (1 Kings 18:45; 21:1; 2 Kings 9:30). Here Elijah met Ahab, Jehu, and Bidkar; and here Jehu executed his dreadful commission against the house of Ahab (2 Kings 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. ) A town in Judah (Josh. 15:56), to the south-east of Hebron. Ahinoam, one of David’s wives, probably belonged to this place (1 Sam. 27:3).
) A symbolical name given by Hosea to his oldest son (Hos. 1:4), in token of a great slaughter predicted by him, like that which had formerly taken place in the plain of Esdraelon (comp. Hos. 1:4, 5).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(seed of God), a descendant of the father or founder of Etam, of the line of Judah. C. about 1445).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
JEZ'REEL (God hath planted, or scattered). A name in the genealogies of Judah. 1 Chr 4:3. The eldest son of the prophet Hosea. Hos 1:4.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
JEZ'REEL (God hath planted). A city in the plain of the same name between Gilboa and Little Hermon. It was a boundary of Issachar. Josh 19:18. Ahab chose it for his chief residence. The selection shows the ability of this wicked king. Near by were a temple and grove of Astarte, with an establishment of 400 priests supported bv Jezebel. 1 Kgs 18:19; 2 Kgs 10:11. The palace of Ahab, 1 Kgs 21:1; 1 Kgs 18:3, probably containing his "ivory house," 1 Kgs 22:39, was on the eastern side of the city. Comp. 1 Kgs 21:1; 2 Kgs 9:25, 2 Kgs 9:30, 2 Kgs 9:33.
Jezebel lived by the city wall, and had a high window facing eastward. 2 Kgs 9:30. It had a watch-tower, on which a sentinel stood. 2 Kgs 9:17. An ancient square tower, now among the hovels of the modern village, may be on its site. The gateway of the city on the east was also the gateway of the palace. 2 Kgs 9:34. The vineyard of Naboth was on the vineclad hill outside the city to the eastward, according to Baedeker; but this is not certain. " 1 Sam 29:1. After the fall of the house of Ahab, Jezreel also fell into a decline. It is now a miserable village of a dozen houses, and known as Zerin.
Around the village are many (some say 300) cisterns and subterranean granaries, but ruins of the ancient royal buildings have not been discovered. The ground would indicate that careful excavations might bring rich results. A town in Judah, in the neighborhood of the southern Carmel. Josh 15:56. Here David in his wanderings took Ahinoam the Jezreelitess for his second wife, 1 Sam 27:3; 1 Sam 30:5.
Schaff's Bible Dictionary
JEZ'REEL, VALLEY OF, a triangular plain of central Palestine, called by Josephus "the great plain," extending from the Mediterranean to the Jordan, and from the range of Carmel and Samaria to the mountains in Galilee. It is about 25 miles long from east to west, and 12 miles wide from north to south. It is a classic battle-field. 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.
It furnished the apostle with a mystic name for the final battle-field of the Almighty, Rev 16:14-16, and here Napoleon gained a fruitless victory over a Turkish army of 30,000. On the west side is a narrow pass, opening into the plain of 'Akka. 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.
; 1 Sam 29 and 1 Sam 31. The plain is noted for its wonderful richness. T. , but occurs in the Apocrypha. It is now uninhabited, and only a small portion is cultivated. "Next to the plain of Sharon," says Schaff, "it is the most fertile district of Palestine, looking in spring like a green velvet carpet, . . . " Dr. N. Macleod writes concerning the plain of Jezreel: "On or near the spot where Ahab's palace is likely to have stood is an ancient tower, built I know not when nor by whom.
We ascended to its upper story, and there, through three windows, opening to the east, west, and north, obtained an excellent view of all the interesting portions of the surrounding landscape. Beneath us lay the famous plain, a rolling sea of verdure, yet lonely-looking, being without inhabitants. We saw no villages or huts dotting its surface, not even a solitary horseman, but only troops of gazelles galloping away into the distance, and some birds of prey, apparently vultures, wheeling in the sky, and doubtless looking out for work from their masters, the Bedouins.
This green prairie stretches for upward of 20 miles toward the Mediterranean. It is the more striking from its contrast with the wild, bare hills among which we had been travelling, and with those which look down immediately upon it.