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Jezreel

• Today Tel Yizre’el

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Events

1. 841 BCJehu seizes the throne of Israel at Jezreel

History

Jezreel stood on a low hill at the foot of Mount Gilboa, at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, above a spring; the site is Tel Jezreel, by the former village of Zer'in. The earliest finds on the site go back to the fifth millennium BC, and an unwalled village stood here in the Bronze Age. In Joshua, Jezreel lies on the border of Issachar. Before the battle of Gilboa the Israelites pitched "by a fountain which is in Jezreel", and Abner later made Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, king over Jezreel and all Israel.

Under the house of Omri, Jezreel was a royal residence. Elijah ran before Ahab's chariot to Jezreel. Next to Ahab's palace lay the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite; when Naboth would not sell it, Jezebel had him stoned on false witness, and Elijah foretold that dogs would eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Ahab's son Joram came back here to be healed of wounds from the war with Hazael of Syria. Jehu shot Joram in the field of Naboth, had Jezebel thrown down from a window and received in baskets the heads of Ahab's seventy sons. Hosea named his son Jezreel, for the LORD said, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu".

Excavations by David Ussishkin and John Woodhead in 1990–1996 uncovered a large rectangular royal enclosure of the Iron Age, with a casemate wall, corner towers, a gate and a moat. The excavators date it to the ninth century BC, the time of the Omride kings, and it was used only for a short time; its dating became part of the wider dispute over the chronology of Iron Age Israel. New excavations at the site began in 2012.

Later settlement was smaller. In the fourth century AD Eusebius knew Esdraela as a very large village in the Great Plain between Scythopolis and Legio, and the excavators found the remains of a Byzantine village on the mound.

Scripture: Josh 19:18; 1 Sam 29:1; 2 Sam 2:8–9; 1 Kgs 18:45–46; 1 Kgs 21:1–16; 1 Kgs 21:23; 2 Kgs 8:29; 2 Kgs 9:21–24; 2 Kgs 9:30–37; 2 Kgs 10:7; Hos 1:4

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (29)

Josh 19:18

And their border was toward Jezreel, and Chesulloth, and Shunem,

1 Sam 29:1

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel.

1 Sam 29:11

So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

2 Sam 2:9

And made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

2 Sam 4:4

And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

1 Kgs 4:12

Baana the son of Ahilud; to him pertained Taanach and Megiddo, and all Beth-shean, which is by Zartanah beneath Jezreel, from Beth-shean to Abel-meholah, even unto the place that is beyond Jokneam:

1 Kgs 18:45

And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel.

1 Kgs 18:46

And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

1 Kgs 21:1

And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

1 Kgs 21:18

Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.

1 Kgs 21:23

And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

2 Kgs 8:29

And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

2 Kgs 9:10

And the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her. And he opened the door, and fled.

2 Kgs 9:15

But king Joram was returned to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria.) And Jehu said, If it be your minds, then let none go forth nor escape out of the city to go to tell it in Jezreel.

2 Kgs 9:16

So Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah king of Judah was come down to see Joram.

2 Kgs 9:17

And there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace?

2 Kgs 9:21

And Joram said, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite.

2 Kgs 9:25

Then said Jehu to Bidkar his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remember how that, when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him;

2 Kgs 9:30

And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.

2 Kgs 9:36

Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:

2 Kgs 9:37

And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.

2 Kgs 10:1

And Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. And Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, unto the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to them that brought up Ahab’s children, saying,

2 Kgs 10:6

Then he wrote a letter the second time to them, saying, If ye be mine, and if ye will hearken unto my voice, take ye the heads of the men your master’s sons, and come to me to Jezreel by to morrow this time. Now the king’s sons, being seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, which brought them up.

2 Kgs 10:7

And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.

2 Kgs 10:11

So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.

2 Chr 22:6

And he returned to be healed in Jezreel because of the wounds which were given him at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreel, because he was sick.

Hos 1:4

And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Hos 1:11

Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Hos 2:22

And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

King James Version

Tours through this place

• Elijah the prophet →
• Jehu →