The place contains little of interest and no antiquities. There are numerous broken cisterns among the houses ; and Guferin found a white marble sarcophagus \V. of the town (Samarie, i. 311 ; PEF Mem. ii. 131). The one conspicuous building is a large square tower, of no great age, now commonly used as a meddfeh or place for the entertainment of guests. From the top of this structure a magnificent view is obtained, including the great plain in its whole extent, and every point of importance around it, with the single exception of^ Tabor. S. and S.E. runs the high barren wall of Gilboa, with its memories of humiliation and defeat for Israel. From Eii- gannim (Jenln), its white domes and minarets glancing amid the greenery of its sheltered nook, the Samaritan mountains rising behind, the eye ranges along the edge of the plain to Mefjiddo (Khdn Lejjun), and thence to the bushy heights of Carmel, the rou"h crest of el-3Ta(trnkah, the place of Elijah's oumt-offering showing clear against the sky. Cut off from the mountain on the north by the gorge of the Kishon, low oak-clad hills divide the plain of Acre from Esdraelon, and, sweeping rouna eastward in more fertile slopes, drop in precipitous cliffs upon the plain just south of Nazareth, the highest of whose white houses one may descry, with the dark uplands of Galilee beyond. Mt. 'fabor is hidden by the shapely mass of Jebel Duhy, the hill of Moreh, crowned by its ■wely, with Shunem, Nain, and Endor clingiu" to its sides. Far down the broad and fertile vale of Jezreel as it slopes to the Jordan Valley, we catch a glimpse of the citadel of Beisdn ; and across the Ghor the view is barred by the steep and rugged mountains of GUe.ad.
Besides the cisterns mentioned above, Jezreel was well situated for water supply. Bir es-Suweid lies to the N. of the town ; and at the base of the cliffs to the E. the waters of el-'Ain el-Meiyiteh, ' the dead spring,' form quite a considerable stream. The fountain is so named because once it dried up. After deep digging the waters flowed again ; the pit was filled with loose gravel, and since then the supply has been continuous. About a mile farther E., in a cave at the base of Gilboa, a still more copious spring bursts forth, the stream from which is strong enough to turn a mill. This is probably the fountain wliere the Israelites encamped before the disastrous battle of Gilboa (1 S 29'). It is also with some likelihood identified with the spring of llarod (Jg 7'). The native name, 'Ain JalHd or Jali'it (Arab, for Goliath), seems due to some con- fusion with the scene of David's encounter with the giant. 'Here is the plain where David slew Goliath,' says the Bordeaux Pilgrim ; but beyond this, says Robinson, no trace of the tradition is to
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JEZREEL
JOAB
be found. The fountain which the Crusaders knew as Tuinna was doubtless the spring VI in Juba'tUt, some little distance oB, surrounded by marshy (jround. The water is slightly reddish in colour. Conder suggests that this uuij- represent the Tal- niudii- Tuitnia (Tosephta, Sheviith, cli. vU. ; PEF Mem. iii. 79). The water of all these fountains is sweet, and abounds in small lish : on this was founded the legend of the Crusading army being miraculously supplied with fish for some days (William of Tyre, xxii. 27).
Jezieel is first mentioned in marking out the lot of Is.«iacliar (Jos 19"). It, with its district, re- mained faithful to the family of Saul, after the disa.'iter at Gil boa (2 S '2''). The days of its greatest [irosperity dawned when Aliab and Jezebel, fas- cinated no doubt by the beauty of the place and its surroundings, cliose it as a royal residence. The palace stood on the E. side or the city, the harem being close by the gate, with windows overloDking the road leading thither (2 K Q*"-"). A tower conmianding a view of the approach from Jordan, up the vale of Jezreel, also formed part of the building [ib. 9"). This was most necessary to guard against surprise ; as then, and until com- paratirely recent times, the hordes of the East came this way in making their inroads upon the fruitful land of Esdraelon. An object of special admiration was the house of ivory built by the king, an evidence also of the luxury in which tlie royal pair indulged (1 K 2-239; ^f. Am 3"> 6*). The establishment of idolatrous priests must also have been large ( 1 K 16»», 2 K 10"). Hither drove Aliab from Curmel through the storm, preceded by the stem, swift- footed Tishbite (IK 18" •■«). Here was the vineyard of Nahoth the Jezreelite ("S;")' ?), coveted by Aliab {ib. 21'). Probably it lay E.' of the town, where wine-presses cut in the rock are still to be seen (2 K 9-i- =»). Whether this city or Samaria was the scene of Jezebel's outrage upon Naboth and his sons (1 K 2P-''', 2 K 9=") is in some doubt. If Ahab's blood was licked by the dogs at Samaria, that would point to the southern city as the scene of Naboth's execution (1 K 22''). On the other hand, the natural sense of 1 K 21 seems to place it at Jezreel ; and with this Josephus agrees {Ant. VIU. xv. 6).* Joram, succeeding his father Ahab, maintained Jezreel as a royal resi- dence ; and here he was visited by his kinsman Ahaziah king of Judah (2 Iv 8=*). These two were together when surprised by the newly anointed Jehu, who slew Joram and cast his body into the plot of Naboth : Ahaziah tied, but was wounded, and died at Megiddo (2 K 9"). Here Jezebel also suflered miserably for her ofiences, being at the conqueror's command liurled from the window into the courtyard, where she was de- voured by the pariah do"s (2 IC 9*'""). By the gateway of Jezreel were piled the heads of Aliab's 70 sons, brouglit hither by Jehu's orders from Samaria (2 K 10') ; then the town became the ecene of one of those sickening massacres which so often stain the records of Oriental monarchies : all who might be suspected of sympathy with the house of Ahab, ' his great men, his familiar friends, and his priests,' were relentlessly done to death {ib. 10"). The prosperity of jezreel seems to have ended >vith the downfall of the house of Ahab, and its name is seen no more in the sacred books, save only in Hos l^*- ", where it occurs with a symbolic significance. (See HosEA).