Jezreel, Portion of (p^H), merely signifies the field or country adjoining the city, where the crime of Ahab had been perpetrated, and where its retribution was to be e?jacted (2 Kings ix, 10, 21, 3fi, 37 ; comp. ver. 25, 20). Naboth was stoned to death outside the city of Jezreel (1 Kings xxi, 13), and the dogs licked up Ahab's blood that was clotted in the bottom of his char- iot, before it was washed, near the pool of Samaria (1 King8xxii,35,.38); hence Schwarz (A(/e.< p. 165, note) proposes to render the exjiression CipTia TrX, "in the place where" (occurring in the sentence of retaliation, 1 Kings xxi, 19), as signifying " in punishment for tliat;" but this construction is not in accordance with the Ileb. idiom (sec Gesenius's Lex. s. v. Oip'O), and the other incidents furnish a suflicient- ly exact fullilment of the prediction (ste Clarke's Comment, ad loc).
Je/.reel, Tower of (^'^:i'2, Sept. tt/i - \ yof), was one of the turrets or bastions guan 1 1 ing the entrance to the city, and sentinell. M [ as usual by a watchman "(2 Kings ix, 171. I See aljuve,
Jezreel, Valley of (ppi;, Josh, xvi IG; Judg. vi. .33; IIos. i, .5). On the nortl ern side of the city, between the parall. ridges of Gilboa and Moreh (now called Join od-Duhy; sec Moueii\ lies a rich valley (.hence its name, God's seedinf/-j)kwt), an off-
fountain of Jezreel"), about a mile east of the city. (See above.) See Gideon. Two centuries later the Philis- tines took up the identical position formerly occupied by the Midianites, and the Israelites under Saul pitched on Gideon's old camping-ground by the " fountain of Jezreel" (1 Sam. xxix, 1-11). The Israelites were de- feated, and Said and Jonathan, with the flower of their troops, fell on the heights of Gilboa (xxxi, 1-6). — Kitto. See Saul.
In later ages the valley of Jezreel seems to have ex- tended its name to the whole of the wider plain of A'^- draclon, which continued to be the scene of the greatest military evolutions of Palestine. This latter is. indeed, the most extensive level in the Holy Land (jb irt^iov juEya simplv, 1 Mace, xii, 49; Josephus, Ant. xv, 1, 22; viii, 2, 3; xii, 8, 5; xv, 8, 5; War, iii, 3, 1; Life, 41; fully TO fi'tya TrtCiov 'EatprfKwfi, Judith i, 8). It is the modern Mei-j Ibn-Amir, by which the whole of the plain is known to the Arabs. It is also known in Scrip- ture as the^)^ai« of Merjiddo (2 Chron. xxxv, 22; Zcch. xii, 11), and the Armar/eddon of the Apocalypse (Rev. xvi, 16). It extends about thirty miles in length from east to west, and eighteen in breadth from north to south. It is bounded on the north by the mountains of Galilee, and on the south bj' those o^ Samaria; on the eastern part by Mount Tabor, the Little Hermon, and Gilboa; and on the west by Carmel, between which range and the mountains of Galilee is an outlet, where- by the river Kishon winds its way to the bay of Aero (see Robinson's Researches, iii, 160-162, 181, 227). Here, in the most fertile part of the land of Canaan (see Has- selquist, Trav. p. 176 ; Troilo, p. 545 ; Maundrell, p. 76 ; Schubert, iii, 1G3, 166), the tribe of Issachar rejoiced in their tents (Dent, xxxiii, 18). In the first ages of Jew- ish history, as well as during the Soman empire and the Crusades, and even in later times, this plain hag been the scene of many a memorable contest (see Rob-
Map of the Valley of Jezreel and Plain of Esdraelon.
JEZREEL
919
JIPHTHAH-EL
inson, Researches, ii, 233). The same plain was? the scene of the contlict of the Israelites and the Syrians (1 Kings XX, 26-30). Here also Josiah, king of Jndah, fought in disguise against Necho, king of Egypt, antl fell by the arrows of his antagonist (2 Kings xxiii, 29). Josephus often mentions this remarkable part of the Holy Land', and always (as above) under the ajipclla- tion of the Great Plain ; luidcr the same name it is also spoken of by Eusebius and Jerome (in the Oiiomust.). "It has been a chosen place for encampment," says Dr. E. Clarke, '■ in every contest from the days of Nabucha- donosor, king of the Assyrians, in the history of whose war with Arphaxad (Judith i, 8) it is mentioned as the great plain of Esdraelon, until the disastrous march of the late Napoleon Bonaparte from I'^gypt into Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christian crusaders, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, Arabs, and French, warriors out of ev.ery nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents in the plain of Esdraelon, and have beheld the various banners of their nation wet with the dev/s of Tabor and of Hermon." (For other notices of this place, see De Saulcy's Narralice, ii, 30G-3U.) This no- ble plain, like the greater portion of all the rich plains of Palestine and Syria, is in the hands of the govern- ment, and is only partially cultivated ; the soil is deep, of a ilark red color, inclined to be clayey, and cannot be surpassed in natural fertility (see Reland, Pakest. p. 366 sq. ; Ilamesveld, i, 418 sq.). Sec Esduaklox.
2. A town in the mountains of Judah, mentioned be- tween Juttah and Jokdeam (Josh, xv, 56), situated (ac- cording to the associated names) in the district south- east of Hebron, on the edge of the desert of Judah. It is possibly identical with the modern ruined site 'ZurM, which lies in a fertile region (Robinson, Researches, ii, 201), as the name Jezreel implies. See No. 3. It was probably this place (1 Sam. xxv, 43) from which came Ahinoam, one of David's wives (comp. the neighboring Carmel, where Abigail, his other wife, taken about the same time, resided), the Jkzukei.itess (n'^bx^'"iP, 1 Sam. xxvii, 3 ; xxx, 5 ; 2 Sam. ii, 2 ; iii, 2 ; 1 Chron. iii, 1). See AiiEz.