Jezreel

Easton, 1897

God scatters. (1.) A town of Issachar (Joshua 19:18), where the kings of Israel often resided (1 Kings 18:45; 1 Kings 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; 2 Kings 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.

(2.) A town in Judah (Joshua 15:56), to the south-east of Hebron. Ahinoam, one of David's wives, probably belonged to this place (1 Samuel 27:3).

(3.) A symbolical name given by Hosea to his oldest son (Hosea 1:4), in token of a great slaughter predicted by him, like that which had formerly taken place in the plain of Esdraelon (comp. Hosea 1:4, Hosea 1:5).