Jezreel: God scatters.1. A town of Issachar
(Joshua 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.
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 1:4,5)
