- JEZREEL, BLOOD OF the murder perpetrated here by Ahab and Jehu
(Hos. 1:4; comp. 1 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 9:6-10). - JEZREEL, DAY OF the time predicted for the execution of vengeance for
the deeds of blood committed there (Hos. 1:5). - JEZREEL, DITCH OF (1 Kings 21:23; comp. 13), the fortification
surrounding the city, outside of which Naboth was executed. - JEZREEL, FOUNTAIN OF where Saul encamped before the battle of
Gilboa (1 Samuel 29:1). In the valley under Zerin there are two
considerable springs, one of which, perhaps that here referred to, “flows
from under a sort of cavern in the wall of conglomerate rock which here
forms the base of Gilboa. The water is excellent; and issuing from crevices
in the rocks, it spreads out at once into a fine limpid pool forty or fifty
feet in diameter, full of fish” (Robinson). This may be identical with the
“well of Harod” (Judges 7:1; comp. 2 Samuel 23:25), probably the ‘Ain
Jalud, i.e., the “spring of Goliath.” - JEZREEL, PORTION OF the field adjoining the city (2 Kings 9:10, 21,
36, 37). Here Naboth was stoned to death (1 Kings 21:13). - JEZREEL, TOWER OF one of the turrets which guarded the entrance to
the city (2 Kings 9:17). - JEZREEL, VALLEY OF lying on the northern side of the city, between
the ridges of Gilboa and Moreh, an offshoot of Esdraelon, running east to
the Jordan (Joshua 17:16; Judges 6:33; Hos. 1:5). It was the scene of the
signal victory gained by the Israelites under Gideon over the Midianites,
the Amalekites, and the “children of the east” (Judges 6:3). Two centuries
after this the Israelites were here defeated by the Philistines, and Saul and
Jonathan, with the flower of the army of Israel, fell (1 Samuel 31:1-6).
This name was in after ages extended to the whole of the plain of
Esdraelon (q.v.). It was only this plain of Jezreel and that north of Lake
Huleh that were then accessible to the chariots of the Canaanites (comp. 2
Kings 9:21; 10:15).
- JOAB Jehovah is his father. (1.) One of the three sons of Zeruiah,
David’s sister, and “captain of the host” during the whole of David’s reign
(2 Samuel 2:13; 10:7; 11:1; 1 Kings 11:15). His father’s name is nowhere
mentioned, although his sepulchre at Bethlehem is mentioned (2 Samuel