JEZEBEL: Wife of Ahab, seventh king of Israel.
She was a daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, and
one of the most unscrupulous yet energetic queens
of history. She seems to have swayed the mind of
her husband, and where he was weak and vacillating,
she supplied courage and resolution. She established
the worship of the Phenician Baal in the
kingdom, and, while supporting at her own table
the priests of Baal, persecuted the prophets of Israel
(I Kings xviii. 4), and vowed vengeance upon Elijah
(I Kings xix. 2). When her husband despaired of
getting Naboth's vineyard, she ordered the judicial
murder of Naboth and secured for her husband the
coveted possession (I Kings xxi. 5). She survived
Ahab fourteen years, but continued to have great
influence at court, and saw her daughter Athaliah
married to the king of Judah (II Kings viii. 26).
When Jehu drove into Jezreel, with the design of extirpating
the house of Ahab, Jezebel was thrown
from the upper story of the palace to death on the
atones beneath. Her body was crushed under Jehu's
chariot-wheels, and, according to
II Kings ix. 30-35, devoured by dogs. See
AHAB; and
ELIJAH.
BLIOGRAPHY:
Consult, besides the pertinent sections in the
works named under AHAB:
DB, ii. 656-657; EB, ii. 2457;
JE, vii. 186.
JEZREEL: A plain mentioned
Josh. xvii. 16;
Judges vi. 33;
Hos, i. 5, etc. The name ("God
sows") denotes the fruitfulness of the plain as
something unusual, extraordinary, and wrought
by God, and indicates that from the moat ancient
times agriculture was adequately recompensed in
the region. Jezreel is the largest plain in the
mountain land of Israel, and is therefore called
the "valley" (Judges v. 15;
I Sam. xxxi. 7), and
"the great plain" (I Macc. xii. 49). It was of
great significance in commerce, and the road from
Egypt led by three branches to the southern edge
of the plain and continued northwest to the coast,
northeast to Tabor and Damascus, while the eastern
edge was crossed by the road from Samaria to Galilee.
This made it a continual cause of strife. The
Israelites first gained possession of it by the victory
of Barak and Deborah (Judges v.), though the
Canaanites retained possession of Megiddo, Ibleam,
Taanach, and Dor until the time of the kings
(Judges i. 27).
To Manasseh belonged the southern portion
(Josh. xvii. i1-13), to Issachar the eastern part
(Josh. xix. 18-20), while Zebulun was on the north
(Josh. xix. 10 sqq.). The Israelites under Saul and
Jonathan sustained a defeat beneath Gilboa
(I Sam. xxxi.);
Ahab defeated Ben-hadad II. near Aphek
(I. Kings xx 26);
and Josiah was defeated by Necho
II. at Megiddo (II Kings xxiii. 29). The city of
Jezreel, belonging to Issachar, was situated on the
plain, at the foot of Gilboa (Josh. xix. 18), above
Beth-shean (I Kings iv. 12), not far from Carmel
(
I Kings xviii. 45), and was the home of Ahab and
Naboth (
I Kings xxi. 1) and the scene of Jehu's
exploit (
II Kings ix. 17 sqq.). It is called Esdraelon in
Judith, iii. 9, iv. 6, and in later times, as in
the
Onomasticon of Eusebius; the modern village
Zer'in has preserved the name. There were other
places of note on the plain. Josephus (
Ant. XX., vi.
1) mentions Ginaea, the modern Jenin, the old Engannim of
Josh. xix. 21. Taanach of
Judges v. 19
is the modern Ta'annuk. The city of Megiddo lay
on the south border of the plain, and appears as
the Egyptian Maketi and as Magidda in the Amarna
Tablets; it was a royal Canaanitic city, and was refortified
by Solomon. In the western part lay the
village of Nein, to be identified with the Nain of
Luke vii. 11 aqq. The modern Endur bespeaks the
ancient En-dor of
Josh. xvii. 11, south of which is
Sulem, the Shunem of
Josh. xix. 18. Aphek must
be sought not far from the city of Jezreel, possibly
in the ruins of the modern El-Fule.
(H. GUTHE.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the
Holy Land, chap. xix., London, 1897; H. Reland, Palästina,
pp. 359-370, Utrecht, 1714; C. Ritter, Comparative
Geography of Palestine, ii 314-315, 317 322, iv. 333, 343-350,
Edinburgh, 1888; G. Ebers and H. Guthe, Palästina
in Bild und Wort, i. 275-290, Stuttgart, 1883; W. M.
Thomson, The Land and the Book, ii, 177-191, New York,
1886; W. M. Müller, Asien und Europa, pp, 157-158, 167,
Leipsic, 1893; F. Buhl, Geographie des alten Palästina,
pp. 106 sqq., 204 sqq., Tübingen, 1896; Robinson:
Researches, iii. 161-168; Schürer, Geschichte, i. 494-495,
Eng, transl., I., ii. 89; DB, ii. 657-658; EB, ii. 2458-2460,
JE, vii. 1868-187.
