Jezreel

Meaning: God scatters

This was the name of two towns and two men.

1. A town of Issachar (Josh. 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 (Josh. 15:56), to the southeast of Hebron. Ahinoam, one of David's wives, probably belonged to this place (1 Sam. 27:3).

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

Author: Matthew G. Easton.

4. A man of Judah named Jezreel was the son of Etam. His brothers were Ishma and Idbash, and his sister was Hazelelponi (1 Chronicles 4:3).