King James Bible Dictionary

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).

1. A city in southern Judah
Joshua 15:56; 1 Samuel 25:43; 1 Samuel 27:3; 1 Samuel 29:1; 1 Samuel 29:11

2. A city of Issachar

General references
Joshua 19:18; 2 Samuel 2:9

Ahab's residence in
1 Kings 18:45-46; 1 Kings 21:1

Naboth's vineyard in
1 Kings 21:1

Joram's residence in
2 Kings 8:29

Jehu kills King Ahab, his wife, and friends at
2 Kings 9:15-37; 2 Kings 10:11

Prophecies concerning
Hosea 1:4-5; Hosea 1:11

3. A valley
Joshua 17:16

Place of Gideon's battle with the Midianites
Judges 6:33

Place of the defeat of the Israelites under Saul and Jonathan
1 Samuel 29:1; 1 Samuel 29:11; 1 Samuel 31:1-6; 2 Samuel 4:4

4. A descendant of Etam
1 Chronicles 4:3

5. Figurative of Israel
Hosea 1:4-5; Hosea 1:11

1. (seed of God), a descendant of the father or founder of Etam, of the line of Judah. (1 Chronicles 4:3) (B.C. about 1445).
2. 

1. A city situated in the plain of the same name between Gilboa and Little Hermon, now generally called Esdr'lon. [ESDR'LON] It appears in (Joshua 19:18) but its historical importance dates from the reign of Ahab, B.C. 918-897, who chose it for his chief residence. The situation of the modern village of Zerin still remains to show the fitness of his choice. Int he neighborhood, or within the town probably, were a temple and grove of Eastward, with an establishment of 400 priests supported by Jezebel. (1 Kings 16:33; 2 Kings 10:11) The palace of Ahab, (1 Kings 21:1; 18:46) probably containing his "ivory house," (1 Kings 22:39) was on the eastern side of the city, forming part of the city wall. Comp. (1 Kings 21:1; 2 Kings 9:25,30,33) Whether the vineyard of Naboth was here or at Samaria is a doubtful question. Still in the same eastern direction are two springs, one 12 minutes from the town, the other 20 minutes. The latter, probably from both its size and its situation, was known as "the spring of Jezreel." With the fall of the house of Ahab the glory of Jezreel departed.
2. A town in Judah, in the neighborhood of the southern Carmel. (Joshua 15:56) Here David in his wanderings took Ahinoam the Isr'lites for his first wife. (1 Samuel 27:3; 30:5)
3. The eldest son of the prophet Hosea. (Hosea 1:4)

The murder perpetrated here by Ahab and Jehu (Hosea 1:4; comp. 1 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 9:6-10).

The time predicted for the execution of vengeance for the deeds of blood committed there (Hosea 1:5).

(1 Kings 21:23; comp. 13), the fortification surrounding the city, outside of which Naboth was executed.

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."

The field adjoining the city (2 Kings 9:10, 21, 36, 37). Here Naboth was stoned to death (1 Kings 21:13).

One of the turrets which guarded the entrance to the city (2 Kings 9:17).

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; Hosea 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).

a woman of Jezreel. (1 Samuel 27:3; 30:5; 2 Samuel 2:2; 3:2; 1 Chronicles 3:1)