Jezreel
A town at the eastern end of the valley that bears its name, where the kings of Omri’s house had a residence. Naboth’s vineyard lay beside it, and here Jehu killed King Joram and Jezebel.
Jezreel lay north of Samaria, in the broad valley that takes its name. Ahab had a palace there, next to the vineyard of Naboth (1 Kings 21:1), and it was to Jezreel that he drove from Mount Carmel when the drought broke (1 Kings 18:45–46). King Joram was recovering there from his wounds when Jehu arrived, killed him and had Jezebel thrown from a window (2 Kings 9:15–37); see Jehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria. Hosea named a son Jezreel as a sign that the blood shed there would be avenged on Jehu’s house (Hosea 1:4).
What happened here
- 841 BC, firm dateJehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria
The army commander Jehu, anointed at Elisha’s word, kills the kings of Israel and Judah, Jezebel and the house of Ahab, and destroys the temple of Baal in Samaria. In the same year Assyrian records show him paying tribute to Shalmaneser III.