JEZREEL (⅛VT)> the well-known capital of the Israelite monarchy under Ahab. Its site has never been lost, and the present village Zerîn retains the name radically unchanged. In Greek the name appears under the form ’Εσδρατ/λά (Stradela in the Itiner. Hieros.), and to the crusaders the place was known as Parvum Gerinum. The modern village stands at the north extremity of a long ledge terminating in steep cliffs forming part of the chain of Mount Gilboa, east of the plain of Esdraelon. The top of the swell is 500 feet above the broad northern valley; the knoll on which the stone village is built is bare and rocky; the buildings are apparently modern, but numerous ancient cisterns and scattered sarcophagi, lying on the hill side, mark the antiquity of the site. The view over the plains from Beisân on the east to Carmel on the west, and from the Samaritan hills on the south to the mountains of Galilee on the north, is fine and extensive. No vineyards now exist, but rock-cut wine presses occur east of the village, perhaps marking the site of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings xxi. 1). The fountain mentioned in the Bible (I Sam. xxix. 1) is very probably the fine spring 'Ain el Meiyiteh north of the village, a shallow pool of good water full of small fish, rising between black basalt boulders. A very large spring, 'Ain Jâlùd or Jâlût (Yâkùt, iii. 760), exists in the valley of Jezreel (Josh. xvii. 16) north of the hill. A second city called Jezreel existed in the tribe of Judah, somewhere near Hebron (Josh. xv. 56).

a royal city of the kings of Israel, who sometimes resided here as well as at Samaria. Ahab, in particular, is known to have made this his residence; near to whose palace was the vineyard of the unfortunate Naboth. The name of Jezreel was by the Greeks moulded into that of Esdraela; which is described by Eusebius and Jerom, in the fourth century, as a considerable town. In like manner, the valley of Jezreel obtained the name of the valley or plain of Esdraelon; which is still described as very fertile, and much frequented by the Arabs for its fine pasturage. This is the largest, and at the same time the most fertile, plain in the land of Canaan; and is called, by way of eminence, the Great Plain. It may be estimated at thirty miles in length, and twenty in breadth. The river Kishon flows through it. See ESDRAELON.