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•JEZREEL, FOUNTAIN OF 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.”‌‌‌‌

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

•JEZREEL, TOWER OF one of the turrets which guarded the entrance to the city (2 Kings 9:17).

•JEZREEL, VALLEY OF 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; Hos. 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).

•JOAB Jehovah is his father. (1.) One of the three sons of Zeruiah, David’s sister, and “captain of the host” during the whole of David’s reign (2 Samuel 2:13; 10:7; 11:1; 1 Kings 11:15). His father’s name is nowhere mentioned, although his sepulchre at Bethlehem is mentioned (2 Samuel

2:32). His two brothers were Abishai and Asahel, the swift of foot, who was killed by Abner (2 Samuel 2:13-32), whom Joab afterwards treacherously murdered (3:22-27). He afterwards led the assault at the storming of the fortress on Mount Zion, and for this service was raised to the rank of “prince of the king’s army” (2 Samuel 5:6-10; 1 Chronicles 27:34). His chief military achievements were, (1) against the allied forces of Syria and Ammon; (2) against Edom (1 Kings 11:15, 16); and (3) against

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