And the hand of the LORD was on Elijah;
and he girded up his loins, and ran
before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
1 Kings 18:46
Jezreel was the city fortress of Queen Jezebel. Some info on the latest dig there -
"King Ahab and Queen Jezebel reigned in Samaria, the new capital of the northern kingdom of Israel; it had been established as Israel’s capital by Ahab’s father, Omri, the founder of the dynasty.
Jezebel’s construction of a temple to the Canaanite-Phoenician deity Baal resulted in a long confrontation between Jezebel and Ahab, on the one hand, and the prophet Elijah.
The Phoenician princess, opponent of the God of Israel and his loyal prophets, the patron of the cult of Baal and the builder of Baal’s temple, the corrupt queen who framed the loyal citizen Naboth—Jezebel has become a symbol of everything bad.
A large fortified enclosure existed here in the ninth century B.C., during the reigns of Ahab and
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| Jezreel Today |
The rectangular fortified enclosure was built on a grand scale. It enclosed an area of nearly 11 acres!
The tower on the northeastern corner of the enclosure faces the Gilead Hills, where Jehu had been anointed king. We can assume that the “watchman” who discovered Jehu and his cavalry approaching Jezreel in a “furious” gallop stood on the roof of this tower.
An outer ring of fortifications, consisting of a rock-cut moat and rampart, surrounded the enclosure on three sides, all except the northern side, which faces the valley. In our sounding of this rock-cut moat (near the gate), it proved to be nearly 20 feet deep, and we assume that the entire moat was cut to roughly the same depth.
The southeastern tower of the enclosure was destroyed by fire. Layers of destruction debris filled the central room of the tower. Nine arrowheads—eight of iron and one of bronze—indicate that the enclosure was destroyed in an attack by a military force. All of the arrowheads were found on the southern side of the enclosure, in the vicinity of the gate. The historian Nadav Na’aman is probably right that the Jezreel enclosure was destroyed by the Aramean king Hazael in the second half of the ninth century B.C.
Jezreel was first and foremost a military base, possibly the military center of the Omride kings, while Samaria was the official, royal capital.
The agricultural installations ranged from small cup marks to large oil and wine presses, including one that may belong to the time of Naboth’s orchard, which King Ahab coveted and for which Jezebel had Naboth framed and executed.
The expedition’s survey archaeology revealed Jezreel to be much larger than previously thought.
Jezreel appears to consist of two sites, perhaps not physically connected but almost certainly politically connected. The other site, the Spring of Jezreel (1 Samuel 29:1), also known as Ein el-Meita, or “dead spring” in Arabic, is located a half mile northeast of the summit site.
The spring is dependent on the Gilboa mountain range aquifer, and its flow during various historical times has been irregular, probably giving rise to its Arabic name. In ancient times, however, the spring appears to have had a larger and steadier output, as attested by its prominent role in the Biblical narrative (1 Kings 21; 2 Kings 9).
All this new information taken together already seems to suggest that there was a lower city of Jezreel, in addition to the rather enigmatic Iron Age enclosure exposed in the 1990s dating to the period of Naboth, Ahab and Jezebel.
We can assume that the royal residence would have been built along the northern side of the enclosure, facing the slope and the breathtaking view, taking advantage of the refreshing northwestern breeze. It follows that the royal residence—assuming that there was indeed a royal residence here—was probably situated somewhere between the gate and the northern wall of the enclosure. Most probably, this is where Jezebel was killed.
Jezreel most probably served as a central base for Ahab’s cavalry and war chariot units, which formed the backbone of the Israelite army. Ahab’s army must have been large and strong, as we know not from the Bible but from the surviving records of the most powerful ruler in the world at that time: Shalmaneser III, king of Assyria. Shalmaneser’s annual military campaigns struck fear in nations all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. In 853 B.C., however, a coalition of 12 small states challenged the Assyrian army at Karkar in northern Syria. The coalition included the kingdom of Israel. Shalmaneser lists the military forces contributed by members of the coalition. Ahab’s was among the largest: According to Shalmaneser, the forces of “Ahab the Israelite” included 2,000 chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers.
Here is how Shalmaneser modestly describes himself:
[I am] Shalmaneser, the legitimate king, the king of the world, the king without rival, the ‘Great Dragon,’ the [only] power within the [four] rims [of the earth], overlord of all the princes, who has smashed all his enemies as if [they were] earthenware, the strong man, unsparing,
BiblicalArchaeologyReview
And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh
year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel,
that Shalmaneser king of Assyria
came up against Samaria, and besieged it.
2 Kings 18:9