IEZRAEL («God sows», an allusion to the fertility of the soil). — A city in the territory of Issachar (Jos. 19:18), fortified with walls, towers, and gates (2 Kgs. 9:17; 10:8) at the foot of Mount Gilboa and not far from Beth-shan (1 Sam. 31:1, 10).
Before the battle of Gilboa, King Saul encamped with his army “by the spring near Iezrael,” while the Philistines were dispersed at Shunem in the region of Iezrael (1 Sam. 29:11; 2 Sam. 4:4). Chosen as a secondary capital by the house of Omri (q.v.), King Ahab built a palace to the east of the city, adjoining a vineyard whose owner, Naboth, refused to surrender II. At Jezebel’s instigation, Naboth was condemned and put to death (1 Kgs. 21). Later, as the prophet Elijah had foretold, the unjustly acquired possession became the scene of Jezebel’s death and of the entire royal family (2 Kgs. 9:25, 30). After the great slaughter carried out by Jehu, the city no longer appears in Israelite history. In the 4th century A.D. it was a large village (Onom., 108:13), identified with modern Zer‘in, the Arabic name of the Crusader village called Parvum Gerinum, 11 km south of Jenin, Magnum Gerinum. The village on the hill meets the requirements of the biblical account; the view extends over the plain of Esdraelon (q.v.) and the Jordan Valley; it lies at the foot of Mount Gilboa (Jebel Fuqū‘ah) on the road to Beth-shan and near the abundant spring of ‘Ayn Jālūd. To the east of the city there must have been vineyards, as shown by ancient rock-cut presses; in the village are various fragments from the Roman period as well as from the third phase of the Bronze Age.