What is the meaning of Jezreel?

2, 3. Symbolical name both of the son of Hosea and of Israel. Hosea 1:4, 11. Jezreel is interpreted both 'God scatters' and 'God sows.' Hosea 1:4 refers to judgement upon the house of Jehu and the house of Israel; and Hosea 1:11 to blessing, when of both Israel and Judah it will be said, "Ye are the sons of the living God." Then "great shall be the day of Jezreel:" cf. Hosea 2:22-23; "I will sow her unto me in the earth." Then God will say to her, "Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God."

Jez’re el - It will be sown of God

Jez’re el ite-s - patronymic of Jezreel

Jez’re el i tess - feminine of Jezreelite

The Lord commands him to call this son "Jezreel." Jezreel has likewise a symbolical meaning. It means "God shall scatter" (Jer. 31:10); but it also means "God shall sow" (Zech. 10:9). Thus Israel was to be scattered and sown among the nations. Jezreel was the valley in which Jehu executed his bloody deeds. On account of his hypocritical zeal, the blood of Jezreel is now to be avenged, and the kingdom of the house of Israel would cease. Thus the name Jezreel (resembling in sound and form " Israel ") indicates the speedy end of Israel, scattered and sown among the nations, on account of their whoredoms (see Ezek. 23).

Jezreel, "God will sow," affirms. "I will sow her to Me in the earth," He says in Hosea 2:23 "Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the earth with fruit" (Isa. 27:6.) Then we have their worship as they realize what God has wrought, in —

"Now we know, from the New Testament," says a recent writer, "that in that day, 'the heavens' will be occupied by Christ and His glorified saints. Jehovah will hear the heavens, 'and they shall hear the earth.' Christ, in whom all things, both in heaven and earth, will then be gathered, will be the One to whom prayer shall be addressed from all on earth, even as it will be through Him, and His glorified saints, that blessing will be universally administered. 'And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil.' No want, no scarcity, even then. The voice of complaining will have ceased to be heard in the streets. Creation's universal groan will have been hushed; yea, it will have given place to universal hymns of gratitude and praise. 'And they shall hear Jezreel.' Now, Jezreel, as scholars tell us, means 'the seed of God'; and this interpretation of the word is confirmed by what immediately follows, 'I will sow her [Israel] unto me in the earth.' . . . . There shall be one unbroken chain of blessing, from the throne of Jehovah, the great source of all, down to the enjoyment by mankind of all the blessings of this life and the place in this wondrous chain filled by restored Israel, is that of Jezreel, the seed of God, sown by Jehovah, and to Him, in the earth, and filling the face of the world with fruit. Jehovah - the heavens, occupied by Christ and the church in glory - the earth - restored Israel, or Jezreel, the seed of God - universal blessing on the earth, even to the abundance of corn, and wine, and oil, while war and violence are at an end; 'And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.' Praise, eternal praise to Him who alone doeth wondrous things! Let the whole earth be filled with His glory."

Thus there is a total reversal of what Satan had done by sin throughout the universe, but especially in view of Israel; so that the names of the first chapter, which then betokened divine judgment, are now converted into mercy and blessing. "The earth [or land] shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel," as Israel is styled, the seed of God. Lo-ruhamah God calls Ruhamah; and to Lo-ammi He says, "Ammi thou." No doubt there is an allusion in Jezreel to their antecedent dispersion; in no way to anything Israel has been during their days of shame and sorrow, but rather to a fresh sowing of them in the land by Jehovah's grace to His glory. The proper fulfilment of this (whatever be the verification of its principle in the Christian remnant, as we see in 1 Peter 2) awaits the future and manifest kingdom of Jehovah and His Anointed. Then, not in pledge but in fulness, will it be seen by all the world that Hosea has not written in vain: "I will sow her to me in the earth." It is granted that Jehovah intends to take all the earth under His manifest sway (Ps. 2, Zech. 14), but a great mistake that "the land" will not have a central place in this vast scheme of earthly blessing. The church will be the New Jerusalem, the heavenly metropolis, coming down from God out of heaven, to which she properly belongs as the bride of the Lamb. But the earth is to be blessed, and pre-eminently the land of Israel under Christ's glorious reign; for the divine purpose is to sum up all things in Him in whom we have obtained an inheritance — all things, whether they be things in heaven or things on earth. He, the Son in a way quite unique, is Heir of all in the truest and fullest sense, and the kingdom at His coming will display what faith believes while it is unseen.

The first chapter mainly consists of symbolic action, which represents the course of God's purposes. "The beginning of the word of Jehovah by Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take to thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land has committed great whoredom, departing from Jehovah." Nothing can be more evident than this declared object. The prophet is commanded to do that which was necessarily most painful in itself, and suggestive of what he as a man of God must have felt to be humbling as well as repulsive. But such was the attitude of Israel to their God, and Jehovah would make the prophet and those who heeded the prophecy to understand in measure what He must feel as to His people. "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. And Jehovah said to him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." This was the first great blow. Israel was to be smitten in the house of Jehu, the avenger of the blood-guiltiness that had been brought in by the idolatrous Jezebel. Jehu was a rough man, vain and ambitious, suited notwithstanding to deal in his rude fashion with that which had dishonoured Jehovah — a man far enough outside the current of the feelings of the Spirit of God, but none the less employed in an external way to deal with the evident and open evil of Ahab's house and Israel.

Nevertheless this, as it had no root in God, so it had no strength to maintain itself against other evils. Hence, although it suited the policy of Jehu to deal with certain gross idolatries, the political-religious evil that characterized the kingdom of Israel seemed necessary to sustain him against the house of David. Consequently, as he had no conscience as to the sin of Jeroboam, this was judged of Jehovah in due time. God smote not only Jehu's house, but Israel. The kingdom was to pass, though it might linger for a little while afterwards; but it was smitten of God. This is what is represented by Jezreel. God would scatter in due time. The Assyrian broke the power of Israel in the valley of Jezreel (afterwards called Esdraelon), a scene of covetousness and blood from first to last.

Jezreel, formerly a witness of the execution of God's judgment on the house of Ahab, should be so now of the ruin of all Israel.

God, in His righteous judgment, while using Jehu to deal with the wicked house of Ahab is not unmindful of the mixed motives that energised Jehu, and the fact that in carrying out the vengeance of the Lord, he was simply indulging his own cruel heart for his own ends. If God has to deal in judgment, it is His strange work. If Jehu undertakes to deal with evil, it is to him a congenial task. Hence it is that while God uses Jehu to execute judgment on Jezreel, yet He says, by the prophet Hosea, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu; and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel" (Hosea 1:4).

It is not a little remarkable that after the earth has called to the heavens, and has itself responded to the call of the corn, wine and oil, there is a place which in its turn calls to the fruits of the earth, in order to complete the chain of blessedness. Evidently, here "Jezreel" is symbolic, though the name is found frequently in its mere historical import. But I doubt if any name is used symbolically without being either then or previously found in connection with circumstances which intimate its symbolic significance. Naboth's vineyard was in Jezreel. Ahab coveted and Jezebel procured it for him by slaying the owner — murder and robbery which God avenged by the hand of Jehu. But Jehu was a bad man, and gratified his own ambition under pretended zeal for Jehovah. Hence even the blood of Jezreel will be avenged upon the house of Jehu. So Babylon was God's instrument of wrath upon Judah, but she served herself and was proud against Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and therefore she comes under righteous judgment. "And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith Jehovah" (see Jer. 50 and 51). In like manner Jehu was the executor of righteous judgment against the house of Ahab, but he was proud against Jehovah, and judgment overtakes him.

Here Jezreel is the name applied to the whole land, it had all become polluted with blood and oppression. "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood and the city of perverseness" — or wresting of judgment (see Mark; Ezek. 9:9). In the prophet's day the whole land was characterised by the crimes which made Jezreel prominent in the days of Ahab, and in judgment Jehovah takes away His blessings. "Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof." But in "that day," the day of the reversal of judgment, the place where the heaviest judgment fell shall be cleansed from its iniquity, the curse of innocent blood shall be taken away, yea, the slain of the polluted blood of the house of Ahab shall be obliterated. In "that day" not only shall the earth be delivered from bondage, but mercy will rejoice against judgment, and Jezreel too, the defiled and forsaken, shall flourish again even more abundantly than before.