Conder found numerous rock-cut sepulchres burrowing under the houses; and he thinks that some of them are probably those of the early kings of Israel, before the royal family began to be buried in Samaria.
Jezreel is now called Zerin, and the site of Ahab’s palace is now a village, surrounded by heaps of rubbish. The position of Zerin is remarkable. On the south the ground slopes gently upwards towards the site, and on the west also the place is accessible. But on the north the ground is extremely rugged and falls rapidly, and on the east occurs a saddle separating the high point on which the town stands from the Gilboa chain, the road ascending from the valley and the neighbourhood of ’Ain Jalud. The top of the hill is 284 feet above this spring, which is visible beneath. Thus the site is naturally strong, except on the south-west. It is conspicuous from the plain, and it commands a view down the valley to Beisan and the trans-Jordanic ranges. Major Conder, climbing up to the village, was struck by the absence of any traces of antiquity. But the houses stand on a mound of rubbish, and in this a great number of ruined cisterns exist.
Ahab from his palace in Jezreel looked down upon Naboth’s vineyard. There seem to be no vineyards in the neighbourhood now; but on the east and south-east there are rock-cut wine-presses on the rugged hills, where no doubt the “portion of the field of Naboth” and his vineyard are to be placed. The commanding position of the place would also enable Joram’s watchmen, looking down the Valley of Jezreel, to observe the two horsemen sent forward by Jehu coming up from Bethshan—the dust raised, the gleam of their armour—and Jehu himself following and “driving furiously.” It was by “the fountain which is in Jezreel” that Saul had pitched before the fatal battle of Gilboa.
Here at Jezreel, with Mount Carmel in the distance, we are reminded that the sacrifice which Elijah offered did not take place on the point of Mount Carmel nearest the sea, as commonly imagined, but much nearer to Jezreel, on a part of the range where our explorers discovered a perennial spring, that would supply the prophet with water when the rest of the country was dry. Stationed at this spot, he might see the palace of Jezebel in the city of Jezreel. From this position he sent his servant a few minutes’ distance, to the highest point of the range, where he could overlook the sea and perceive the little cloud rising. Then said Elijah, “Get thee down, Ahab, there is a sound of abundance of rain”—get thee down Ahab, or the river of Kishon will sweep thee away! Elijah himself, amidst the rushing storm, ran before the chariot of the monarch, down the slope, and as far as the entrance of Jezreel. And soon thereafter, fearing Jezebel’s threats, he journeyed swiftly by the north and south road, nor stopped till he got to Beersheba. This is the extremity of Judah, and here he leaves his servant behind him and plunges into the wilderness, for he is going to “Horeb, the Mount of God,” to seek a revelation.
Elijah was commissioned to call Elisha to be his successor; and Elisha in his turn made frequent resort to Mount Carmel. When the Shunamite woman came to him there, her journey lay across the plain, and he could see her approaching (2 Kings iv. 24). Shunem, now called Sulem, stands on the southern slope of Neby Duhy (Little Hermon), and is only a mud hamlet, with cactus hedges and a spring. West of the houses there is a beautiful garden, cool and shady, of lemon trees, watered by a little rivulet, and in the village is a fountain and trough. Westward the view extends as far as Carmel, 15 miles away. Thus the whole extent of the ride of the Shunamite woman, under the burning noon-tide sun of harvest-time, is visible. Conder remarks that if the houses of that time were no larger than the mud-cabins of the modern village, it was not a great architectural undertaking to build a little chamber for the prophet; and the enumeration of the simple furniture of that chamber—the bed (perhaps only a straw mat), the table, the stool, and the lamp—seems to indicate that it was only a little hut that was intended. Another point may be noted: how came it that Elisha so constantly passed by Shunem? The answer seems simple; he lived habitually on Carmel, but he was a native of Abel Meholah, “the Meadow of Circles,” a place now called ’Ain Helweh, in the Jordan Valley, to which the direct road led past Shunem down the Valley of Jezreel.
Before we leave the Plain of Esdraelon, which is also called the Plain of Megiddo—and because of its typical character as the field of great battles, is used in the Apocalypse as the scene of the great final struggle, Ar-Mageddon-—let us glance at the fruitless effort of Josiah, king of Judah, to stop the march of Pharaoh Necho. It was in the last days of the Jewish monarchy, when the northern kingdom had been already destroyed, that Palestine was first exposed to the disastrous fate which involved her in so long a series of troubles from this time forward—that of being the debatable ground between Egypt and the further East; first under the Pharaohs and the rulers of Babylon; then under the Ptolemies and Seleucidae. “In the days of Josiah, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates” (2 Kings xxiii. 29), possibly landing his army at Accho (says Dean Stanley), more probably, as the expression seems to indicate, following the track of his predecessor Psammetichus, and advancing up the maritime plain till he turned into the plain of Esdraelon, thence to penetrate into the passes of the Lebanon. King Josiah, in self-defence, and perhaps as an ally of the Assyrian king, went against him. Josiah would march by the watershed road, northward from Jerusalem, and descend into the plain, perhaps by Dothan. The engagement took place in “the Valley of Megiddo” (2 Chron. xxxv. 22). The Egyptian archers in their long array, so well known from their sculptured monuments, shot at King Josiah, as he rode in state in his royal chariot, and he was sore wounded, and placed in his reserve chariot, and carried to Jerusalem to die. Dean Stanley remarks that all other notices of the battle are absorbed in this one tragical event, and the exact scene of the encounter is not known.
The position of Megiddo is not fixed very definitely in the Bible narrative. But a broad valley (as we see above) was named from the city, and the “waters of Megiddo” are also spoken of. Major Conder believes he has found the place and the name, in the large ruined site of Mujedda, at the foot of Gilboa—a mound from which fine springs burst out, with the broad valley of the Jalud river to the north. Otherwise Megiddo has been located on the Mukuttà, near Lejjun. Mr Trelawney Saunders considers it an objection to Conder’s site that it is separated from the river Kishon and the town of Taanach, and cannot be made to fit in with the account of Ahaziah’s flight from Jezreel (2 Kings ix. 27). The king, having been smitten at “the going up to Gur,” near Ibleam, fled to Megiddo, where he died. But if Megiddo were in the Plain of Bethshean he would hardly be likely to do this, seeing that Jehu his enemy made his furious advance upon Jezreel through that plain. Besides, he fled by the way of the “garden house,” En-gannim (the modern Jenin); the garden-like character of which spot is still preserved—and Jenin would not be on the route between Zerin and Mujedda.
[Authorities and Sources:—“Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder. “Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.” By Trelawney Saunders. “Survey of Western Palestine.” P. E. Fund. “Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land.” P. E. Fund.]
9. Sacred Sites of the Hebrews.
In order to pass in review the sites selected by the Israelites for places of worship, it will be convenient to go back to the time when we find the tribes encamped at Gilgal, on their first entrance into the country.