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Jezreel Valley from Mount Carmel |
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The Valley of Jezreel is often identified as comprising only the eastern end of the Plain of Esdraelon, the valley between between
Mount Gilboa and the Hill of Moreh. However, Jezreel is often used generally to refer to the entire flat and fertile plain stretching southeast from the coast north of
Mount Carmel to the
Jordan River at Beth-shan.
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In ancient times, this area had great strategic value as well, since the Jezreel/Esdraelon plain was the only east-west access between the coast and the Jordan Valley. The main north and south
trade routes between Egypt to the South and
Mesopotamia to the North lay through this area. With the desert to the east, the areas on both sides of the Jordan blocked by highlands, and difficult access to the
Jordan Valley from the south because of the
Dead Sea, most north-south travel led through the Valley of Jezreel. The main route from Egypt, know as the
Via Maris (" way of the sea "), ran northward along the coastal plains to the spur of mountains running to the sea at
Mount Carmel just north of
Caesarea. |
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Although the area was controlled in the early
biblical era by the
Canaanites equipped with chariots, Gideon managed to defeat the Midianites and Amalikites here (Jud 6:33-7:23). The area was in Israelite hands by the time of
Solomon, who fortified the ancient fortress of
Megiddo to guard the pass (1 Kings 9:15).
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Jezreel from from Mount Tabor |
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In was on the plains of Jezreel that Jehu's army defeated the armies of Jezebel (2 Kings 9), beginning a bloodbath in the Northern Kingdom that would have consequences for years (cf. Hos 1:4-5). And it was at
Megiddo that King Josiah was killed in a fateful attempt to block Egyptian armies from using the pass to march north to lend aid to
Assyrian armies trapped by the
Babylonians (2 Kings 23:29). |
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