The Tower of Jezreel
At Jezreel, now called Zer’in, Joseph and Mary would be reminded of the wicked life of Ahab, the son of Omri, who reigned in Israel 918–897 B. C., and whose contribution to the fund of iniquity exceeded that of all who had preceded him in Israel. They would remember, too, the name and infamy of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, and the daughter of Ethbaal, the King of the Zidonians; how she established the Phœnician worship in the court of Ahab and built a temple and set apart a grove of Astarte in the neighborhood of Jezreel; how she supported four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of Astarte from her own table. They would remember Elijah and his conflict with the prophets of Baal on Carmel. At Jezreel they could perhaps have seen the very point on Mt. Carmel from which Ahab left with his chariot, when Elijah sent the message to him to get down from the Mountain. And Elijah said, “Go up, say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain, and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel, 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 18:44–46. To the northwest of Jezreel, and eight miles distant, is the precipitous mountain range which shuts off the view of Nazareth. Four miles to the south is Little Hermon. To the southeast is Mt. Gilboa, while to the west spreads the plain of Esdraelon. The tower shown in our picture is thought to stand on the site of the famous “watch tower in Jezreel.”
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