Esdraelon

1 definition found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Esdraelon
     the Greek form of the Hebrew "Jezreel," the name of the great
     plain (called by the natives Merj Ibn Amer; i.e., "the meadow of
     the son of Amer") which stretches across Central Palestine from
     the Jordan to the Mediterraanean, separating the mountain ranges
     of Carmel and Samaria from those of Galilee, extending about 14


     miles from north to south, and 9 miles from east to west. It is
     drained by "that ancient river" the Kishon, which flows westward
     to the Mediterranean. From the foot of Mount Tabor it branches
     out into three valleys, that on the north passing between Tabor
     and Little Hermon (Judg. 4:14); that on the south between Mount
     Gilboa and En-gannim (2 Kings 9:27); while the central portion,
     the "valley of Jezreel" proper, runs into the Jordan valley
     (which is about 1,000 feet lower than Esdraelon) by Bethshean.
     Here Gideon gained his great victory over the Midianites (Judg.
     7:1-25). Here also Barak defeated Sisera, and Saul's army was
     defeated by the Philistines, and king Josiah, while fighting in
     disguise against Necho, king of Egypt, was slain (2 Chr.
     35:20-27; 2 Kings 23-29). This plain has been well called the
     "battle-field of Palestine." "It has been a chosen place for
     encampment in every contest carried on in this country, from the
     days of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, in the history of
     whose wars with Arphaxad it is mentioned as the Great Plain of
     Esdraelon, until the disastrous march of Napoleon Bonaparte from
     Egypt into Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Crusaders,
     Frenchmen, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs,
     warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched
     their tents in the plain, and have beheld the various banners of
     their nations wet with the dews of Tabor and Hermon" (Dr.
     Clark).