Settled by the tribe of Issachar, the Biblical city of Jezreel is located near the southern edge of the Jezreel Valley. Under Kings Omri and Ahab, Jezreel was chosen to be the Northern Kingdom’s second capital, after Sebaste. It was also the site of a confrontation between the prophet Elijah and King Ahab.

An Israelite named Naboth owned a vineyard near the royal palace of King Ahab. The king offered to pay for the vineyard, so conveniently situated to his abode, but Naboth refused, unwilling to give up property that had been in his family for generations.

When Queen Jezebel saw how sullen her husband had become because of the vineyard, she worked out a treacherous plan to have Naboth stoned to death. Her plan worked and Ahab took over the vineyard. (1 Kings 21:1-16).

This was not an incident that the Lord God was willing to allow to go unpunished. He sent Elijah to Ahab, to warn the king of the terrible fate that awaited him, his wife and his progeny. "Say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood' am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel--slave or free. Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.' " [1 Kings 21:19-23].

Jezreel was eventually conquered by King Jehu, who wiped out the descendents of Ahab and Jezebel. Much later during the Crusades an important battle was fought against Saladin in the environs of Jezreel and by 1263 A.D. Jezreel became the border of the Crusader Kingdom.