Lives of Scripture

Jezreel was the firstborn son of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer. Scripture records his birth in the barest terms -- "she conceived and bore him a son" -- but what matters is the name God commanded Hosea to give him: "the LORD said to him, 'Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel'" (Hosea 1:3-4). The name pointed back to Jezreel, the site where Jehu had violently seized the throne generations earlier (2 Kings 9-10) -- bloodshed that, though it began as God's own judgment on Ahab's house, Jehu's dynasty was now held accountable for having exceeded. Jezreel is the first of three children given prophetic sign-names in Hosea's family, followed by Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied") and Lo-ammi ("not my people") -- each one turning ordinary family life into a walking object lesson for the nation. Jezreel's very name was a message he carried simply by being called it: judgment was coming on the northern kingdom, and its royal house would not escape.