On the eighth day from this son’s birth, when he was to be circumcised, what was Hosea to name the boy? The boy’s name was to be prophetic; and so Jehovah, who was directing the prophetic drama, named it for Hosea. The name was to point to one of Jehovah’s purposes. “And Jehovah went on to say to him: ‘Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while and I must hold an accounting for the acts of bloodshed of Jezreel against the house of Jehu, and I must cause the royal rule of the house of Israel to cease.

THE PROPHETIC THRUST OF THE NAME “JEZREEL”

28. What does the name Jezreel mean, and, because of its prophetic significance, why was it a fitting name for Hosea’s son?

²⁸ Because of the action that Jehovah purposed to take against spiritually adulterous Israel, Jehovah had Hosea call his firstborn son by Gomer by the name Jezreel. The name was very fitting. In Hosea’s language, Hebrew, it meant “God Will Sow.” Yes, “sow,” but not in a beneficial sense. Here ‘sowing’ has the meaning of ‘scattering, dispersing,’ since, when one sows seed, one scatters it. Jehovah’s acting against the royal “house of Jehu” with a scattering motion would mean its breakdown, its dissolution. Similar action against the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel would mean its dissolution, its disintegration.​—Compare Luke 22:31.

29. What did King Jehu do about Baal worship, and what about calf worship, in violation of what commandments?

²⁹ At the city of Jezreel was where King Ahab of Israel had a royal residence, although his capital was in the city of Samaria. The later dynasty of King Jehu also had its royal residence at Jezreel. In obedience to his commission from Jehovah God, Jehu had violently rooted Baal worship out of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. Still, he kept up the worship of the two golden calves and ignored Jehovah’s worship at Jerusalem. By such worship of graven images Jehu’s house violated the Ten Commandments. They also violated the command not to murder.​—Ex. 20:2-6, 13.

30. How did Jehovah hold an accounting against Jehu’s house for its bloodshed at Jezreel?

³⁰ Thus a record of bloodshed began to be made by the calf-worshiping dynasty of King Jehu, the royal residence of which was at Jezreel. The Giver of the Ten Commandments could not overlook this record. Accordingly he said: “I must hold an accounting for the acts of bloodshed of Jezreel against the house of Jehu.” (Hos. 1:4) Exactly so, the dynasty of King Jehu over Israel was brought to a violent end after Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam II, had reigned for but six months. He was murdered.​—2 Ki. 15:8-12.

31. How was the royal rule of the house of Israel made to cease, and how was it as if “the low plain of Jezreel”?

³¹ Thus the royal dynasty of King Jehu over Israel ended in 791 B.C.E. But the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel itself continued on for fifty-one years more, till 740 B.C.E. Then Jehovah ‘caused the royal rule of the house of Israel to cease.’ (Hos. 1:4) He used the Assyrian World Power to “break the [battle] bow of Israel in the low plain of Jezreel.” The overthrow of Israel’s capital city of Samaria brought the apostate nation low. The nation’s power was scattered when the Israelite survivors were deported to the distant provinces of the Assyrian Empire, scattered like seed. The terrible experience matched the symbolical meaning of the expression “the low plain of Jezreel [God Will Sow Seed].” This was nothing like when the liberator of Israel, Judge Gideon, with but three hundred chosen warriors, scattered the marauding Midianites not far from Megiddo, near “the low plain of Jezreel.” (Judg. 6:33, 34) But in 740 B.C.E., without a liberator and no longer able to battle for existence, the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel ‘ceased,’ perished.