Salmon
Shady; or Zalmon (q.v.), a hill covered with dark forests, south of Shechem, from which Abimelech and his men gathered wood to burn that city ( Judg. 9:48 ). In Ps. 68:14 the change from war to peace is likened to snow on the dark mountain, as some interpret the expression. Others suppose the words here mean that the bones of the slain left unburied covered the land, so that it seemed to be white as if covered with snow. The reference, however, of the psalm is probably to Josh. 11 and 12. The scattering of the kings and their followers is fitly likened unto the snow-flakes rapidly falling on the dark Salmon. It is the modern Jebel Suleiman.
Salt
Used to season food ( Job 6:6 ), and mixed with the fodder of cattle ( Isa. 30:24 , “clean;” in marg. of R.V. “salted”). All meat-offerings were seasoned with salt ( Lev. 2:13 ). To eat salt with one is to partake of his hospitality, to derive subsistence from him; and hence he who did so was bound to look after his host’s interests ( Ezra 4:14 , “We have maintenance from the king’s palace;” A.V. marg., “We are salted with the salt of the palace;” R.V., “We eat the salt of the palace”). A “covenant of salt” ( Num. 18:19 ; 2 Chr. 13:5 ) was a covenant of perpetual obligation. New-born children were rubbed with salt ( Ezek. 16:4 ). Disciples are likened unto salt, with reference to its cleansing and preserving uses ( Matt. 5:13 ). When Abimelech took the city of Shechem, he sowed the place with salt, that it might always remain a barren soil ( Judg. 9:45 ). Sir Lyon Playfair argues, on scientific grounds, that under the generic name of “salt,” in certain passages, we are to understand petroleum or its residue asphalt. Thus in Gen. 19:26 he would read “pillar of asphalt;” and in Matt. 5:13 , instead of “salt,” “petroleum,” which loses its essence by exposure, as salt does not, and becomes asphalt, with which pavements were made. The Jebel Usdum, to the south of the Dead Sea, is a mountain of rock salt about 7 miles long and from 2 to 3 miles wide and some hundreds of feet high.
Samaria
A watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the mountains of Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the “hill of Shomeron,” a solitary mountain, a great “mamelon.” It is an oblong hill, with steep but not inaccessible sides, and a long flat top. Omri, the king of Israel, purchased this hill from Shemer its owner for two talents of silver, and built on its broad summit the city to which he gave the name of “Shomeron”, i.e., Samaria, as the new capital of his kingdom instead of Tirzah ( 1 Kings 16:24 ). As such it possessed many advantages. Here Omri resided during the last six years of his reign. As the result of an unsuccessful war with Syria, he appears to have been obliged to grant to the Syrians the right to “make streets in Samaria”, i.e., probably permission to the Syrian merchants to carry on their trade in the Israelite capital. This would imply the existence of a considerable Syrian population. “It was the only great city of Palestine created by the sovereign. All the others had been already consecrated by patriarchal tradition or previous possession. But Samaria was the choice of Omri alone. He, indeed, gave to the city which he had built the name of its former owner, but its especial connection with himself as its founder is proved by the designation which it seems Samaria bears in Assyrian inscriptions, Beth-khumri (‘the house or palace of Omri’).”, Stanley. Samaria was frequently besieged. In the days of Ahab, Benhadad II. came up against it with thirty-two vassal kings, but was defeated with a great slaughter ( 1 Kings 20:1-21 ). A second time, next year, he assailed it; but was again utterly routed, and was compelled to surrender to Ahab (20:28-34), whose army, as compared with that of Benhadad, was no more than “two little flocks of kids.” In the days of Jehoram this Benhadad again laid siege to Samaria, during which the city was reduced to the direst extremities. But just when success seemed to be within their reach, they suddenly broke up the seige, alarmed by a mysterious noise of chariots and horses and a great army, and fled, leaving their camp with all its contents behind them. The famishing inhabitants of the city were soon relieved with the abundance of the spoil of the Syrian camp; and it came to pass, according to the word of Elisha, that “a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barely for a shekel, in the gates of Samaria” ( 2 Kings 7:1-20 ). Shalmaneser invaded Israel in the days of Hoshea, and reduced it to vassalage. He laid siege to Samaria (B.C. 723), which held out for three years, and was at length captured by Sargon, who completed the conquest Shalmaneser had begun ( 2 Kings 18:9-12 ; 17:3 ), and removed vast numbers of the tribes into captivity. (See SARGON .) This city, after passing through various vicissitudes, was given by the emperor Augustus to Herod the Great, who rebuilt it, and called it Sebaste (Gr. form of Augustus) in honour of the emperor. In the New Testament the only mention of it is in Acts 8:5-14 , where it is recorded that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached there. It is now represented by the hamlet of Sebustieh, containing about three hundred inhabitants. The ruins of the ancient town are all scattered over the hill, down the sides of which they have rolled. The shafts of about one hundred of what must have been grand Corinthian columns are still standing, and attract much attention, although nothing definite is known regarding them. (Comp. Micah 1:6 .) In the time of Christ, Western Palestine was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Samaria occupied the centre of Palestine ( John 4:4 ). It is called in the Talmud the “land of the Cuthim,” and is not regarded as a part of the Holy Land at all. It may be noticed that the distance between Samaria and Jerusalem, the respective capitals of the two kingdoms, is only 35 miles in a direct line.
Samaritans
The name given to the new and mixed inhabitants whom Esarhaddon (B.C. 677), the king of Assyria, brought from Babylon and other places and settled in the cities of Samaria, instead of the original inhabitants whom Sargon (B.C. 721) had removed into captivity ( 2 Kings 17:24 ; comp. Ezra 4:2 , 9 , 10 ). These strangers (comp. Luke 17:18 ) amalgamated with the Jews still remaining in the land, and gradually abandoned their old idolatry and adopted partly the Jewish religion. After the return from the Captivity, the Jews in Jerusalem refused to allow them to take part with them in rebuilding the temple, and hence sprang up an open enmity between them. They erected a rival temple on Mount Gerizim, which was, however, destroyed by a Jewish king (B.C. 130). They then built another at Shechem. The bitter enmity between the Jews and Samaritans continued in the time of our Lord: the Jews had “no dealings with the Samaritans” ( John 4:9 ; comp. Luke 9:52 , 53 ). Our Lord was in contempt called “a Samaritan” ( John 8:48 ). Many of the Samaritans early embraced the gospel ( John 4:5-42 ; Acts 8:25 ; 9:31 ; 15:3 ). Of these Samaritans there still remains a small population of about one hundred and sixty, who all reside in Shechem, where they carefully observe the religious customs of their fathers. They are the “smallest and oldest sect in the world.”
Shalem
Perfect, a place (probably the village of Salim) some 2 miles east of Jacob’s well. There is an abundant supply of water, which may have been the reason for Jacob’s settling at this place ( Gen. 33:18-20 ). The Revised Version translates this word, and reads, “Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem,” thus not regarding it as a proper name at all.
Shechem
Shoulder. (1.) The son of Hamor the Hivite ( Gen. 33:19 ; 34 ). (2.) A descendant of Manasseh ( Num. 26:31 ; Josh. 17:2 ). (3.) A city in Samaria ( Gen. 33:18 ), called also Sichem (12:6), Sychem ( Acts 7:16 ). It stood in the narrow sheltered valley between Ebal on the north and Gerizim on the south, these mountains at their base being only some 500 yards apart. Here Abraham pitched his tent and built his first altar in the Promised Land, and received the first divine promise ( Gen. 12:6 , 7 ). Here also Jacob “bought a parcel of a field at the hands of the children of Hamor” after his return from Mesopotamia, and settled with his household, which he purged from idolatry by burying the teraphim of his followers under an oak tree, which was afterwards called “the oak of the sorcerer” ( Gen. 33:19 ; 35:4 ; Judg. 9:37 ). (See MEONENIM .) Here too, after a while, he dug a well, which bears his name to this day ( John 4:5 , 39-42 ). To Shechem Joshua gathered all Israel “before God,” and delivered to them his second parting address ( Josh. 24:1-15 ). He “made a covenant with the people that day” at the very place where, on first entering the land, they had responded to the law from Ebal and Gerizim ( Josh. 24:25 ), the terms of which were recorded “in the book of the law of God”, i.e., in the roll of the law of Moses; and in memory of this solemn transaction a great stone was set up “under an oak” (comp. Gen. 28:18 ; 31:44-48 ; Ex. 24:4 ; Josh. 4:3 , 8 , 9 ), possibly the old “oak of Moreh,” as a silent witness of the transaction to all coming time. Shechem became one of the cities of refuge, the central city of refuge for Western Palestine ( Josh. 20:7 ), and here the bones of Joseph were buried (24:32). Rehoboam was appointed king in Shechem ( 1 Kings 12:1 , 19 ), but Jeroboam afterwards took up his residence here. This city is mentioned in connection with our Lord’s conversation with the woman of Samaria ( John 4:5 ); and thus, remaining as it does to the present day, it is one of the oldest cities of the world. It is the modern Nablus, a contraction for Neapolis, the name given to it by Vespasian. It lies about a mile and a half up the valley on its southern slope, and on the north of Gerizim, which rises about 1,100 feet above it, and is about 34 miles north of Jerusalem. It contains about 10,000 inhabitants, of whom about 160 are Samaritans and 100 Jews, the rest being Christians and Mohammedans. The site of Shechem is said to be of unrivalled beauty. Stanley says it is “the most beautiful, perhaps the only very beautiful, spot in Central Palestine.” Gaza, near Shechem, only mentioned 1 Chr. 7:28 , has entirely disappeared. It was destroyed at the time of the Conquest, and its place was taken by Shechem. (See SYCHAR .)
Simeon
Hearing. (1.) The second son of Jacob by Leah ( Gen. 29:33 ). He was associated with Levi in the terrible act of vengeance against Hamor and the Shechemites (34:25, 26). He was detained by Joseph in Egypt as a hostage (42:24). His father, when dying, pronounced a malediction against him (49:5-7). The words in the Authorized Version (49:6), “they digged down a wall,” ought to be, as correctly rendered in the Revised Version, “they houghed an ox.” (2.) An aged saint who visited the temple when Jesus was being presented before the Lord, and uttered lofty words of thankgiving and of prophecy ( Luke 2:29-35 ). (3.) One of the ancestors of Joseph ( Luke 3:30 ). (4.) Surnamed Niger, i.e., “black,” perhaps from his dark complexion, a teacher of some distinction in the church of Antioch ( Acts 13:1-3 ). It has been supposed that this was the Simon of Cyrene who bore Christ’s cross. Note the number of nationalities represented in the church at Antioch. (5.) James ( Acts 15:14 ) thus designates the apostle Peter (q.v.).
Sychar
Liar or drunkard (see Isa. 28:1 , 7 ), has been from the time of the Crusaders usually identified with Sychem or Shechem ( John 4:5 ). It has now, however, as the result of recent explorations, been identified with ‘Askar, a small Samaritan town on the southern base of Ebal, about a mile to the north of Jacob’s well.
Sychem
See SHECHEM .