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Shechem ( ; , ; ), also spelled Sichem ( ; )Septuagint. and other variants, was an ancient city in the southern Levant. Mentioned as a city in the Amarna Letters, it later appears in the Hebrew Bible as the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel following the split of the United Monarchy. According to , it was located in the tribal territorial allotment of the tribe of Ephraim. Shechem declined after the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The city later regained its importance as a prominent Samaritans center during the Hellenistic period.
Traditionally associated with the city of Nablus,' The present Nābulus is a corruption merely of Neapolis; and Neapolis succeeded the more ancient Shechem. All the early writers who touch on the topography of Palestine, testify to this identity of the two.' William Smith (ed.) Dictionary of the Bible,, rev. and edited by H.B.Hackett and Ezra Abbot, Hurd & Houghton New York 1870, vol.IV, "Shechem"' pp.2952–2958, p.2953. Shechem is now identified with the nearby site of Tell Balata in the Balata al-Balad suburb of the West Bank.
During the Babylonian Captivity (606 to 536 BCE), those Judahites who remained in the Kingdom of Judah re-established the altar at Shechem to keep the Yahweh going when access to the Temple in Jerusalem was cut off.Oded Lipschits, The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem: Judah under Babylonian Rule (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2005).
In 72 CE, a new city, Flavia Neapolis, was built by Vespasian to the west of the old one. This city's name was eventually corrupted to the modern Nablus. Josephus, writing in about 90 CE ( Jewish Antiquities 4.8.44), placed the city between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Elsewhere he refers to it as Neapolis.
In Emperor Hadrian's reign, the temple on Mt. Gerizim was restored and dedicated to Jupiter.Dion Cass., xv, 12
Like Shechem, Neapolis had a very early Christian community, including the early saint Justin Martyr; we hear even of bishops of Neapolis.Philippe Labbe, "Concordia", I, 1475, 1488; II, 325 On several occasions the Christians suffered greatly at the hands of the Samaritans. In 474 the emperor, to avenge what Christians considered an unjust attack by the Samaritans, deprived the latter of Mt. Gerizim and gave it to the Christians, who built on it a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.Procopius, Buildings, v, 7
On a later sojourn, two sons of Jacob, Simeon (Shimon) and Levi, avenged their sister Dinah's Kidnapping and rape by "Prince Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land" of Shechem. Jacob's sons said to the Shechemites that if "every male among you is Circumcision, then we will give our daughters to you and take your daughters to ourselves."Genesis 34:15–16 Once the Shechemites agree to the mass circumcision, however, Jacob's sons except for Joseph exploit the following soreness, with Shimon and Levi Massacre all of the city's men, and the rest robbing their treasures, and stealing their women.Genesis 34:24-39 This eventually leads to Shimon and Levi not getting a blessing from Jacob for betraying his trust, hurting Innocence, misusing religious rites and endangering their tribe to the wrath of neighbouring people.
Following the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan after their The Exodus from Egypt, according to the biblical narrative, Joshua assembled the Israelites at Shechem and asked them to choose between serving the God of Abraham who had delivered them from Egypt, or the false gods which Terah had served on the other side of the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they now lived. The people chose to serve the God of the Bible, a decision which Joshua recorded in the Book of the Law of God, and he then erected a memorial stone "under the oak that was by" in Shechem.Joshua 24:1–27 The oak is associated with the Oak of Givat HaMoreh where Abram had set up camp during his travels in this area.Genesis 12:6
Shechem and its surrounding lands were given as a Levitical city to the Kohathites.Joshua 21:21
Owing to its central position, no less than to the presence in the neighborhood of places hallowed by the memory of Abraham (Genesis 12:6, 7; 34:5), Jacob's Well (Genesis 33:18–19; 34:2, etc.), and Joseph's tomb (Joshua 24:32), the city was destined to play an important part in the history of Israel. Gideon, whose home was at Ophrah, visited Shechem, and his concubine who lived there was mother of his son Abimelech (Judges 8:31). She came from one of the leading Shechemite families who were influential with the "Lords of Shechem" (Judges 9:1–3, wording of the New Revised Standard Version and New American Bible Revised Edition). Gill's Exposition of Judges 9, accessed 29 October 2016
After Gideon's death, Abimelech was made king (Judges 9:1–45). Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, made an allegorical speech on Mount Gerizim in which he warned the people of Shechem about Abimelech's future tyranny (Judges 9:7–20). When the city rose in rebellion three years later, Abimelech took it, utterly destroyed it, and burnt the temple of Baal-berith where the people had fled for safety. The city was rebuilt in the 10th century BC and was probably the capital of Ephraim (1 Kings 4). Shechem was the place appointed, after Solomon's death, for the meeting of the people of Israel and the investiture of his son Rehoboam as king; the meeting ended in the secession of the ten northern tribes, and Shechem, fortified by Jeroboam, became the capital of the new kingdom (1 Kings 12:1; 14:17; 2 Chronicles 10:1).
After the kings of Israel moved, first to Tirzah () and later on to Samaria, Shechem lost its importance, and we do not hear of it until after the fall of Jerusalem (587 BC; ). The events connected with the restoration were to bring it again into prominence. When, on his second visit to Jerusalem, Nehemiah expelled the grandson of the high priest Eliashib (probably the Manasse of Josephus, Antiquities, XI, vii, viii) and with him the many Jews, priests and laymen, who sided with the rebel, these betook themselves to Shechem; a schismatic temple was then erected on Mount Garizim and thus Shechem became the "holy city" of the Samaritans. The latter, who were left unmolested while the orthodox Jews were chafing under the heavy hand of Antiochus IV ( Antiquities, XII, v, 5, see also Antinomianism in the Books of the Maccabees) and welcomed with open arms every renegade who came to them from Jerusalem (Antiq., XI, viii, 7), fell about 128 BC before John Hyrcanus, and their temple was destroyed ( Antiquities, XIII, ix, 1).
The Book of Judith, which is considered scripture to the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and other Christian churches is set in a city called "Bethulia". Because there is no Bethulia, it is widely assumed that this is a pseudonym for another city. The most common theory is that the city of Bethulia is really Shechem, based on the geography described in the book. The Jewish Encyclopedia went as far as to state that Shechem is the only city to meet all the requirements for Bethulia's location, and stated: "The identity of Bethulia with Shechem is thus beyond all question".
It is not known whether the Samaritans city of Sychar () in the Gospel of John () refers to Shechem or to another nearby village: "So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph." (2011). 9780310492351, Zondervan. ISBN 9780310492351
John 4 () mentions one of the women of Sychar going to Jacob's Well. Some scholars believe the location of Sychar is at the foot of Mount Ebal, but other scholars disagree because the proposed location is from Jacob's Well, which they think is not close enough for the women of Sychar to have fetched their water there. Based on John 4:15, these scholars have argued that Shechem is the Samaritan city of Sychar described in the Gospel of John.
Some of the inhabitants of Sychar were "Samaritans" who believed in Jesus when he tarried two days in the neighborhood (). Sychar and/or Shechem city must have been visited by the Apostles on their way from Samaria to Jerusalem ().
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