24 
First Book of Samuel, chapters ix. and x. It is scarcely to be 
questioned that Saul started from his home ; but the starting- 
point is not mentioned, as if it were unnecessary to do so. 
Saul's home was undoubtedly Gibeah, as we are told in 1 Sam. 
x. 26. Gibeah of Saul, in the Tribe of Benjamin, is generally 
identified with Tell el ful, a prominent site on the road 
between Jerusalem and Nablus, the Biblical Shechem ; but 
other sites have been proposed. For the present purpose it is 
sufficient to accept that site, as either of the others would 
serve equally well in this case, though objectionable in some. 
Saul passed through Mount Ephraim, the Land of Shalisha, the 
Land of Shalim, and the Land of Benjamin, to the Land of 
Zuph, and the City of Samuel. Thence he returned by Rachel's 
Tomb, in the border of Benjamin, at Zelzah, to Mount Tabor, 
and the Hill of God, or Gibeath Elohim, garrisoned by 
Philistines, and afterwards called the Hill or Gibeatha. 
At the beginning of this inquiry it is necessary to fix on 
the situation of the Land of Shalisha. The only sites 
hitherto proposed have been towards the north-west of 
Gibeah, about fifteen Roman miles north of Lydda, according 
to the Onomasticon or Name List of Eusebius and Jerome, 
written in the fourth century. In that direction the existing 
names of Khurbet Sirisia and Kh. Kefr Thilth have been 
thought to indicate the locality. But it is sufficient to con- 
sider the nature of the ground between Tell et Ful and those 
places, to be assured that no wandering herd of any kind of 
cattle would ever be thought likely, by a master herdsman 
like Saul, to wander up and down the steep hills and ravines 
that cross in that direction. On reflection, the memory recurs 
to an older Biblical story about the movements of flocks and 
herds. The young lad Joseph was sent out of the Yale of 
Hebron to Shechem, by his father Jacob, to inquire after his 
brothers, who had taken their flocks to Shechem. Tell el 
Ful, or Gibeah, was on the same road, which was doubtless 
the great highway for traffic of all kinds, pastoral especially. 
A wandering herd would probably follow a well-known track, 
and not strike up and down hills and ravines, unfamiliar, 
steep, and probably trackless. Let us now look at the name 
Shalisha. It means a Third, and it occurs often in the Hebrew 
Bible. My attention was particularly riveted by the 19th 
chapter of Deuteronomy, where Moses commands three cities 
to be separated and the land to be divided into three parts to 
secure protection for the accidental man- slayer. Now, 
Shechem, where Joseph at first sought his brethren and 
their flocks, was a city of refuge and the centre of one of 
these third parts ; and, considering the importance of the 
