NABLOUS, ANCIENT SHECHEM. 
This View of one of the oldest and most interesting cities in Palestine is taken from 
the western entrance of the valley in which it stands. The bright and copious stream 
which is seen passing under the bridge irrigates the valley, and produces the remarkable 
fertility of a spot, in which the olive, fig, mulberry, palm, pomegranate, orange, and 
citron flourish, and which shelters numberless nightingales; above it rises Mount Gerizim, 
the sacred hill of the Samaritans, the whole forming a scene of striking beauty. Nablous 
contains some fine fragments of its former grandeur. Near the centre of the City are 
several porphyry columns of large dimensions ; 1 but neither those, nor the beauty of its 
site, are, in general, the chief objects of attraction to the traveller: the history of Nablous, 
as associated with the old and New Testaments, constitutes its more natural and powerful 
interest. Here Abraham came “unto the place of Shechem, unto the oaks of Moreh .” 2 
Here was the scene of the revenge taken by Simeon and Levi. Here was the “ parcel 
of ground” bought by Jacob, and given as an inheritance to Joseph. Here the twelve 
sons of Jacob were buried; and though only the Well of Jacob (the Well of the woman of 
Samaria) and the Tomb of Joseph are pointed out, tradition relates that Eleazer, the 
son of Aaron, and Joshua, the chief of his people, were also buried here. Here Joshua 
carried into effect the command of Moses , 3 -when six of the tribes stood over against 
Gerizim, to bless the people who obeyed the law, and six against Mount Ebal, to 
curse the disobedient, when Joshua read aloud the whole of the law. The situation 
was singularly suited to the event, for a voice from either side might, on a calm day, be 
distinctly heard by the people assembled. Here, in the midst of the valley, was placed 
the ark of the Covenant, surrounded by the priests and elders, and the officers, wdth 
Joshua, bearing the banners of their tribes, — a national spectacle of sacred magnifi¬ 
cence. Here, from Mount Gerizim, Jotham’s fine parable against Abimelech was 
uttered . 4 Here all Israel came to make Rehoboam king. Here the tribes rebelled, 
and the City became for a time the royal residence of Jeroboam. 
After the fall of the Ten Tribes, Shechem u T as chiefly known as the principal city 
of the people who took the name of Samaritans, but who were Babylonians and others, 
gathered by Shalmaneser in the first instance, and afterwards by Ezarhaddon, to colonize 
the land. The depopulation of the countiy had exposed it to the ravages of wild beasts; 
and the new colonists, being molested with lions, and regarding this calamity as the result 
of a curse, applied to the Assyrian monarch, for one of the Jewish priests “to teach 
them the manner of the God of the land.” A priest was sent accordingly, but they 
mingled their original idolatry with the true worship; and, though they received the 
Pentateuch, were rejected from all communion with the Jews. The refusal of the Jews 
to allow the Samaritans to assist them in rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem increased 
the national hatred. The Samaritans, in defiance, then raised a Temple on Mount 
Gerizim, and Shechem became the religious metropolis of Samaria. The hatred of the 
1 Roberts’s Journal. s Gen. xii. 6. 3 Dent, xxvii. xxviii. Josh. viii. 30—35. 
4 The height of Gerizim is about 2500 French feet above the sea, or nearly that of the Mount of 
Olives. Nablous is 1751 French feet above the sea. Gerizim and Ebal rise in steep, rocky precipices ; 
and, from the valley, are about 800 feet in height. Schubert, Reise. Bibl. Res. iii. 96. Judges, ix. 7. 
