Shechem The Promise

 Abram's Arrival In Canaan

So Abram went as YAHWEH told him, and Lot went with him. ..Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan and arrived there (Bereshith 12:4-5). Abram's caravan, following the usual custom, must have gone down along the banks of the Balikh and then back up the course of the Euphrates as far as the large right-angled elbow formed by the river. Here the track finally left the steppe-land; a short journey across the sandy desert brought them without much difficulty to what is now known as Aleppo.

After this, always keeping a safe distance from the cities and cultivated land, the clan set out towards the east of Oatna. Sometimes a halt was made on some pasture land to allow the sheep to rest, sometimes they had to cross, as rapidly as possible, the more or less desert regions separating two oases. It was an exacting journey, exhausting for men and dangerous for beasts.

For geographical reasons it seems likely that the entry to Canaan was effected a little to the north of Lake Chinnereth (nowadays the Lake of Tiberias) where the crossing of the Yordan took place -at this point it is still no more than a brook, easy to ford. The caravan then made a detour to the east, round the edge of the mountainous country in Samaria, and penetrated into the fertile and sheltered valley of Shechem, which is only about 300 feet above sea level; it is surrounded by mountain peaks: to the north, Jebel et- Tor (the ancient Gerizim, altitude 2900 feet) and Jebel Eslamiyeh (the ancient Ebal, altitude 2950 feet). Shechem was a pastoral centre situated on the watershed between the Mediterranean slopes and the eastern valley of the Yordan, in the heart of the land of Canaan. It was a very wealthy part of the country with rich pasture land crossed by little streams and springs coming from the nearby mountain.

At Shechem, a 'high place' about thirty miles from Yerusalem, the encounter between YAHWEH and HIS prophet was to continue and assume a definite form. 

Shechem And The Oak Of Moreh

Shechem and the Oak of Moreh are both terms in need of a certain amount of explanation, for this qadash spot and the set apart oak occupy an important place in the history of Yisrael.

Where exactly was 'Shechem's place'? Firstly, of course, it should be noticed that to call it Shechem is to anticipate, for we do not know what this charming valley among the mountains of Samaria was called in Abram's day. The name Shechem only appears long afterwards, at the time, it seems, when Yacob returned from his long stay with his cousin Laban (in about 1750 B.C.). The city was built, it is thought, by Emor the Hivite who gave it the name of his son, Shechem.

For long it was thought that the ancient Shechem could be identified with what is now the modern Arab village of Nablus. Nablus was Neapolis in ancient times and was rebuilt on the site of the former village by the orders of the Roman emperor Vespasian (A.D. 7-79) who gave it its Roman name. In the Middle Ages the crusaders built a fine gothic church there which has now been turned into a mosque.

Nowadays the historians, archaeologists and geographers of Palestine consider that the site of the camping ground chosen by Abram should not be located at Shechem-Nablus, but rather in a neighbouring district, where there is the tiny village of Balatah, the city of the Oak, in the circumstances an appropriate name. It is a poor village of some twenty houses built on arches and terraces. Around the village stand a few clumps of oaks which local tradition regards as sprung from Abram's ancient oak mentioned in the Scriptures. A little to the north can be seen the cupolas marking the site of the patriarch Joseph's tomb. On the edge of the village, in a garden, is the famous Jacob's well; here the encounter between YAHSHUA and the Samaritan woman took place.

Regarding the Oak of Moreh it is worth pointing out the results of certain archaeological researches concerning the worship of trees. The excavations undertaken in Canaan have shown that before the arrival of Abram on the territory of what was to become Palestine the Canaanites worshipped the high places, mountains, raised stones, caves, isolated trees and springs. The tree particularly, and it is this which concerns us for the moment, was for the shepherd of the steppes an object of awe and wonder. Even after they had settled in one place the people and farmers of Canaan continued to worship trees, especially the oak, terebinth and tamarisk. The polytheist regarded a tree as the sacred dwelling place of a living god.

Although before his recent departure from Haran  Abram had accepted the worship of YAHWEH, we must  not harbour illusions on the subject; it took a very long  time indeed for Yisrael to rid itself of certain remnants of its polytheistic practices.

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