*

tioned, and was miraculously preserved the last time when it was upon the point of being taken. But the sins of the Israelites at length provoked the Lord to deliver this city into the hands of Salmaneser, king of Assyria, who laid close siege to it in the reign of Hoshea. That prince, who had not been able to make head against the Assyrian monarch, had however, so well fortified himself in the city, that it held out almost three years against the besiegers. The text gives us no farther particulars either of this siege or of the war, except that, after the taking of Samaria, the rest of the kingdom was forced to submit to the conqueror, and that both the king and all his subjects were carried away in- " to captivity; but from the dreadful account of it in some of the prophets, who describe the distress of the people upon this occasion in the strongest terms, it is evident that the Assyrians committed the most horrid cruelties towards their captives, ripping up pregnant women, and dashing their children against the ground; and having reduced Samaria to a heap of ruins, and laid waste all the land, returned home laden with the spoils of Israel. Salmaneser loaded Hoshea with chains, and shut him up in prison the rest of his days; and as for the captive Israelites, he transplanted them to Halah, Habor, and other cities of the Medes, whither some of their brethren had before been carried by Tiglath-pileser. This was the sad end and destruction of the kingdom of Israel, or of the ten tribes, after it had lasted two hundred and fifty-four years from its first separation from that of Judah; which remarkable event happened in the sixth year of Hezekiah, and the ninth of Hoshea. A great number, however, of the Israelites, both saved their lives, and escaped being carried into slavery: some of them flying into Egypt, and many more into the kingdom of Judah, where they were weaned by degrees from their former idolatries and rebellion, and became subjects to Hezekiah and his successors: and the Assyrians, on the other hand, sent colonies from several of their provinces to re-people the land of Israelt.

* See 2 Kings xvii. throughout.

†These new colonies, as we learn from 2 Kings xvii. 25, had hike

After this destruction of Samaria by Salmaneser, it recovered in a great measure its former strength and grandeur; but it was again taken and demolished by Hyrcanus, after having sustained a whole year's siege with the utmost bravery. The conqueror ordered the walls and houses of the city to be razed and laid level with the ground: and to prevent its being re-built, he caused large and deep trenches to be cut every way cross the place where it stood, and to be filled with water. However, it was once more re-established in the time of Herod the Great, who raised it from a. ruined to a most magnificent state, encompassed it with a strong wall, adorned it with a fine temple, and called it Sebaste, a word of much the same import as Augusta, in Latin, in honor of Augustus Cæsar; which name, obscure and ruined as it is, it retains to this day with very little variation.

The first village we passed by after leaving Sebaste was Sherack, and the next Barseba, both on our right hand; and then travelling along a narrow valley, watered with a pleasant stream, in two hours we arrived at Naplosa, the ancient Shalem, Shechem, Sychem or Sychar. It stands in the said valley, between Mount Gerizim on the South, and Ebal on the North, being built at the foot of the former, partly on the side of the hill, and partly on the plain.. The town is nothing in comparison of what it must formerly have been, either with respect to its magnificence or extent; and yet it is of a considerable length, consisting chiefly of two parallel streets, is very full of inhabitants, and

to have been destroyed by lions, (Josephus says by pestilence) on account of their impiety. The king of Assyria being told, that the cause of this calamity was their not worshipping the God of the country, ordered an Israelitish priest to be sent to them from among the captives, to instruct them in the worship of the God of Israel. This was done accordingly; but these idolators, instead of forsaking their Pagan deities, continued to worship them jointly with the true God and thus a strange mixture of religion was introduced, and afterwards continued among the Samaritans; from whence sprang the mutual hatred between them and the Jews; the latter abominating the name of the former, and these always disclaiming any kindred with the Jews in time of adversity, though forward enough to claim it in time. of prosperity.

the seat of a Turkish sangiack. It is at present the chief residence of the Samaritans, who have a small temple here, to which they resort, at certain seasons, to perform their religious rites; but whether they are still idolators, and worship a calf, as the Jews pretend they do, I cannot positively determine, though I give little credit to the accusation, as coming from their inveterate enemies.

The soil about Naplosa is fertile, the gardens are full of orange and citron trees, and watered with fine rivulets that fall from the mountain; and olive trees grow hereabouts in great abundance. On the South side of the town there is a little rocky eminence called Elmaida, where our Lord is said to have laid him down to rest, when he was weary of travelling; and they pretend to show you some prints of his hands and feet in the rock, and tell you that the impression of his body was formerly to be discerned. From this eminence we had an agreeable view of the whole town, which is the largest and most considerable we had met with since our departure from Sidon.

The mountains Gerizim and Ebal are memorable for the blessings and curses which God commanded to be pronounced from thence upon the children of Israel.* Upon Gerizim, which was appointed for the blessings, were to stand the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin; and upon Ebal, where the curses were to be delivered, the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. An altar was likewise to be erected on Mount Ebal, (or Gerizim, according to the Samaritan pentateuch,) of unhewn stones, covered over with plaster, and inscribed with the body of the Jewish law; and here they were commanded to offer sacrifices, and to make great rejoicing before the Lord; all which was punctually performed in the time of Joshua.† The Samaritans affirm that Gerizim was the place appointed by God for his worship and sacrifice, and pretend that the Jews have maliciously corrupted the text, and

* Deut. ix. 29, and xxvii. 12, 13.

Joshua viii, 30-35.

substituted Ebal instead of Gerizim, merely because the Samaritans worshipped in the last mentioned mountain. In confirmation of this, they plead, that as Gerizim was confessedly the mountain of blessing, and Ebal the mountain of cursing, by God's own appointment, it is most probable that the former was also appointed for the sacrifices and religious festivals which the Israelites were commanded to observe. If any of the great stones, made use of by Joshua in building the altar, were to be found upon Mount Gerizim, it would determine the question on the side of the Samaritans; but as no such evidence can be produced, I leave the controversy to be decided by the learned.

The town of Naplosa, or Sychem, has reason to boast of its great antiquity, for it seems to have been of considerable note in the time of Jacob. Its inhabitants, however, were slain, and the city plundered, by the sons of Jacob, to revenge the rape of their sister Dinah, committed by Schechem the son of Hamor, who was the Prince of that country.* Abimelech destroyed the inhabitants, and levelled the city with the ground; but it was rebuilt by Jeroboam, and again ruined by the kings of Damascus. Vespasian settled a colony in this town, and called it Flavia Cæsarea; from whom sprung Justin Martyr, a faithful champion for the cause of Christianity. It was, likewise, formerly called Neapolis, to which its modern name bears some resemblance. The Samaritans had once a temple on Mount Gerizim, which seemed to rival that of Jerusalem; but in the time of the Maccabees, it was destroyed by Hyrcanus.

Having made some stay at Naplosa, and paid our caphar, we continued our journey along the same narrow valley; and on the right hand, just without the city, we observed a mosque, formerly a Christian church, said to stand exactly over the sepulchre of Jacob, in the piece of ground that he purchased of the sons of Hamor the father of Schechem. It is usually called

* See Gen. xxxiv. throughout.

† Judges ix. 45.

1 Kings xii. 25.

Gen. xxxiii. 19.

Joseph's Sepulchre, his bones having been here interred, after they were brought out of Egypt, by the children of Israel.*

About a mile from Naplosa, we came to Jacob's Well, famous on account of its ancient master, but more so for the memorable conference held there, between our blessed Saviour and the woman of Samaria. Some have questioned whether this be really the well that it is pretended to be, as thinking it too remote from Sychar for women to come thither to draw water; especially as the present town is so well supplied with that element, that the inhabitants have no necessity so fetch it at such a distance. But, for my part, I have no doubt of its being actually the well which the scripture means, since it is highly probable that Sychar, in our Saviour's time, was of much greater extent than the present Naplosa; as may be conjectured from some remains of a thick wall, which are still to be seen not far from the well itself. That devout patroness of the Holy Land, the Empress Helena, formerly caused a large church to be erected over this weil; but the malice of the Turks, and the destroying hand of time, have left nothing of it remaining, except some parts of the foundation. The well is arched over with stone, but there is a narrow passage left to go down into the vault, where, by removing a flat stone, we discover the mouth of the well itself, which is dug out of a firm rock, is three yards in diameter, and five or six and thirty in depth, with above two fathom water in it; so false is that story which the country people impose upon travellers, that the well is dry all the year round, except on the anniversary of the day when our Saviour discoursed with the Samaritan woman, but that then it bubbles up abundantly.

It is

Here is the end of the narrow valley of Sychem, which at this well opens into a spacious field, supposed to be part of the parcel of ground that was given to Joseph by his father, Jacob. watered by a fine rivulet, which renders it fertile and delightful: but from hence our road led us to the Southward, along another valley much wider than the former. Having passed by two or

* Joshua xxiv. 32.

† John iv. 5.