SHECHEM, she'keM (Ha). She.hcal, the hack, hence, perhaps, applied to a watershed). An ancient city of Palestine, in the centre of Mount Ephraim, the modern Nabulus (Map: Palestine, C 31. It lay between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, in a fair and well-watered valley. which is the meeting-place of several natural lines of roads. Mentioned in an early Egyptian imp:erns, it constantly appears in the Old Testament. It is connected with the tions of Abraham (Gen. xii. 6) and Jacob, the latter's sons taking it with the sword (Gen.
xxxi.). In the Hebrew invasion the Joseph tribes and Joshua. move immediately upon Shechem, which becomes the first Israelite centre and is made a city of refuge (Josh. xxiv. 1; xx. 7). These traditions mention a certain holy tree, doubtless an ancient sanctuary, which was adopt ed by the Hebrews. as were also the sacred tradi tions connected with Ehal and Gerizim (q.v.).
Shechem appears in the story of Altimelech (Judith ix.), but suffered eclipse through the Philistine wars and the rise of Jerusalem. Upon Jeroboam's revolt it was the centre of insurrec tion, but was soon deserted as a capital for other places strategically fitter, finally yielding to Samaria. It rose again into prominence through the Samaritan schism in the fifth century B.C., becoming the centre of that sect, which erected a temple upon Gerizim as a rival to that in Jeru salem. (See SAMARITANS.) It suffered in the later Jewish wars. and was rebuilt by Vespasian as Flavia Neapolis; hence its modern name Nabulus (q.v.). Consult the Palestine Explora tion Fund Memoirs, vol. ii. (London, 1881) ; Baedeker. Palestine (Leipzig, 1898) ; George Adam Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (New York, 1901).