What is the importance of Shechem in the Bible?

The first city of Canaan visited by Abram, Gen. 12:6, where it is called SICHEM. When Jacob returned to Palestine, Hamor the Hivite was its king. It was attacked and plundered by Simeon and Levi. The bones of Joseph were buried there. At the distribution of the land it fell to the lot of Ephraim, and became a Levitical city and a city of refuge. It was there that Joshua delivered his last address to the people. Under the Judges the city was taken by Abimelech, when about a thousand men and women took refuge in the tower, which was destroyed by fire. The tribes assembled there to crown Rehoboam, and, on the division of the kingdom, it became the headquarters of Jeroboam. Gen. 33:18; Gen. 37:12-14; Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:21; Joshua 24:1, 25, 32; Judges 9:1-57; 1 Kings 12:1, 25; 2 Chr. 10:1; Ps. 60:6; Ps. 108:7; Jer. 41:5.

Shechem was called Neapolis by the Romans, of which its present name, Nablus, is supposed to be a corruption. It lies 32 13' N, 35 16' E. Its vicinity is luxurious in fruit and flowers. It is still partially inhabited by Samaritans, who have a synagogue there, and yearly keep the Passover.

But why was this place selected for this purpose? No other spot on the whole earth was so suitable. It was at Shechem under the oak (or, terebinth) of Moreh that God first promised to Abraham to give his seed the land (Gen. 12:7). There, close upon five centuries later, his descendants were assembled by the word of God, and in token of the fulfilment of that promise to their father. Faithful He was who promised. He had also done it, and they were assembled there in witness of it. An oak was there, evidently a well known tree (Joshua 24:26), perhaps the same by which Abraham had pitched his tent, for trees live long. From Shechem Abraham moved to Bethel and Ai. From Bethel and Ai his descendants pass to reach that valley which divides Ebal from Gerizim.

The words spoken by Joshua at Shechem differ from those recorded in the last chapter, being a special message from Jehovah to the people. The nation — elders, heads, judges, officers — presented itself before God; and to this assembly, called together at Joshua's bidding, the last words which Jehovah uttered through that leader's lips were delivered.

In choosing Shechem for this solemn gathering of all Israel, God would remind His people of the beginning of His ways with them, and of their disposition of heart to Himself. To Shechem the nation had come at the commencement of the wars in Canaan; there, wives and little ones, warriors and old men, had all assembled; there, when the inhabitants of the land were in force about them, in the very midst of their enemies, the nation had reared their altar to the Lord God of Israel; and there, the Levites had read aloud the law of God, and all Israel had consented by responsive Amens to its requirements. In the narrow valley between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, where Israel now again assembled, the plaister-covered stones, inscribed with the words of the law, stood as witnesses before their eyes, and the sound of the Amens of the first great assembly were still ringing in the ears of many.

The thoughtful amongst the people would not merely recall Israel's first altar in Canaan, for at Shechem Jacob, their father, had built his altar, calling it El-elohe-Israel, connecting with God's great name the princely title his God had given him. The Lord's great name, and His favour to him, in that day, had aroused Jacob to purge his household, who there "gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem." (Gen. 33:18-20, and Gen. 35:2-5.) Jacob built his altar in Shechem, and "the terror of God was upon the cities" which were about his tents, when he there buried the idols. In like manner the nation assembled first in Shechem, and the surrounding cities had held their peace; and now, at this their last great assembly in Joshua's day, they were bid "put away the strange gods" that were among them. The great Name of Jehovah, and His great acts of favour for Israel, were Joshua's argument to the people, for the purging of themselves. He made a covenant with them, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem, wrote the words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone of witness and set it up there under an oak. (Joshua 24:25-26.)

Shechem then, with its stones and its oak grove, was a sanctuary of hallowed memories and associations. The recalling of their past by the Lord, in that familiar spot, forced upon the nation the consideration that Jehovah's ways never change, and the practical issue that obedience to His word is the paramount duty of His people, and that in this alone can prosperity be their portion. As the Lord required thoroughness from Jacob in the day when He had saved his household by the strength of His arm, so He now required thoroughness of the children of Israel, for whom His grace and His strength had been wonderfully exercised. They, like their father Jacob, had to cleanse themselves, and to put away their idols — that is, if they would prosper and possess their land.

These last words from Jehovah to Israel through the lips of Joshua demand, therefore, the most earnest attention. From first to last (vers. 2-13) they recount Jehovah's sovereignty, power, and grace. His sovereignty in bringing their fathers out from idolatry; His power in delivering the people from their enemies; His grace in establishing them in their possessions. And, as we consider the sovereign favour, power, and grace of our God and Father, our response should be the purging ourselves from the evil thing which He hates.

Idolatry and the reign of Abimelech are thus connected, as in the dispensational fulfillment; and Shechem, at the very spot where the law of Jehovah was proclaimed, is now the center of apostasy.

Possession of the land is at once anticipated. "God has spoken in His holiness: I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem; and mete out the valley of Succoth." God has spoken in His holiness: in His grace to them surely, but grace has brought them into true-hearted subjection to Him; so that it is in holiness He can act for them. Israel is in fact now to be the proclaimer of divine holiness to the ends of the earth. But divine favor towards Israel is inseparably connected with their possession of the land; at once therefore they anticipate this. They are going to divide Shechem on the west of Jordan, and the valley of Succoth on the east side: to take possession of both sides of the river. Only these two places are named; but these imply that all the rest is theirs. Shechem and Succoth do not indeed at first sight seem like representative places, especially the latter, and yet in some sense they must be: there must be some special suitability in them to express the divine thought as to this repossession of what they had lost before. They are not again to lose it; and notice, to begin with, that they are now in the track of their father Abraham. Jacob's name connects itself with both places; but his record in connection with them is one of failure, and has no pleasant memory attaching to it. In Abraham's case it is far otherwise. Shechem is the first place in which he rests after reaching the land, and there it is that he has the first promise of the land itself. Shechem means "shoulder," which Issachar afterwards (like the nation hitherto) "bowed, to bear, and became a servant for tribute," imposed by masters which he had preferred to God. Abraham bows his shoulder to God at the oak Moreh, ("instructor,") to learn of Him; and to find blessing at His hand. Shechem stands thus for the spirit of obedience, as it was in fact afterward the place at which Israel heard the law, with its blessings and curses, proclaimed when they entered the land under Joshua. The history soon showed indeed that they knew not the meaning of it; but when they enter the land under the new covenant, it will be with the law written upon their heart. The spirit of obedience will now therefore be fully theirs; so that they will for the first time be able to take complete possession of (or "divide") Shechem. How could their tenure of the land under the "new covenant," and in fulfillment (for the first time really) of the promise given to Abraham there, be better expressed?

The blessing and the curse were to be solemnly rehearsed in the centre of the land when God should give it them, from the slopes respectively of Gerizim and Ebal. The last words which point out the site, "beside the oaks of Moreh," — full of touching recollections for an Israelite, — show that this is the place where Abraham first rested upon entering Canaan. "Moreh" means "teacher," as the oak itself suits well with the robustness of growth where the Word of God is that which teaches. The connection of Moreh with Shechem is seen in Genesis, and this lies between Ebal and Gerizim. "Shechem" means "shoulder," and there Israel as a nation, now brought into the land, were finally to take up the burden of the law; a law which is commonly torah, or "teaching," from the same root as Moreh. These are links which show us how God would carry back His people to the position of their great ancestor, so definitely the man of faith, and set them where he had been. Alas, they had accepted law, to stand in covenant-relation to Jehovah on that ground; and the shadow of this falls darkly over them. Ebal o'ertops Gerizim. Even this should have been but a voice of recall to Abraham's blessing through a faith like his: some surely heard it.

(2) Joshua's second address is at Shechem, a place memorable in so many ways from Abraham's time and there the covenant with Jehovah is renewed. Joshua reminds them again of the mercies of God towards them, beginning with the call of Abraham himself, of whom we are now for the first told that he had been involved in the common idolatry of the times, along with his father Terah and his brother Nahor. With grace thus the tale begins, a grace their need of which their own history had so clearly testified. Divine power had been shown in the gift of Isaac, given when nature was dead in Abraham. Even Jacob and Esau were the seed of a barren woman. To Esau God had given Seir, while Israel endured the needed discipline in Egypt. Then came the marvel of their deliverance, the days of sojourn in the wilderness, the dispossession of the Amorite kings, and the spiritual conflict when Balaam, after all the history of failure, sought how to curse and ended but in blessing them finally, the possession of the land they now enjoyed. After all this, Joshua bids them, if there could be doubt, to make up their minds whom they would serve, the idols their fathers had served beyond the river, the gods of the Canaanites in whose land they dwelt, or else Jehovah: his own choice for himself and his house was already made.

After all this, the Covenant is settled between the Lord and the people in this conditional character; their confidence in themselves in their early day under Mount Sinai having led to this, and their renewed pledges here at Shechem binding them afresh, and reminding them of their responsibilities.

Verse 32 also tells of the burial of Joseph's bones at Shechem in the plot of ground Jacob had bought (Gen.33:19). The sons of Joseph had inherited this land. Likely this burial took place before the death of Joshua.

Joseph remained in Egypt till his death at 110 years of age, far beyond the end of the famine. Before his death he became a great, great grandfather of Ephraim's descendants and also of those of Manasseh (v.23). but his years in Egypt did not change his attitude as regards the promise of God. He still had his heart set on the land of Canaan, as has been the case with Jacob's descendants of centuries, though dispersed throughout the whole world. Though personally Joseph would not enjoy the land, yet he fully desired that the nation Israel would do so, as was true of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Therefore Joseph, calmly speaking of his death, commanded that the children of Israel should carry his bones to Canaan for burial when God had fulfilled His promise that He would bring them back to the land. When he died, his remains were embalmed and put in a coffin in Egypt (v.26). There they remained for centuries till being brought out with Moses in the Exodus (Ex.13:19), and finally buried along with the remains of his fathers in Shechem (Josh. 24:32).