Shechem in the context of Septuagint

The history of ancient Israel and Judah spans from the early appearance of the Israelites in Canaan's hill country during the late second millennium BCE, to the establishment and subsequent downfall of the two Israelite kingdoms in the mid-first millennium BCE. This history unfolds within the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. The earliest documented mention of "Israel" as a people appears on the Merneptah Stele, an ancient Egyptian inscription dating back to around 1208 BCE. Archaeological evidence suggests that ancient Israelite culture evolved from the pre-existing Canaanite civilization. During the Iron Age II period, two Israelite kingdoms emerged, covering much of Canaan: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

According to the Hebrew Bible, a "United Monarchy" consisting of Israel and Judah existed as early as the 11th century BCE, under the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon; the great kingdom later was separated into two smaller kingdoms: Israel, containing the cities of Shechem and Samaria, in the north, and Judah, containing Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple, in the south. The historicity of the United Monarchy is debated—as there are no archaeological remains of it that are accepted as consensus—but historians and archaeologists agree that Israel and Judah existed as separate kingdoms by c. 900 BCE and c. 850 BCE, respectively. The kingdoms' history is known in greater detail than that of other kingdoms in the Levant, primarily due to the selective narratives in the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, which were included in the Bible.

The Kingdom of Israel (Biblical Hebrew: מַמְלֶכֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Mamleḵeṯ Yiśrāʾēl), also called the Kingdom of Samaria or the Northern Kingdom, was an Israelite kingdom that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Its beginnings date back to the first half of the 10th century BCE. It controlled the areas of Samaria, Galilee and parts of Transjordan; the former two regions underwent a period in which a large number of new settlements were established shortly after the kingdom came into existence. It had four capital cities in succession: Shiloh, Shechem, Tirzah, and the city of Samaria. In the 9th century BCE, the House of Omri ruled it, whose political centre was the city of Samaria.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the territory of the Twelve Tribes of Israel was once amalgamated under a Kingdom of Israel and Judah, which was ruled by the House of Saul and then by the House of David. However, upon the death of Solomon, who was the son and successor of David, there was discontent over his son and successor Rehoboam, whose reign was only accepted by the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin. The unpopularity of Rehoboam's reign among the rest of the Israelites, who sought Jeroboam as their monarch, resulted in Jeroboam's Revolt, which led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria), whereas the loyalists of Judah and Benjamin kept Rehoboam as their monarch and established the Kingdom of Judah in the south (Judea), ending Israelite political unity. While the existence of Israel and Judah as two independent kingdoms is not disputed, some historians and archaeologists reject the historicity of a United Monarchy of Israel and Judah.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Hebrew: שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit. 'Staffs of Israel') are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel, had a total of twelve sons, from whom each tribe's ancestry and namesake is derived: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Collectively known as the Israelites, they inhabited a part of Canaan—the Land of Israel—during the Iron Age. Their history, society, culture, and politics feature heavily in the Abrahamic religions, especially Judaism.

In the biblical narrative, after Moses oversaw the Israelites' departure from Egypt, he died and was succeeded by Joshua, who led the conquest of Canaan and subsequently allotted territory for all but the Tribe of Levi, which was instead dedicated 48 cities. This development culminated in the establishment of Israel and Judah, purportedly beginning with a Kingdom of Israel and Judah before splitting into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

Abimelech (/əˈbɪməˌlɛk/; אֲבִימֶלֶךְ ’Ǎḇīmeleḵ) or Abimelek was the king of Shechem and the tribal territory of Manasseh, and a son of biblical judge Gideon. His name can best be interpreted as "my father is king", claiming the inherited right to rule. He is introduced in Judges 8:31 as the son of Gideon and his Shechemite concubine, and the biblical account of his reign is described in chapter nine of the Book of Judges. According to the Bible, he was an unprincipled and ambitious ruler who often engaged in wars against his own subjects.

Mount Gerizim (/ˈɡɛrɪzɪm/ GHERR-iz-im; Samaritan Hebrew: ࠄࠟࠓࠬࠂࠟࠓࠩࠆࠝࠉࠌ, romanized: ʾĀ̊rgā̊rīzem; Hebrew: הַר גְּרִזִים, romanized: Har Gərīzīm; Arabic: جَبَل جَرِزِيم, romanized: Jabal Jarizīm, or جَبَلُ ٱلطُّورِ, Jabal at-Ṭūr) is one of two mountains near the Palestinian city of Nablus and the biblical city of Shechem, located in the north of Palestine’s West Bank. It forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the northern side being formed by Mount Ebal. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 881 m (2,890 ft) above sea level, 70 m (230 ft) lower than Mount Ebal. The mountain is particularly steep on the northern side, is sparsely covered at the top with shrubbery, and lower down there is a spring with a high yield of fresh water. The mountain is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the place where, upon first entering the Promised Land after the Exodus, the Israelites performed ceremonies of blessings, as they had been instructed by Moses.

In Samaritan tradition, it is the oldest and most central mountain in the world, towering above the Great Flood and providing the first land for Noah’s disembarkation. Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim is the location where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac. Jews, on the other hand, consider the location of the near-sacrifice to be Mount Moriah. Samaritans regard Mount Gerizim, rather than Jerusalem's Temple Mount, as the location chosen by God for a holy temple. A Samaritan Temple was located on Mount Gerizim from the 5th century BCE until it was destroyed in the 2nd century BCE. Mount Gerizim continues to be the centre of Samaritan religion, and Samaritans ascend it three times a year: at Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.

Nablus (/ˈnæbləs, ˈnɑːbləs/ NA(H)B-ləs; Arabic: نابلس, romanized: Nābulus, locally [ˈnæːblɪs] ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Nablus Governorate. It is located approximately 49 kilometres (30 mi) north of Jerusalem, between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim with a population of 156,906. The city is a commercial and cultural centre of Palestine, home to An-Najah National University, one of the largest institutions of higher learning in Palestine, and the Palestine Stock Exchange. Nablus is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

Nablus has been traditionally associated with the ancient city of Shechem. However, Shechem is now identified with the nearby site of Tell Balata in the Balata al-Balad suburb of the West Bank.The modern name of the city can be traced back to the Roman period, when it was named Flavia Neapolis by Roman emperor Vespasian in 72 CE. During the Byzantine period, conflict between the city's Samaritan and newer Christian inhabitants peaked in the Samaritan revolts that were eventually suppressed by the Byzantines by 573, which greatly dwindled the Samaritan population of the city. Following the Muslim conquest of the Levant in the 7th century, the city was given its present-day Arabic name of Nablus. After the First Crusade, the Crusaders drafted the laws of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the Council of Nablus, and its Christian, Samaritan, and Muslim inhabitants prospered. The city then came under the control of the Ayyubids and the Mamluk Sultanate. Under the Ottoman Turks, who conquered the city in 1517, Nablus served as the administrative and commercial centre for the surrounding area corresponding to the modern-day northern West Bank. Much of Nablus' history is preserved in its Old City, which contains more than 100 monumental buildings.

Tirzah (Hebrew: תִּרְצָה) was an ancient town in the Samarian highlands northeast of Shechem; it is generally identified with the site of Tell el-Far'ah (North), northeast of modern city of Nablus, West Bank, in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian village of Wadi al-Far'a.

Tell Balata (Arabic: تل بلاطة) is an archaeological site in the West Bank near Nablus, Palestine, that includes the remains of an ancient Canaanite city, associated since 1913 with the Biblical city of Shechem. The built-up area of Balata, a Palestinian village and suburb of Nablus, covers about one-third of the tell, and overlooks a vast plain to the east. The Palestinian village of Salim is located 4.5 kilometers (2.8 mi) to the east.

The site is listed by UNESCO as part of the Inventory of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites of Potential Outstanding Universal Value in the State of Palestine. Experts estimate that the towers and buildings at the site date back 5,000 years to the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages.

Balata village (Arabic: بلاطة البلد, romanized: Balāṭa al-Balad) is a Palestinian suburb of Nablus, in the northern West Bank, located 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) east of the city center. Formerly its own village, it was annexed to the municipality of Nablus during Jordanian rule (1948–1967). The village contains a number of well-known sites: Tell Balata (considered to be Biblical Shechem), Jacob's Well and Joseph's Tomb.

The village is just north of Balata Camp, one of the largest Palestinian refugee camps.

The Damascus Gate is one of the main Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side and connects to a highway leading out to Nablus, which in the Hebrew Bible was called Shechem or Sichem, and from there, in times past, to the capital of Syria, Damascus; as such, its modern English name is the Damascus Gate, and its modern Hebrew name is Sha'ar Shkhem (שער שכם), meaning Shechem Gate, or in modern terms Nablus Gate. Of its historic Arabic names, Bāb al-Naṣr (باب النصر) means "gate of victory", and the current one, Bāb al-ʿĀmūd (باب العامود), means "gate of the column". The latter, in use continuously since at least as early as the 10th century, preserves the memory of a Roman column towering over the square behind the gate and dating to the 2nd century CE.the gate name in Hebrew (“שער שכם”) meaning Nablus gate.

The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Church of the East Old Testament of the Bible but excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the apocrypha. It tells of a Jewish widow, Judith, who uses her beauty and charm to kill an Assyrian general who has besieged her city, Bethulia. With this act, she saves nearby Jerusalem from total destruction. The name Judith (Hebrew: יְהוּדִית, Modern: Yəhūdīt, Tiberian: Yŭhūḏīṯ), meaning "praised" or "Jewess", is the feminine form of Judah.

The extant translated manuscripts from antiquity appear to contain several historical anachronisms, which is why the majority of modern scholars consider the book ahistorical. Instead, the book has been re-classified as a parable, theological novel, or even the first historical novel. Although the majority of Catholic scholars and clergy now view the book as fictional, the Roman Catholic Church had traditionally maintained the book's historicity, assigning its events to the reign of King Manasseh of Judah and that the names were changed in later centuries for an unknown reason. The Jewish Encyclopedia identifies Shechem (modern day Nablus) as "Bethulia", and argues that the name was changed because of the feud between the Jews and Samaritans. If this is the case, it would explain why other names seem anachronistic as well.