Shechem

Shechem is a place name in the Bible. The city was located in the heart of the land, nestled between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The name “Shechem” in the original Hebrew means “shoulder.” The shoulder is the strongest part of the body, capable of bearing burdens that the hands cannot lift, so Shechem also carries the meaning of strength.

Shechem was located in the center of the land of Canaan, at the crossroads of the main north-south and east-west roads. When Abraham entered Canaan, he first built an altar for God in Shechem, and God made His first covenant with Abraham there (Genesis 12:6-7). When Jacob’s family returned to Canaan from Aram, they first built an altar for God in Shechem and removed their idols (Genesis 33:18-20; 35:4). After the Israelites entered Canaan, they first built an altar in Shechem and, on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, proclaimed the blessings and curses, pledging to obey the covenant (Joshua 8:30-35). Before his death, Joshua gathered the people to Shechem, where he recounted God’s blessings before the Ark of the Covenant and urged them to uphold their covenant with God. In 1903, German scholar Ernst Sellin first identified the ruins of Tel Balata as the site of ancient Shechem. Excavations show that the earliest settlement there dates back to the fourth millennium BCE.