Samaria

Samaria in Smiths Bible Dictionary (watch mountain). This city is situated 30 miles north of Jerusalem and about six miles to the northwest of Shechem, in a wide basin-shaped valley, six miles in diameter, encircled with high hills, almost on the edge of the great plain which borders upon the Mediterranean. In the centre of this basin, which is on a lower level than the valley of Shechem, rises a less elevated hill, with steep yet accessible sides and a long fiat top. This hill was chosen by Omri as the site of the capital of the kingdom of Israel. He "bought the hill of Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of the owner of the hill, Samaria." 1Ki 16:23,24 From the that of Omri's purchase, B.C. 925, Samaria retained its dignity as the capital of the ten tribes, and the name is given to the northern kingdom as well as to the city. Ahab built a temple to Baal there. 1Ki 16:32,33 It was twice besieged by the Syrians, in B.C. 901, 1Ki 20:1 and in B.C. 892, 2Ki 6:24-7, 2Ki 6:20 but on both occasions the siege was ineffectual. The possessor of Samaria was considered de facto king of Israel. 2Ki 15:13,14 In B.C. 721 Samaria was taken, after a siege of three years, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, 2Ki 18:9,10 and the kingdom of the ten tribes was put an end to. Some years afterward the district of which Samaria was the centre was repeopled by Esarhaddon. Alexander the Great took the city, killed a large portion of the inhabitants, and suffered the remainder to set it at Shechem. He replaced them by a colony of Syro-Macedonians who occupied the city until the time of John Hyrcanus, who took it after a year's siege, and did his best to demolish it entirely. (B.C. 109.) It was rebuilt and greatly embellished by Herod the Great. He called it Sebaste=Augusta, after the name of his patron, Augustus Caesar...
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Samaria
Samaria was a region in the land of Israel with geographical limits that were never clearly defined in the Bible. Originally it was the territory of Ephraim and half tribe of Manasseh, the E. boundary was the Jordan River, and a W. boundary was the coast. The S. boundary ran from Jericho to Bethel, and the N. boundary was the rich valleys of Beth Shan and Jezreel up through the north parts of Mount Carmel.

After the division of the kingdom Samaria extended to Galilee. After the campaign of Tiglath-Pileser III in 732 B.C. the Assyrian province of Samaria was called Samarina. This is where the Assyrians settled new foreigners to mingle with the people of Israel, and this time the became known as Samaritans. The Hill Country of Samaria remained a province during the Persian period.

Samaria was known for its rich agriculture, wheat and barley, grapes and olive vineyards. Located in Samaria was a very important international trade route called the Via Maris (the coastal highway).

After the Jews returned from Babylon to rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem the Samaritans came to help, but their offer was rejected and thus the ridiculing began (Ezra 4; Neh. 2:10). It is interesting to note that the governor of the province of Samaria in the latter half of the 5th century B.C., whose name was Sanballat (Neh. 2: 10, 19) along with his sons are mentioned in the recently discovered ancient papyri of the Jewish community in Elephantine, Egypt.

The Roman General Pompeii annexed Samaria to the Roman province of Syria in 63 B.C. later Augustus gave the capital of Samaria to Herod. The New Testament makes many mentions of Samaria and the Samaritans. Jesus passed through Samaria on His way to Jerusalem (Luke 17:11) and on His way back, He came to Sychar, a Samaritan city, and spoke to a woman from Samaria at Jacob's well (Jn 4:4 ff).

Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Non Biblical source: 1 Macc. 3:10; 10:30.
Biblical sources: Amos 3:9; Jer. 31:5; Obad. 1:19; 1 Kgs. 13:32; 2 Kgs. 17:26; 23:19; Ezra 4:17; Luke 17:11; John 4:4; Acts 1:8; 8:1 ; 9:31; 15:3.

See Sebaste

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Samaria in Bible Cities
More about Ancient Samaria

Israel in the First Century

More About Ancient Samaria

Samaria and Samaritan Scriptures

John 8:48 - Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 

Luke 17:16 - And fell down on [his] face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 

Luke 10:33 - But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion [on him],  

Ezekiel 16:55 - When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. 

Ezekiel 16:53 - When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then [will I bring again] the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them: 

Ezekiel 16:51 - Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. 

1 Kings 20:34 - And [Benhadad] said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then [said Ahab], I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. 

Ezekiel 16:46 - And thine elder sister [is] Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, [is] Sodom and her daughters. 

Ezekiel 23:4 - And the names of them [were] Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus [were] their names; Samaria [is] Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. 

1 Kings 16:29 - And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa king of Judah began Ahab the son of Omri to reign over Israel: and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. 

Amos 3:9 - Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. 

2 Kings 23:18 - And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 

Obadiah 1:19 - And [they of] the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and [they of] the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin [shall possess] Gilead. 

2 Kings 18:9 - And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which [was] the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, [that] Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. 

2 Kings 7:1 - Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the LORD; Thus saith the LORD, To morrow about this time [shall] a measure of fine flour [be sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. 

2 Kings 17:26 - Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land. 

2 Kings 6:25 - And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was [sold] for fourscore [pieces] of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five [pieces] of silver. 

2 Kings 14:23 - In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, [and reigned] forty and one years. 

2 Chronicles 22:9 - And he sought Ahaziah: and they caught him, (for he was hid in Samaria,) and brought him to Jehu: and when they had slain him, they buried him: Because, said they, he [is] the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart. So the house of Ahaziah had no power to keep still the kingdom. 

Isaiah 10:11 - Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 

Micah 1:5 - For the transgression of Jacob [is] all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What [is] the transgression of Jacob? [is it] not Samaria? and what [are] the high places of Judah? [are they] not Jerusalem? 

2 Chronicles 28:15 - And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria. 

Hosea 10:5 - The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof [that] rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. 

2 Chronicles 28:9 - But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name [was] Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage [that] reacheth up unto heaven. 

2 Kings 17:6 - In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 

2 Chronicles 18:9 - And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah sat either of them on his throne, clothed in [their] robes, and they sat in a void place at the entering in of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. 

1 Kings 22:10 - And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. 

1 Kings 22:51 - Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. 

2 Kings 7:18 - And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria: 

2 Kings 21:13 - And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as [a man] wipeth a dish, wiping [it], and turning [it] upside down. 

2 Chronicles 28:8 - And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria. 

Ezra 4:17 - [Then] sent the king an answer unto Rehum the chancellor, and [to] Shimshai the scribe, and [to] the rest of their companions that dwell inSamaria, and [unto] the rest beyond the river, Peace, and at such a time. 

Micah 1:6 - Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, [and] as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof.