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Samaria

• Today Sebastia

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Events

1. c. 880 BCOmri builds Samaria as the capital of Israel
2. c. 27 BCHerod rebuilds Samaria and names it Sebaste

Battles and sieges

1. c. 856 BCBen-hadad's siege of Samaria broken 1 Kgs 20:13–21
   Ahab with the young men of the princes of the provinces against Ben-hadad of Syria and thirty-two kings. The Syrians flee and are slaughtered; Ben-hadad escapes on a horse.
2. c. 850 BCThe famine siege of Samaria lifted overnight 2 Kgs 6:24–7:16
   Ben-hadad of Syria besieging Samaria, where Elisha promises plenty by the morrow. The Syrians hear a noise of a great host and flee at twilight, leaving their camp; four lepers find it empty.
3. 722 BCSamaria falls after a three-year siege 2 Kgs 17:5–6
   Shalmaneser V of Assyria against Hoshea in Samaria. The city is taken in Hoshea's ninth year and Israel is carried to Halah, Habor and the cities of the Medes.

In ancient writers

• Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 15.292–293 — Herod made Samaria a fortress against his own people and renamed it Sebaste, a day's journey from Jerusalem, to hold both city and country in awe; he likewise built Caesarea at Strato's Tower.

Questions

• When did Samaria fall to Assyria?

History

Samaria stands on a lone hill in the central highlands, about 10 km northwest of Shechem, above the road from the hills to the coastal plain. In the Bible, Omri, king of Israel, bought the hill from Shemer for two talents of silver and about 880 BC built a city on it, calling it Samaria after Shemer, the owner of the hill; it replaced Tirzah as the capital of the northern kingdom. Assyrian inscriptions afterwards called Israel the house of Omri.

Omri and Ahab built a royal acropolis of finely dressed stone. In the palace area excavators found carved ivory inlays of the ninth and eighth centuries BC, recalling the ivory house of Ahab and the luxury denounced by Amos, and the Samaria ostraca, eighth-century notes of deliveries of wine and oil. The Assyrians besieged the city for three years; it fell in 722 BC, and Sargon II claims to have deported its people and settled others in their place. Samaria became the seat of an Assyrian province.

Under the Persians it remained a seat of governors: Sanballat opposed Nehemiah, and an Elephantine papyrus of 407 BC names him governor of Samaria. After the Samaritans burned alive Andromachus, Alexander's governor of Syria, Alexander came to avenge him and the culprits were handed over; Samaria then became a Macedonian settlement, fortified with round towers. John Hyrcanus took it after a long siege and razed it in about 108 BC; Pompey gave it back to its people in 63 BC and Gabinius rebuilt it.

Augustus gave Samaria to Herod the Great in 30 BC. Herod rebuilt it with a temple of Augustus and new walls and renamed it Sebaste, from the Greek for Augustus. Acts tells of Philip preaching the gospel in Samaria, the land that took its name from the city. About AD 200 Septimius Severus made Sebaste a Roman colony. By the late fourth century Christians venerated the tomb of John the Baptist there, and Paula prayed there on her pilgrimage.

Scripture: 1 Kgs 16:23–24; 1 Kgs 22:39; Amos 6:1–4; 2 Kgs 17:5–6; 2 Kgs 17:24; 2 Kgs 18:9–10; Neh 4:1–2; Acts 8:5; Acts 8:14

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (113)

1 Kgs 13:32

For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Beth-el, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

1 Kgs 16:24

And he bought the hill 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 Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria.

1 Kgs 16:28

So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria: and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.

1 Kgs 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.

1 Kgs 16:32

And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.

1 Kgs 18:2

And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria.

1 Kgs 20:1

And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it.

1 Kgs 20:10

And Ben-hadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me.

1 Kgs 20:17

And the young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben-hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, There are men come out of Samaria.

1 Kgs 20:34

And Ben-hadad 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.

1 Kgs 20:43

And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.

1 Kgs 21:1

And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

1 Kgs 21:18

Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.

1 Kgs 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 Kgs 22:37

So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

1 Kgs 22:38

And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spake.

1 Kgs 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 Kgs 1:2

And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.

2 Kgs 1:3

But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?

2 Kgs 2:25

And he went from thence to mount Carmel, and from thence he returned to Samaria.

2 Kgs 3:1

Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.

2 Kgs 3:6

And king Jehoram went out of Samaria the same time, and numbered all Israel.

2 Kgs 5:3

And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

2 Kgs 6:19

And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

2 Kgs 6:20

And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.

2 Kgs 6:24

And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

2 Kgs 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 Kgs 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 Kgs 7:16

And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

2 Kgs 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:

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