falls into the Jordan, near Scythopolis; the Eleutherus; the Sabbation; the brook of Reeds, or of Kanah; the Barrady.

S.

SALCHAH, (lat. 32°. 35'.-long. 35°. 57′,) a city of the kingdom of Og, in the country of Bashan, beyond Jordan, the northern extremity of the portion of Manasseh. Deut. iii. 10; 1 Chron. v. 11; Josh. xii. 5; xiii. 11.

SAMARIA, (lat. 32°. 21'.-long. 35°. 19',) the capital city of the kingdom of Samaria; i. e. of the ten tribes. It was built by Omri, king of Israel, who began to reign A. M. 3079, and died 3086. (1 Kings xvi. 24.) He bought the hill Samaria of Shemer, or Shomeron, for two talents of silver [£684]. It took the name of Samaria from Shemer. Some think there were already beginnings of a city, because before the reign of Omri mention is made of Samaria, (1 Kings xiii. 32. A. M. 3030, ante A. D. 974,) and consequently, forty-nine years before the reign of Omri. Others take this for a prolepsis, or anticipation, in the discourse of the man of God, who speaks of Samaria under the reign of Jeroboam.

However, Samaria was not considerable, nor the capital of the kingdom of Israel till after the reign of Omri. Before him the kings of Israel dwelt at Shechem, or at Tirzah. Samaria was built on an agreeable and fruitful hill, in an advantageous situation, twelve miles from Dothaim, twelve from Merrom, and four from Atharoth. (Euseb. in Dothaim. Merro, et Atharo.) Josephus says, it was a day's journey from Jerusalem. (Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 11.) Besides, though built on an eminence, yet it must have had water in abundance; since we find medals struck in this city, whereon is represented the goddess Astarte, at whose feet is a river. Josephus (Ant. lib. xiii. cap. 18) observes, that when it was taken by John Hircanus, prince of the Jews, he entirely demolished it, and even caused the brook to flow over its ruins, to obliterate all traces of it.

The kings of Samaria omitted nothing to render this city the strongest, the finest, and the richest possible. Ahab built here a palace of ivory. (1 Kings xxii. 39. Amos (iii. 15; iv. 1, 2) describes Samaria under Jeroboam II. as a city sunk in excess of luxury and effeminacy :-" I will smite," says he, "the winter

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house with the summer-house and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, says the Lord. Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy; which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink," &c.

Benhadad, king of Syria, built public places or streets in Samaria, probably for traffic, where his people dwelt, to promote commerce. (1 Kings xx. 34.) His son Benhadad, besieged this place, under the reign of Ahab, î. м. 3103, ante a. d. 901, but was defeated by a handful of young men.

What is very remarkable, and yet very common, is, that the king of Syria's flatterers would ascribe the shame of their defeat, not to the pride and drunkenness of their king, but to the interposition of the gods of the Jews: "Their gods are gods of the hills, (say they,) therefore, they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they."

The following year Benhadad brought an army into the field, probably with design to march against Samaria; but his army was again destroyed. (1 Kings xx. 26, 27.) Some years after this, (2 Kings vi. 24; vii. 1-4. A. M. 3119, ante A. D. 885,) Benhadad came again before Samaria, and reduced it to such extremities by famine, that a mother was forced to eat her own child but the city was relieved by a striking interposition of divine Providence. It was besieged by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, in the ninth year of Hosea, king of Israel, which was the fourth of Hezekiah, king of Judah, A. M. 3280. It was taken three after, A. M. 3283, ante a. D. 724. (2 Kings xvii. 6, 7, &c.) The prophet Hosea (x. 4. 8, 9; xiv. 1) speaks of the cruelties exercised by Shalmaneser; and Micah says, i. 6, this city was reduced to a heap of stones. The Cuthites sent by Esar-haddon to inhabit the country of Samaria did not think it worth their while to repair the ruins of this city; they dwelt at Shechem, which they made their capital. They were on this footing, when Alexander the Great came into Phonicia and Judea.

However the Cuthites rebuilt some part of Samaria, since Ezra speaks of the inhabitants of Samaria. (Ezra iv. 17; Neh. iv. 2.) The Samaritans being jealous of the favours Alexander the Great conferred on the Jews, revolted from him, while he was in Egypt, and burnt alive Andromachus, whom he had left

governor. (Q. Curtius, lib. iv. cap. 21.) Alexandria took Samaria, and settled Macedonians to inhabit it, (Euseb. Chronic. Cedrenus,) giving the boundary around it to the Jews; and to encourage them to cultivate it, he granted them exemption from tribute. The kings of Egypt and Syria, who succeeded Alexander, deprived them of this country. Hecatæus, apud. Joseph. lib. ii. cont. Apion.

But Alexander Balas, king of Syria, restored to Jonathan Maccabæus, the cities of Lydda, Ephrem, and Ramatha, which he separated from the country of Samaria. And the Jews resumed the full possession of it under John Hircanus, who took Samaria, and rebuilt it, according to Josephus, so that the river ran through its ruins. (Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 18. A. M. 3995, ante A. D. 109.) It so continued to A. M. 3947, when Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, rebuilt it, and named it Gabiniana. But it was very inconsiderable, till Herod the Great restored it to its ancient lustre, and gave it the Greek name of Sebaste, in Latin Augusta, in honour of the emperor Augustus, who had given him the proprietory of this place.-Syncell. Chronic. p. 308. Usher ad. An. 3979, ante A. D. 25. Joseph. Antiq. lib. xv. cap. 11.

The New Testament speaks but little of Samaria; and when it does mention it, it is rather in respect of the country, than of the city. When it is said, (Luke xvii. 11; John iv. 4,) he passed through the midst of Samaria, the meaning is, through the midst of the country of Samaria.-And again, “Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, called Sychar." Here Jesus had a conversation with a woman of Samaria, i. e. with a Samaritan woman of the city of Sychar. After the death of Stephen, when the disciples were dispersed through the towns of Judea and Samaria, Philip the deacon withdrew into the city of Samaria, where he had made converts. (Acts viii. 1-3.) When the apostles heard that this city had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John thither, to communicate the Holy Ghost. Here Simon Magus offered money to those apostles, in hopes of buying this power of communicating the Holy Ghost. Samaria is never called Sebaste in the New Testament, though strangers hardly knew it by any other name. Jerom says, in Abdiam 1, it was thought Obadiah was buried at Samaria. They also shewed there the tombs of Elisha and of John the Baptist. There are many ancient medals struck at Sebaste, or Samaria; and some bishops of this city subscribed the acts of ancient councils.

[The country of Samaria lies between Judea and Galilee. It begins, says Josephus, at a town called Ginea, in the great plain, and ends at the toparchy of Acrabatene. Samaria, under the first temple, was the name of a city; under the second of a country. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela, says, "Sebaste is Samaria, where the palace of Ahab, king of Israel, is still known." Now that city was on a mountain and well fortified, had springs, well-watered land, gardens, paradises, vineyards and olive-yards. Distant eight miles is Neapolis, i. e. Sychem, in Mount Ephraim. It is seated in a valley between the mountains Gerizim and Ebal; in it are about a hundred Cutheans, observing the law of Moses only: they are called Samaritans; and have priests of the seed of Aaron. They sacrifice in the temple on Mount Gerizim on the day of the Passover, and on feast days, on the altar built there of the stones set up by the children of Israel, when they passed over Jordan. Mount Ebal is dry, rocky, and stony.

Josephus says, the inhabitants of Neapolis called their city Maabartha. The temple flourished about 200 years. He also says, that Herod built in the land of Sebaste, a city, with a very fine wall of twenty furlongs; and brought into it six thousand inhabitants in the middle he erected a very great temple to Cæsar, and made a grove about it of three half furlongs; and called the city Sebaste: i. e. in Latin, Augusta.

The following is the account of this city, as given by D'Arvieux, vol. ii. p. 78.

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Napoli of Samaria is certainly taken for the ancient Sichem. This city is situated partly on the declivity of a mountain, and partly on a plain. It has been so often ruined and rebuilt, that the attempt to discover any of its ancient buildings would be fruitless. It is the only city in this province, and of course is the residence of the governor. One thing very remarkable in the mountain on which it is situated, is, that half of its surface is covered with trees, shrubs, and verdure, while the other half is arid and waste. There would be nothing extraordinary in this, if the bare division had a northern aspect; many others have that peculiarity; but these two distinctions of this mountain divide the northern aspect equally between them, without any other visible distinction.

"There are gardens all round the city; not on the mountain, but in the plain. These are watered by a little river,

and by a number of rivulets, which render this plain of an admirable fertility. The orange-trees, lemon-trees, fig-trees, pear and apple-trees, are in perfection, and produce excellent fruits.

"About a quarter of a league from the city is a fountain, which falls into a basin of white marble. About five hundred paces from the city, toward Jerusalem, is a well, at which, some say, Jacob watered the flocks of Rachel: others say, it is that at which our Lord met the Samaritan woman. The Christians venerate it, and keep it covered with great stones. On lifting up these stones, we descend into a vaulted cave, wherein is the mouth of the well. It appears to be of great antiquity, is well built, and may be thirty to forty feet to the surface of the water.

“Tradition affirms, that the land around is that which Jacob gave to his son Joseph."

SEA, DEAD, or SALT SEA, or SEA of the PLAIN, (lat. 31°. 30.-long. 35°. 40',) receives all the water of the Jordan, of the brooks Arnon, and Jabbok, and others, from the neighbouring mountains: it has no visible issue, yet it does not overflow, (because the evaporation from its surface compensates all these influxes: perhaps it increases in saltness, as the vapours exhaled consist of fresh water only.) "The land of Sodom, waste and smoking," says the author of the Book of Wisdom, "with plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness; and a standing pillar of salt is a monument (figurative representation) of an unbelieving soul."

The Dead Sea is about seventy miles in length, and twenty in breadth at its broadest part; having, like the Caspian, no visible communication with the ocean. Its depth seems to be altogether unknown; nor does it appear that a boat has ever navigated its surface. Towards its southern extremity, however, in a contracted part of the lake, is a ford, about six miles over, made use of by the Arabs; in the middle of which they report the water to be warm, indicating the presence of warm springs beneath. In general, towards the shore, it is shallow; and rises and falls with the seasons, and the quantity of water carried into it by snow streams, which fall into this their common receptacle, the chief of which is the Jordan. It also appears either to be on the increase, or to be lower in some years than in others whence those travellers are to be credited, who assert