שֹׁמְרוֹן
Samaria
BDB lists 3 entries for ‘Samaria’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H8111 appears in the Book of 2 Kings — 44 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
2 Kings
- 2 Kings 1:2 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן prep + n Proper Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this sickness.
- 2 Kings 1:3 שֹׁמְר֑וֹן n Proper But the angel of Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?
- 2 Kings 2:25 שֹׁמְרֽוֹן n Proper He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.
- 2 Kings 3:1 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.
- 2 Kings 3:6 מִ/שֹּׁמְר֑וֹן prep + n Proper King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time, and mustered all Israel.
- 2 Kings 5:3 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן prep + n Proper She said to her mistress, Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy.
- 2 Kings 6:19 שֹׁמְרֽוֹנָ/ה n Proper + sfx dem Elisha said to them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek. He led them to Samaria.
- 2 Kings 6:20 שֹׁמְרוֹן֒ שֹׁמְרֽוֹן n Proper n Proper It happened, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Yahweh, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. Yahweh opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
- 2 Kings 6:24 שֹׁמְרֽוֹן n Proper It happened after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.
- 2 Kings 6:25 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper There was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until a donkey's head was sold for eighty [pieces] of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove's dung for five [pieces] of silver.
- 2 Kings 7:1 שֹׁמְרֽוֹן n Proper Elisha said, Hear you the word of Yahweh: thus says Yahweh, Tomorrow 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 7:18 שֹׁמְרֽוֹן n Proper It happened, 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 tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria;
- 2 Kings 10:1 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן שֹׁמְר֗וֹן prep + n Proper n Proper Now Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters, and sent to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, even the elders, and to those who brought up [the sons of] Ahab, saying,
- 2 Kings 10:12 שֹׁמְר֑וֹן n Proper He arose and departed, and went to Samaria. As he was at the shearing-house of the shepherds in the way,
- 2 Kings 10:17 שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹן בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן n Proper prep + n Proper When he came to Samaria, he struck all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Yahweh, which he spoke to Elijah.
- 2 Kings 10:35 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן prep + n Proper Jehu slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 10:36 בְּ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן prep + n Proper The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.
- 2 Kings 13:1 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper In the three and twentieth year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] seventeen years.
- 2 Kings 13:6 בְּ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן prep + n Proper Nevertheless they didn't depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked therein: and there remained the Asherah also in Samaria.)
- 2 Kings 13:9 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן prep + n Proper Jehoahaz slept with his fathers; and they buried him in Samaria: and Joash his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 13:10 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah began Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] sixteen years.
- 2 Kings 13:13 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat on his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
- 2 Kings 14:14 שֹׁמְרֽוֹנָ/ה n Proper + sfx dem He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of Yahweh, and in the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.
- 2 Kings 14:16 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper Jehoash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 14:23 בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper 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-one years.
- 2 Kings 15:8 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן prep + n Proper In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah did Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reign over Israel in Samaria six months.
- 2 Kings 15:13 בְּ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן prep + n Proper Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the nine and thirtieth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned the space of a month in Samaria.
- 2 Kings 15:14 שֹׁמְר֔וֹן בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן n Proper prep + n Proper Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, and came to Samaria, and struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him, and reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 15:17 בְּ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן prep + n Proper In the nine and thirtieth year of Azariah king of Judah began Menahem the son of Gadi to reign over Israel, [and reigned] ten years in Samaria.
- 2 Kings 15:23 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן prep + n Proper In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] two years.
- 2 Kings 15:25 בְ/שֹׁמְר֜וֹן prep + n Proper Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him, and struck him in Samaria, in the castle of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites: and he killed him, and reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 15:27 בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן prep + n Proper In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, [and reigned] twenty years.
- 2 Kings 17:1 בְ/שֹׁמְר֛וֹן prep + n Proper In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel, [and reigned] nine years.
- 2 Kings 17:5 שֹׁמְר֔וֹן n Proper Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
- 2 Kings 17:6 שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן n Proper In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
- 2 Kings 17:24 שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹן שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן n Proper n Proper The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and lived in the cities of it.
- 2 Kings 17:26 שֹׁמְר֔וֹן n Proper Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which you have carried away, and placed in the cities of Samaria, don't know the law of the god of the land: therefore he has sent lions among them, and, behold, they kill them, because they don't know the law of the god of the land.
- 2 Kings 17:28 מִ/שֹּׁ֣מְר֔וֹן prep + n Proper So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Yahweh.
- 2 Kings 18:9 שֹׁמְר֖וֹן n Proper It happened 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 18:10 שֹׁמְרֽוֹן n Proper At the end of three years they took it: in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
- 2 Kings 18:34 שֹׁמְר֖וֹן n Proper Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
- 2 Kings 21:13 שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹן n Proper 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 wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
- 2 Kings 23:18 מִ/שֹּׁמְרֽוֹן prep + n Proper He said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
- 2 Kings 23:19 שֹׁמְר֗וֹן n Proper All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke [Yahweh] to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew name שמרון centers on the idea of “Samaria.” Debuting at 1 Kings 13:32, it then recurs through the corpus. It appears 101 verses across 11 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its common vocabulary. The word gravitates to 2 Kings (44%), then 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. For the data behind this summary, explore 101-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8111 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 101
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 101 distinct verses.
- 11 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 11 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #398
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 398 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 101 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 2 Kings 44 verses 44%
- 1 Kings 17 verses 17%
- 2 Chronicles 8 verses 8%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 101 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 92 verses · 91%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 9%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Samaria 99×, Is in samaria 2×, Is samaria 2×
- American Standard Version: Samaria 91×, Is samaria 2×, Returned to samaria 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Samaria 97×, Is in samaria 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Samaria 101×, Is in samaria 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8111 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H8111 across 109 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 14 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H8111 across 105 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 4 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8111 across 108 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 3 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- Samaria = "watch mountain"
- the region of northern Palestine associated with the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes of Israel which split from the…
- the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel located 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Jerusalem and 6 miles (10…
Word origin
n.pr.loc. capital of N. Isr. from Omri’s time (belonging to clan שֶׁמֶר, StaZAW v (1885), 165–175; originally שַׁמְרוֹן or שַׁמְרַיִן; Assyrian Samerîna COT 1 K 16:24);—שׁ׳ 1 K 16:24 (name expl. as from שֶׁמֶר, orig. owner of site), v 28, 29, 32; 20:1, 10 +; שֹׁמְר֫וֹנָה 1 K 20:43; 2 K 6:19; 14:14; personified as woman Ez 16:46, 51, 53, 55; 23:4, 33; king of N. Isarel is מֶלֶךְ שׁ׳ 1 K 21:2; 2 K 1:3; מ׳ יִשׂ׳ אֲשֶׁר בְּשׁ׳ 1 K 21:18, cf. מָלַךְ עַל־יִשׂ׳ בְּשׁ׳ 22:52 + 9 times; thence name of territory, שְׂדֵה שׁ׳ Ob 19, עָרֵי שׁ׳ 1 K 13:32 (point of view of later editor), 2 K 17:24, 26; 23:19; הָרֵי שׁ׳ Am 3:9; Je 31:5,—cf. הַר־שׁ׳ Am 4:1; 6:1; 1 K 16:24; perhaps שׁ׳ alone Je 23:13; 1 K 18:2; 2 K 17:24, 28; 2 Ch 25:13; חֵיל שׁ׳ Ne 3:34.—𝔊 usually Σαμαρεια, but 1 K 16:24 Σεμερω, Σαεμερων, Σομορων; = mod. Sebastieh; vid. GASmG. 346 ff. Buhl G 207 f. CowleyEncy. Bib. s. v. WilsonHast. DB s. v..
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from שמר (shâmar) (H8104) — to keep.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
שמרון
- , Gen. R. s. 36 some ed., v. שְׁמָדוֹן
שֹׁמְרוֹן
- (b. h.) Samaria, city and district. Esth. R. to I, 2. Tanḥ. Vayesheb 2 כשגלו ישראל מש׳ … בש׳ וכ׳ when the Israelites were exiled from Samaria, Sennaherib sent his servants and settled them in S. to raise taxes for the kings. Num. R. s. 103 (ref. to Am. VI, 2) זה ציון וש׳ ‘these kingdoms’ refers to Zion and Samaria (Judah and Israel); a. fr. e.g. Amos 6:2
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 32 distinct written forms H8111 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| שֹׁמְרֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 23:33 | 14 |
| בְּ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Amos 3:12 | 11 |
| שֹֽׁמְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Amos 4:1 | 10 |
| שֹׁמְר֑וֹן | Noun, Proper | Amos 6:1 | 8 |
| שֹׁמְר֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 16:53 | 8 |
| בְּ/שֹׁמְר֑וֹן | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 16:28 | 7 |
| בְּ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 16:32 | 7 |
| שֹׁמְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Amos 3:9 | 7 |
| בְּ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 1:2 | 5 |
| שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 20:1 | 3 |
| שֹׁמְר֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 22:38 | 3 |
| שֹׁמְרֽוֹנָ/ה | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 20:43 | 3 |
| מִ/שֹּׁמְרֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 20:17 | 2 |
| שֹֽׁמְר֑וֹן | Noun, Proper | Hosea 10:5 | 2 |
| שֹׁמְר֛וֹן | Noun, Proper | 1 Kings 16:24 | 2 |
| בְ/שֹֽׁמְר֗וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 22:9 | 1 |
| בְ/שֹׁמְר֛וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 17:1 | 1 |
| בְ/שֹׁמְר֜וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 15:25 | 1 |
| וְ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 16:51 | 1 |
| וְ/שֹֽׁמְרוֹן֙ | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 16:55 | 1 |
| וּ/מִ/שֹּֽׁמְרוֹן֙ | Noun, Proper | Jeremiah 41:5 | 1 |
| וּ/מִ/שֹּׁמְרֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 10:10 | 1 |
| לְ/שֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 18:2 | 1 |
| לְ/שֹׁמְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 28:9 | 1 |
| לְ/שֹׁמְר֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | Isaiah 10:11 | 1 |
| לְ/שֹׁמְרֽוֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 28:8 | 1 |
| מִ/שֹּׁ֣מְר֔וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 17:28 | 1 |
| מִ/שֹּׁמְר֑וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 3:6 | 1 |
| מִ/שֹּׁמְר֖וֹן | Noun, Proper | 2 Chronicles 25:13 | 1 |
| שֹֽׁמְרוֹן֙ | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 16:46 | 1 |
| שֹׁמְר֣וֹן | Noun, Proper | Ezekiel 23:4 | 1 |
| שֹׁמְרוֹן֒ | Noun, Proper | 2 Kings 6:20 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8111, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- אשמרה ʼashmurâh H821 watch
- משמר mishmâr H4929 guard
- שמיר shâmîyr H8068 thorn
- שמר shemer H8105 dregs
- שמר shimmur H8107 night watch
- שמרה shomrâh H8108 watch
- שמרה shᵉmurâh H8109 eyelid
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- ישמרי Yishmᵉray H3461 Ishmerai
- שומר Shôwmêr H7763 Shomer
- שמריה Shᵉmaryâh H8114 Shemariah
- שמרת Shimrâth H8119 Shimrath
- Σαμαρεια Samáreia G4540 Samaria
- שמרין Shomrayin H8115 Samaria
- שמרני Shômrônîy H8118 Samaritans
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 16 — not the complete family. 7 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Samaria). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
A watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the mountains of Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the "hill of Shomeron," a solitary mountain, a great "mamelon." It is an oblong hill, with steep but not inaccessible sides, and a long flat top. Omri, the king of Israel, purchased this hill from Shemer its owner for two talents of silver, and built on its broad summit the city to which he gave the name of "Shomeron", i.e., Samaria, as the new capital of his kingdom instead of Tirzah (1 Kings 16:24). As such it possessed many advantages. Here Omri resided during the last six years of his reign. As the result of an unsuccessful war with Syria, he appears to have been obliged to grant to the Syrians the right to "make streets in Samaria", i.e., probably permission to the Syrian merchants to carry on their trade in the Israelite capital. This would imply the existence of a considerable Syrian population. "It was the only great city of Palestine created by the sovereign. All the others had been already consecrated by patriarchal tradition or previous possession. But Samaria was the choice of Omri alone. He, indeed, gave to the city which he had built the name of its former owner, but its especial connection with himself as its founder is proved by the designation which it seems Samaria bears in Assyrian inscriptions, Beth-khumri (the house or palace of Omri').", Stanley.
Samaria was frequently besieged. In the days of Ahab, Benhadad II. came up against it with thirty-two vassal kings, but was defeated with a great slaughter (1 Kings 20:1-21). A second time, next year, he assailed it; but was again utterly routed, and was compelled to surrender to Ahab (20:28-34), whose army, as compared with that of Benhadad, was no more than "two little flocks of kids."
In the days of Jehoram this Benhadad again laid siege to Samaria, during which the city was reduced to the direst extremities. But just when success seemed to be within their reach, they suddenly broke up the seige, alarmed by a mysterious noise of chariots and horses and a great army, and fled, leaving their camp with all its contents behind them. The famishing inhabitants of the city were soon relieved with the abundance of the spoil of the Syrian camp; and it came to pass, according to the word of Elisha, that "a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barely for a shekel, in the gates of Samaria" (2 Kings 7:1-20).
Shalmaneser invaded Israel in the days of Hoshea, and reduced it to vassalage. He laid siege to Samaria (B.C. 723), which held out for three years, and was at length captured by Sargon, who completed the conquest Shalmaneser had begun (2 Kings 18:9-12; 17:3), and removed vast numbers of the tribes into captivity. (See SARGON.)
This city, after passing through various vicissitudes, was given by the emperor Augustus to Herod the Great, who rebuilt it, and called it Sebaste (Gr. form of Augustus) in honour of the emperor. In the New Testament the only mention of it is in Acts 8:5-14, where it is recorded that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached there.
It is now represented by the hamlet of Sebustieh, containing about three hundred inhabitants. The ruins of the ancient town are all scattered over the hill, down the sides of which they have rolled. The shafts of about one hundred of what must have been grand Corinthian columns are still standing, and attract much attention, although nothing definite is known regarding them. (Comp. Micah 1:6.)
In the time of Christ, Western Palestine was divided into three provinces, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Samaria occupied the centre of Palestine (John 4:4). It is called in the Talmud the "land of the Cuthim," and is not regarded as a part of the Holy Land at all.
It may be noticed that the distance between Samaria and Jerusalem, the respective capitals of the two kingdoms, is only 35 miles in a direct line.
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(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." (1 Kings 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. (1 Kings 16:32,33) It was twice besieged by the Syrians, in B.C. 901, (1 Kings 20:1) and in B.C. 892, (2 Kings 6:24-7; 2 Kings 6:20) but on both occasions the siege was ineffectual. The possessor of Samaria was considered Deuteronomy facto king of Israel. (2 Kings 15:13,14) In B.C. 721 Samaria was taken, after a siege of three years, by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, (2 Kings 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. The wall around it was 2 1/2 miles long, and in the centre of the city was a park 900 feet square containing a magnificent temple dedicated to Caesar. In the New Testament the city itself does not appear to be mentioned; but rather a portion of the district to which, even in older times it had extended its name. (Matthew 10:5; John 4:4,5) At this clay the city is represented by a small village retaining few vestiges of the past except its name, Sebustiyeh, an Arabic corruption of Sebaste. Some architectural remains it has, partly of Christian construction or adaptation, as the ruined church of St. John the Baptist, partly, perhaps, traces of Idumaean magnificence, St. Jerome, whose acquaintance with Palestine imparts a sort of probability to the tradition which prevailed so strongly in later days, asserts that Sebaste, which he invariably identifies with Samaria was the place in which St. John the Baptist was imprisoned and suffered death. He also makes it the burial-place of the prophets Elisha and Obadiah.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
watch-mountain
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Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 97 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 101 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- 1 Kings 13:32
- 2 Kings 1:2
- 2 Chronicles 18:2
- Isaiah 7:9
- Jeremiah 23:13
- Ezekiel 16:46
- Hosea 7:1
- Amos 3:9
- Obadiah 1:19
- Micah 1:1
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.