d a preference over its rivals; but Zimri had burnt the
castle there, and the ease with which it had been taken and retaken was
not calculated to reassure the head of the new dynasty. Omri turned
his attention to a site lying a little to the north-west of Shechem and
Mount Ebal, and at that time partly covered by the hamlet of Shomeron or
Shimron--our modern Samaria.***

* 1 Kings xv. 11; cf. 2 Ohron. xiv. 2. It is admitted,
however, though without any blame being attached to him,
that "the high places were not taken away" (1 Kings xv. 14;
cf. 2 Chron. xv. 17).

** The Hebrew writer gives the length of his reign as twelve
years (1 Kings xvi. 23). Several historians consider this
period too brief, and wish to extend it to twenty-four
years; I cannot, however, see that there is, so far, any
good reason for doubting the approximate accuracy of the
Bible figures.

*** According to the tradition preserved in 1 Kings xvi. 24,
the name of the city comes from Shomer, the man from whom
Ahab bought the site.

His choice was a wise and judicious one, as the rapid development of the
city soon proved. It lay on the brow of a rounded hill, which rose in
the centre of a wide and deep depression, and was connected by a narrow
ridge with the surrounding mountains. The valley round it is fertile
and well watered, and the mountains are cultivated up to their summits;
throughout the whole of Ephraim it would have been difficult to find
a site which could compare with it in strength or attractiveness. Omri
surrounded his city with substantial ramparts; he built a palace for
himself, and a temple in which was enthroned a golden calf similar to
those at Dan and Bethel.* A population drawn from other nations besides
the Israelites flocked into this well-defended stronghold, and Samaria
soon came to be for Israel what Jerusalem already was for Judah, an
almost impregnable fortress, in which the sovereign entrenched
himself, and round which the nation could rally in times of danger.
His contemporaries fully realised the importance of this move on Omri's
part; his name became inseparably connected in their minds with that of
Israel. Samaria and the house of Joseph were for them, henceforth, the
house of Omri, Bit-Omri, and the name still clung to them long after
Omri had died and his family had become extinct.**

* Amos viii. 14, where the sin of Samaria, coupled as it is