Samaria: See Pictures Below

Natalie Turner
Land and Bible
Samaria
The ancient cities of Bet El and Ai were located on the Road of the Patriarchs. Ai which means “ruin” and Bet El which means “house of God” is where God met with Abram and later Jacob. Abram and Lot camped their until Lot split off from Abram and went to life in the Rift Valley to the east. God said to Abram, “Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you…” (Genesis 13: 14-15) Later Jacob comes to this same area and heaven opens up before him and he names the place Bet El (Genesis 28: 10-22) This location is also significant to the victory over Ai during the time of Joshua. Unlike almost all of the other cities that Israel conquered Ai was completely destroyed!
Shiloh is the city just north of Bethel and Ai before Shechem. This is the city where the Tabernacle was during the period of the judges. Hannah came to Shiloh and prayed for a son and after her son Samuel was taken to the Tabernacle to be redeemed as the firstborn son, Samuel remaind at Shiloh to serve the Lord (Judges 21). When the Ark of the Covenant had gone down to battle against the Philistines, a messenger returned to Shiloh by way of the valley west to Aphek. Eli sat near the gate leading to the Tabernacle and when he heard the news that the Ark of the Covenant had been captured by the Philistines, he fell off his chair and broke his neck. The vineyard of Shiloh is also where the Benjimites got wives from when the women had gone out singing and dancing!
Shechem lies beneath the shadow of Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Today the Samaritans who live on Mount Gerizim still sacrifice the Passover lamb during their Pasach. They are a small group of people numbering about five hundred who have maintained a pure genealogical line from generations past. Today’s Shechem is a flourishing metropolitan city. Refugee camps were built after Israel had become a state for the Arab population. However, Israel has given the Palestinian control over these areas and there is no more need for these refugee camps. The Palestinian city has every means to absorb them in to their growing population, but uses the Refugee camps purely for Propaganda. Areas like this one is where we hear of Muslim suicide bombers, because life in the camps are so horrible that they feel and are even told that their reward from Allah would be great if they were to die and take as many people as they possibly could with them.
After the Israelites entered the promised land, God instructed his people to recite the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal. When Yeshua came to the area of Samaria, he met a Samaritan woman at the well (John 4: 1-32).