Gerizim and Ebal

Gerizim and Ebal, the two highest mountains in the central Palestine chain (3000 feet), separated from each other by a deep narrow valley, in which stands the town of Nâblus (q.v.). The valley between them is very fertile. Jacob's well stands where the vale joins the plain of Moreh. On the slope of Ebal to the north of the well is Sychar (now 'Askar). Mount Gerizim, along with Mount Ebal, was the scene of a grand and impressive ceremony, in which the whole people of Israel took part after crossing the Jordan, in obedience to a command which Moses had given them (Dent. xxvii.). The half of the tribes standing on Gerizim responded to and affirmed the blessings, those on Ebal the curses as pronounced by the Levites. The Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim as a rival to that of Jerusalem, and organised a rival priesthood; and the Samaritan Pentateuch closed the Decalogue with the injunction, 'Thou shalt build a temple on Mount Gerizim, and there only shalt thou worship.' And, though the Samaritan temple was destroyed by Hyrcanus about 200 years after, the mountain on which it stood continued to be held sacred by the Samaritans. It was to Mount Gerizim that the 'woman of Samaria' referred when she said to our Saviour: 'Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.' Subsequently, a Christian church in honour of the Virgin was built on it.