Samaria שומרון
Capital of the Northern Kingdom: the city of Achav and Izevel, home of Eliyahu and Elisha, fallen to Assyria.
Shomron was founded by king Omri, who bought the hill from a man named Shemer, and for two centuries it was the capital of the ten tribes. Under his son Achav the city is wealthy: an ivory-panelled palace, Phoenician trade, and a Phoenician queen, Izevel, who brings the cult of Baal and its hundreds of prophets.
That is why Shomron is the stage of the Tanakh's fiercest struggle. Eliyahu appears from nowhere, declares a drought, challenges Baal's prophets on Mount Carmel, and then flees the queen's rage. His disciple Elisha lives in the city, saves it from famine during an Aramean siege, and anoints kings. Amos and Hoshea denounce its luxury.
In 3205, after a three-year siege, Assyria takes the city; the ten tribes are exiled and foreign settlers replace them.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Melachim I 16:24 — Omri buys the hill and builds his capital
- Melachim I 18 — Achav, Izevel, and Carmel
- Melachim II 6–7 — the siege and the famine in the city
- Melachim II 17 — the fall of Samaria and the deportation of the ten tribes
- Amos 3:15 — “houses of ivory” — the rebuke of luxury
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sanhedrin 102b — the sages on the kings of Samaria
Basis: tradition.