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Ancient Mysteries & Interpretations

Abimelech and the Temple at Shechem

At Tell Balata, ancient Shechem, excavators uncovered a massive fortress-temple with walls about 5 meters thick and a great standing stone. G. Ernest Wright identified it with the "tower of Shechem" and "house of El-berith" of Judges 9 and connected a destruction with Abimelech. The comparison is attractive, but the building's later phases and the date of its destruction are debated.

Building: documented · Identification with Judges 9: disputed

Excavated ruins of ancient Shechem
Site or place photographTell Balata, ancient Shechem, beside Nablus (2022).Image credit

1 What Scripture says

"All the men of the tower of Shechem… entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith… and set the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women" (9:46, 49).

2 What evidence we might expect

  • A temple-tower at Shechem.
  • A destruction in Iron I.

3 What discoveries exist

Ernst Sellin (1913–1914, 1926–1927) and the Drew-McCormick expedition under G. Ernest Wright (1956–1973) excavated the temple: Middle Bronze in origin (c. 1650 BC), rebuilt in the Late Bronze Age, with a large standing stone in front. Wright dated a destruction to the 12th century BC.

Excavated ruins of ancient Shechem
Site or place photographTell Balata, ancient Shechem, beside Nablus (2022).Image credit

4 How interpretations compare

Scholarly reconstruction

Not proven

The later phases and destruction date are uncertain; the "tower of Shechem" may be another building.

5 The strongest supported reconstruction

Shechem had a famous temple; the excavated building is a strong candidate for it, but not proven to be the building in Judges 9.

6 What remains possible or unknown

  • The date of the temple's final destruction.
  • Whether "tower of Shechem" is the same as the temple.

What the evidence shows

Where this connects