Every time a place is mentioned in scripture it is significant. Every place has a name and the name has a meaning, which usually comes to bear on whatever the scripture passage is. Moreover, every place has a history—events significant to God and His people took place there.
If you talk about San Francisco you probably think of earthquakes, nice weather, outrageous real estate and gay pride. Right now everything about the history of Detroit is being brought out for exhibition as the big auto makers start shutting down. References to Detroit reach back into all this—the migration of black Americans from the south, the birth of the assembly line, Motown music, eventually crime and poverty--all these associations in the hearer’s head.
So the original audiences of scripture would have had all those kinds of associations too, with every place name and every name of a group of people (the Midianites, etc). They are part of the meaning of that passage and if you skip over them like they were just extra words in the way, you’re just skimming the top of the meaning and missing a whole lot. Every name of every place, person, people, tree, flower, jewel and precious metal has some symbolic significance. If you will dig deeper into these many layers of scripture you will uncover treasures hidden there for you. Your mind and spirit will be enriched.
For example, let’s look at ‘Shechem,’ which is mentioned in Judges 9.
1) Shechem is a place of promise. Abram met God there and God made His Big Promise about becoming the father of nations to Abram there.
Genesis 12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring [a] I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
2) Shechem is also a place of promise, peace, and safety for Jacob. After Abram’s grandson Jacob safely survives his encounter with Esau (when he fully expected Esau to waste him for stealing his birthright all those years prior), Jacob buys some land right there where God had made His promise of becoming the father of a great nation. He is already beginning to fulfill prophecy. And he makes an altar there, naming it El Elohe Israel, acknowledging Yawheh as God for the seedling nation of Israel, right there where it had been promised to Abram.
Genesis 33:18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city. 19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent. 20 There he set up an altar and called it El Elohe Israel.
3) While these two incidents were essentially acts of consecration and devotion to God's will, the next big event scripture records about Shechem is one of defilement-it is a place where Jacob's sons take justice into their own hands. It is the site of the rape of Dinah, and subsequently, the revenge 'rape' of a city by her brothers. After moving to Shechem, within sight of the city, that is, Dinah is seduced by Shechem son of Hamor. In reprisal her brothers trick the men of the city into getting circumcised and then they sneak in and kill every man while they are still in pain. Hamor is said to mean ass or donkey, which is believed to have been the city's sacred animal (a kind of mascot), and Shechem means son of the ass/donkey.
You should read the whole chapter (Genesis 34) for this story, but here's the beginning:
1 Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and violated her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob, and he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, "Get me this girl as my wife." 5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he kept quiet about it until they came home. 6 Then Shechem's father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Now Jacob's sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had done a disgraceful thing in [a] Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter—a thing that should not be done.
I have not been able to find a single commentary that deals seriously with the problem of the city and the names of individuals from the city called Shechem. If the city was already called Shechem when Jacob moved there, it seems almost metaphorical to call its most prominent citizen (from Jacob's family's point of view) by the name of the city. Maybe it's like saying Mr. New York, Mr. Shechem. . .
4) Shechem is the place where Joseph's brothers were hanging out when he went to look for them, just before they moved on to Dothan, where they would hatch the plot to murder him. (Genesis 37:12).
5) Joseph buried in Shechem-he bought a tract of land there and willed that his remains (mummified) would be returned and buried there when his people returned. (Joshua 24:32)
6) When the Promised Land was divided among the tribes, Shechem was allotted to Joseph (Mannasah and Ephraim). (Joshua 17:2-10). It's nice that the descendants of Joseph could have the land where he wanted to be finally laid to rest.
7) Schechem was then designated a City of Refuge (Joshua 20:7-9, 21:21). A city of refuge was a place you could flee to if you accidentally killed someone and their family wanted to revenge. You could flee to a city of refuge and they would protect you until those who wanted your life had themselves died. I find this interesting since it figures in the story of Joseph's redemption-being sold as a slave rather than murdered, which is a little like being redeemed as a Christian for a life of service to God. I would have to study more to see if there is meant to be such symbolism there.
8) The naming problem-it appears that a descendant of Manassah's got named Shechem (Numbers 26:31) (because he lived there? because he was to inherit that?) and another (or maybe the same?) descendant was named Shechem as recorded in 1 Chronicles 7:19.
9) Joshua called an assembly at Shechem to renew the covenant. He drew up for them decrees and laws and then took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the Lord saying, This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God! (Joshua 24:26,7)
10) Shechem is the site of all this trouble caused by Abimalech, which I will elaborate on later since it's what initially sparked this jaunt down Shechem's memory lane... (Judges 9:1-57)
11) The evil king Rehoboam (son of Solomon and an Ammonite princess, last king of the united monarchy and first king of Judah) went to Shechem for coronation. (I Kings 12:1-4, 2 Chronicles 10:1-4)
12) The evil king Jeroboam (Ephraimite, son of Nebat, remember Ephraim was from Joseph's line) had been appointed by Solomon as overseer of forced labor in the territories of Ephraim and Mannasah. He rebelled against Solomon and then fled for his life to Egypt where he married into the Egyptian Royal family, became the first king of the northern kingdom (probably) after the northern tribes had withdrawn their support from the harsh king Rehoboam) and who, upon becoming king, fortified Shechem and took up residence there, possibly using it as a capital.
13) Two enigmatic references in Psalms (60:6 and 108:7), God talking about triumphantly parceling out Shechem, I have to return to this later.
14) There is an incident after the Exile where some of the remnant come from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria to bring offerings to the Lord, but most of them get slaughtered by an assassin (Jeremiah 41:4)
15) There is a poetic reference in Hosea, "As marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes." In other words, they murdered on their way to a city of refuge where they would not be held accountable for their crime. (Hosea 6:9, 10)
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