The place of Sichern. — Heb., Shechem. This word signifies “shoulder,” and was the name of the ridge uniting Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, the summits of which are about two miles apart. As the name is thus taken from the natural conformation of the ground, it may be very ancient. The modern name of the place is Nablous, a contraction of Flavia Neapolis, a title given it in honour of Vespasian. Mr. Conder (Tent Work in Palestine, 1:61) describes the valley as an oasis of remarkable beauty and luxuriance, but set, like Damascus, in a desert, and girt around by strong and barren mountains.
The plain of Moreh. — Heb., the oak of Moreh, It was here that Jacob buried the strange gods brought by his household from Haran (Genesis 35:4), and here, too, Joshua set up the stone of testimony (Joshua 24:26; Judges 9:6); but as in Deuteronomy 11:30 the oaks (wrongly translated in most places in our version “plains”) are described in the plural, it is probable that the word is to be taken as a collective for an oak grove. Such shady spots were favourite places for the tents of the wandering patriarchs. A famous terebinth, called after Abram’s name, long existed at Mamre, and under it, in the time of Vespasian, the captive Jews were sold for slaves. It disappeared about A.D. 330, and no tree now marks the site of Abram’s grove. The Hebrew word, however, for terebinth is elâh, while that used here is êlôn. It was probably the quercus pseudococcifera (see Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 369). This tree often grows to a vast size.
Moreh. — Literally, teacher (Isaiah 9:15). Probably in this cool grove some religious personage had given instruction to the people. In Judges 7:1 we find a place called the “teacher’s hill,” and it is thus possible that among a people so religious as the race of Shem, men from time to time arose revered by the people as teachers of holiness. Such an one was Melchisedech.
The Canaanite was then in the land. — This is no sign of post-Mosaic authorship, nor a later interpolation, as if the meaning were that the Canaanite was there at that time, but is so no longer. What really is meant is that Abram on his arrival found the country no longer in the hands of the old Semitic stock, but occupied by the Canaanites, who seem to have gained the ascendancy, not so much by conquest as by gradual and peaceful means. We gather from the Egyptian records that this had taken place not very long before Abram’s time. In the early inscriptions we read only of the Sati and Aamu, both apparently Semitic races, the latter name being derived from the Heb. am, “people.” Subsequently we find frequent mention of the Amaor and the Kheta — that is, the Amorites and Hittites, evidently in Abram’s time the two most powerful races of Canaan. (See Tomkins’ Studies, 82 ff.) For their previous wanderings, see on Genesis 10:15-19.