Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. A city - called Sychar - This city was anciently called Shechem. It seems to have been situated at the foot of Mount Gerizim, in the province of Samaria, on which the temple of the Samaritans was built. After the ruin of Samaria by Salmanezer, Sychar, or Shechem, became the capital of the Samaritans; and it continued so, according to Josephus, Ant. l. xi. c. 8, in the time of Alexander the Great. It was about ten miles from Shiloh, forty from Jerusalem, and fifty-two from Jericho. It probably got the name of Sychar, which signifies drunken, from the drunkenness of its inhabitants. With this crime the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 28:1, Isaiah 28:3, Isaiah 28:7, Isaiah 28:8) solemnly charges the Ephraimites, within whose limits the city stood. This place is remarkable in the Scriptures:
1. As being that where Abram first stopped on his coming from Haran to Canaan.
2. Where God first appeared to that patriarch, and promised to give the land to his seed.
3. The place where Abram first built an altar to the Lord, and called upon his name, Genesis 12:7.
The present name of this city is Neapolis, or Naplouse. See Calmet.
That Jacob gave to his son Joseph - Jacob had bought this field from the children of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver, or lambs, Genesis 33:19; and in it he built an altar, which he dedicated to El Elohey Yishrael, the strong God, the covenant God of Israel, Genesis 33:20. This, Jacob left as a private or overplus inheritance to Joseph and his children. See Genesis 48:21, Genesis 48:22, and Joshua 24:32.