- SALUTATION “Eastern modes of salutation are not unfrequently so
prolonged as to become wearisome and a positive waste of time. The
profusely polite Arab asks so many questions after your health, your
happiness, your welfare, your house, and other things, that a person
ignorant of the habits of the country would imagine there must be some
secret ailment or mysterious sorrow oppressing you, which you wished to
conceal, so as to spare the feelings of a dear, sympathizing friend, but
which he, in the depth of his anxiety, would desire to hear of. I have often
listened to these prolonged salutations in the house, the street, and the
highway, and not unfrequently I have experienced their tedious monotony,
and I have bitterly lamented useless waste of time” (Porter, Through
Samaria, etc.). The work on which the disciples were sent forth was one of
urgency, which left no time for empty compliments and prolonged
greetings (Luke 10:4). - SALVATION This word is used of the deliverance of the Israelites from
the Egyptians (Exodus 14:13), and of deliverance generally from evil or
danger. In the New Testament it is specially used with reference to the
great deliverance from the guilt and the pollution of sin wrought out by
Jesus Christ, “the great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3). (See REDEMPTION;
REGENERATION.) - SAMARIA a watch-mountain or a watch-tower. In the heart of the
mountains of Israel, a few miles north-west of Shechem, stands the “hill of
Shomeron,” a solitary mountain, a great “mamelon.” It is an oblong hill,
with steep but not inaccessible sides, and a long flat top. Omri, the king of
Israel, purchased this hill from Shemer its owner for two talents of silver,
and built on its broad summit the city to which he gave the name of
“Shomeron”, i.e., Samaria, as the new capital of his kingdom instead of
Tirzah (1 Kings 16:24). As such it possessed many advantages. Here Omri
resided during the last six years of his reign. As the result of an
unsuccessful war with Syria, he appears to have been obliged to grant to
the Syrians the right to “make streets in Samaria”, i.e., probably
permission to the Syrian merchants to carry on their trade in the Israelite
capital. This would imply the existence of a considerable Syrian
population. “It was the only great city of Palestine created by the
sovereign. All the others had been already consecrated by patriarchal
tradition or previous possession. But Samaria was the choice of Omri
alone. He, indeed, gave to the city which he had built the name of its
kiana
(Kiana)
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