Classics Illustrated was the first to adapt The Time Machine into a comic book format, issuing an American edition in July 1956.

The Classics Illustrated version was published in French by Classiques Illustres in Dec 1957, and Classics Illustrated Strato Publications (Australian) in 1957, and Kuvitettuja Klassikkoja (a Finnish edition) in November 1957. There were also Classics Illustrated Greek editions in 1976, Swedish in 1987, German in 1992 and 2001, and a Canadian reprint of the English edition in 2008.

In 1976, Marvel Comics published a new version of The Time Machine, as #2 in their Marvel Classics Comics series, with art by Alex Niño. (This adaptation was originally published in 1973 by Pendulum Press as part of their Pendulum Now Age Classics series; it was colorized and reprinted by Marvel in 1976.)

In 1977, Polish painter Waldemar Andrzejewski adapted the novel as a 22-page comic book, written in Polish by Antoni Wolski.

From April 1990, Eternity Comics published a three-issue miniseries adaptation of The Time Machine, written by Bill Spangler and illustrated by John Ross — this was collected as a trade paperback graphic novel in 1991.

In 2018, US imprint Insight Comics published an adaptation of the novel, as part of their "H. G. Wells" series of comic books.

In 2024 the time traveler will appear in IDW's Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatere alongside Sharlock Homes, Dracula and Gatsby.^[40] where they all team up to battle Godzilla.

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Wells's novella has become one of the cornerstones of science-fiction literature. As a result, it has spawned many offspring. Works expanding on^{[citation needed]} Wells's story include:

• La Belle Valence by Théo Varlet and André Blandin (1923) in which a squadron of World War I soldiers find the Time Machine and are transported back to the Spanish town of Valencia in the 14th century. Translated by Brian Stableford as Timeslip Troopers (2012). ^{[citation needed]}
• Die Rückkehr der Zeitmaschine (1946) by Egon Friedell was the first direct sequel. It dwells heavily on the technical details of the machine and the time-paradoxes it might cause when the time machine was used to visit the past. After visiting a futuristic 1995 where London is in the sky and the weather is created by companies, as well as the year 2123 where he meets two Egyptians who study history using intuition instead of actual science, the time traveller, who is given the name James MacMorton, travels to the past and ends up weeks before the time machine was built, causing it to disappear. He is forced to use the miniature version of his time machine, which already existed at that time, to send telegraphic messages through time to a friend (the author), instructing him to send him things that will allow him to build a new machine. After returning to the present, he tells his friend what happened. The 24,000-word German original was translated into English by Eddy C. Bertin in the 1940s and eventually published in paperback as The Return of the Time Machine (1972, DAW).
• The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper, first published in 1976. It features a "manuscript", which reports the Time Traveller's activities after the end of the original story. According to this manuscript, the Time Traveller disappeared, because his Time Machine had been damaged by the Morlocks without him knowing it. He only found out when it stopped operating during his next attempted time travel. He found himself on 27 August 1665, in London during the outbreak of the Great Plague of London. The rest of the novel is devoted to his efforts to repair the Time Machine and leave this time period before getting infected with the disease. He also has an encounter with Robert Hooke. He eventually dies of the disease on 20 September 1665. The story gives a list of subsequent owners of the manuscript until 1976. It also gives the name of the Time Traveller as Robert James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 and disappearing without trace on 18 June 1894.
• The Space Machine by Christopher Priest, first published in 1976. Because of the movement of planets, stars, and galaxies, for a time machine to stay in one spot on Earth as it travels through time, it must also follow the Earth's trajectory through space. In Priest's book, a travelling salesman damages a Time Machine similar to the original, and arrives on Mars, just before the start of the invasion described in The War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells appears as a minor character.
• Morlock Night by K. W. Jeter, first published in 1979. A steampunk fantasy novel in which the Morlocks, having studied the Traveller's machine, duplicate it and invade Victorian London. This culminates in Westminster Abbey being used as a butcher shop of human beings by the Morlocks in the 20th century, and a total disruption and collapse of the time stream. There the hero and Merlin must find – and destroy – the Time Machine, to restore the time stream and history.
• Time Machine II by George Pal and Joe Morhaim, published in 1981. The Time Traveller, named George, and the pregnant Weena try to return to his time, but instead land in the London Blitz, dying during a bombing raid. Their newborn son is rescued by an American ambulance driver and grows up in the United States under the name Christopher Jones. Sought out by the lookalike son of James Filby, Jones goes to England to collect his inheritance, leading ultimately to George's journals, and the Time Machine's original plans. He builds his own machine with 1970s upgrades and seeks his parents in the future. Pal also worked on a detailed synopsis for a second sequel, which was partly filmed for a 1980s U.S. TV special on the making of Pal's film version of The Time Machine, using the original actors. This second sequel, the plot of which does not seem to fit with Pal's first, opens with the Time Traveller enjoying a happy life with Weena, in a future world in which the Morlocks have died out. He and his son return to save Filby in World War I. This act changes the future, causing the nuclear war not to happen. He and his son are thus cut off from Weena in the distant future. The Time Traveller thus has to solve a dilemma – allow his friend to die, and cause the later death of millions, or give up Weena forever.
• The Man Who Loved Morlocks (1981) and The Truth about Weena (1998) are two different sequels, the former a novel and the latter a short story, by David J. Lake. Each of them concerns the Time Traveller's return to the future. In the former, he discovers that he cannot enter any period in time he has already visited, forcing him to travel into the further future, where he finds love with a woman whose race evolved from Morlock stock. In the latter, he is accompanied by Wells and succeeds in rescuing Weena and bringing her back to the 1890s, where her political ideas cause a peaceful revolution.
• The Time Ships, by Stephen Baxter, was first published in 1995. This sequel was officially authorised by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's publication. In its wide-ranging narrative, the Traveller's desire to return and rescue Weena is thwarted by the fact that he has changed history (by telling his tale to his friends, one of whom published the account). With a Morlock (in the new history, the Morlocks are intelligent and cultured), he travels through the multiverse as increasingly complicated timelines unravel around him, eventually meeting mankind's far future descendants, whose ambition is to travel back to the birth of the universe, and modify the way the multiverse will unfold. This sequel includes many nods to the prehistory of Wells's story in the names of characters and chapters.
• In "The Richmond Enigma" by John DeChancie, Sherlock Holmes investigates the disappearance of the Time Traveller, a contemporary and, in this story, a distant relative. The intervention of Holmes and Watson succeeds in calling back the missing Time Traveller, who has resolved to prevent the time machine's existence, out of concern for the danger it could make possible. The story appeared in Sherlock Holmes in Orbit (1995)^[41]
• The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel by Joe R. Lansdale, first published in The Long Ones (1999). In this story, the Time Traveller accidentally damages the space-time continuum and is transformed into the vampire-like Dark Rider.
• The 2003 short story "On the Surface" by Robert J. Sawyer begins with this quote from the Wells original: "I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it [the time machine] to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose." In the Sawyer story, the Morlocks develop a fleet of time machines and use them to conquer the same far future Wells depicted at the end of the original, by which time, because the sun has grown red and dim and thus no longer blinds them, they can reclaim the surface of the world.
• The Time Traveller and his machine appear in the story Allan and the Sundered Veil by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, which acts as a prequel to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume One. The Time Traveller shares an adventure with fellow literary icons Allan Quatermain, John Carter, and Randolph Carter.
• David Haden's novelette The Time Machine: A Sequel (2010) is a direct sequel, picking up where the original finished. The Time Traveller goes back to rescue Weena but finds the Eloi less simple than he first imagined, and time travel far more complicated.
• Simon Baxter's novel The British Empire: Psychic Battalions Against the Morlocks (2010) imagines a steampunk/cyberpunk future in which the British Empire has remained the dominant world force until the Morlocks arrive from the future.
• Hal Colebatch's Time-Machine Troopers (2011) (Acashic Publishers) is twice the length of the original. In it, the Time Traveller returns to the future world about 18 years after the time he escaped from the Morlocks, taking with him Robert Baden-Powell, the real-world founder of the Boy Scout movement. They set out to teach the Eloi self-reliance and self-defence against the Morlocks, but the Morlocks capture them. H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill are also featured as characters.
• Paul Schullery's The Time Traveller's Tale: Chronicle of a Morlock Captivity (2012) continues the story in the voice and manner of the original Wells book. After many years' absence, the Time Traveller returns and describes his further adventures. His attempts to mobilize the Eloi in their own defense against the Morlocks failed when he was captured by the Morlocks. Much of the book is occupied with his deeply unsettling discoveries about the Morlock / Eloi symbiosis, his gradual assimilation into Morlock society, and his ultimately successful attempt to discover the true cause of humanity's catastrophic transformation into two such tragic races.
• The Great Illustrated Classics in 1992 published an adaptation of Wells's novella that adds an extra destination to the Time Traveller's adventure: Stopping in 2200 AD on his way back home, he becomes caught up in a civil war between factions of a technocratic society that was established to avert ecological catastrophe.
• Beyond the Time Machine by Burt Libe (2002). The first of two Time Machine sequels written by US writer Burt Libe, it continues the story of the Time Traveller: where he finally settles down, including his rescue of Weena and his subsequent family with her. Highlighted are exploits of his daughters Narra and her younger sister Belinda; coping with their 33rd-Century existence; considering their unusual past and far-Future heritage. Doing some time travelling of their own, the daughters revisit 802,701 AD, discovering that the so-called dual-specie Eloi and Morlock inhabitants actually are far more complex and complicated than their father's initial appraisal.
• Tangles in Time by Burt Libe (2005). The second of two Time Machine sequels written by American writer Burt Libe, it continues the story of younger daughter Belinda, now grown at age 22. Her father (the original Time Traveller) has just died from old age, and she and Weena (her mother) now must decide what to do with the rest of their lives. Weena makes a very unusual decision, leaving Belinda to search for her own place in time. Also, with further time travel, she locates her two long-lost brothers, previously thought to be dead; she also meets and rescues a young man from the far future, finding herself involved in a very confusing relationship.
• Epilogue: Time Machine Chronicles is a 2010 sequel by Jaime V. Batista

Although the Time Traveller's real name is never given in the original novella, other sources have named him:

• The 1960 film named him H. George Wells, although he was only called George in dialogue.
• In the 1978 telefilm version of the story, the Time Traveller (this time a modern-day American) is named Dr. Neil Perry.
• H.G. Wells' great-grandson, Simon Wells, directed a 2002 remake where the Time Traveller's name is Alexander Hartdegen.
• In The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter's sequel to The Time Machine, the Time Traveller encounters his younger self via time travel. His younger self reacts with embarrassment to his older self's knowledge of his real names: "I held up my hand; I had an inspiration. "No. I will use—if you will permit—Moses." He took a deep pull on his brandy, and gazed at me with genuine anger in his grey eyes. "How do you know about that?" Moses—my hated first name, for which I had been endlessly tormented at school—and which I had kept a secret since leaving home!"^[42] This is a reference to H.G. Wells's story "The Chronic Argonauts", the story which grew into The Time Machine, in which the inventor of the Time Machine is named Dr. Moses Nebogipfel; the surname of Wells's first inventor graces another character in Baxter's book (see above).
• Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life by Philip José Farmer gives the Time Traveller's name as Bruce Clarke Wildman.
• The Rook comic book series gives the Time Traveller's name as Adam Dane.
• In the Doctor Who comic strip story "The Eternal Present", the character of Theophilus Tolliver is implied to be the Time Traveller of Wells's novella. Also featured in Doctor Who is Wells, himself, appearing in the television serial Timelash. The events of this story are portrayed as having inspired Wells to write The Time Machine.
• In Episode 11, Season 1, of US television series Legends of Tomorrow the team travels back in time to the Old West in hopes to hide from the Time Masters. During their stay there the character Martin Stein saves a boy's life with modern medicine. After a fighting scene that reveals their whole team to be from the future, Martin Stein learns that the name of the boy he saved is Herbert George Wells. "You're H.G. Wells?" he asks him, the boy replies "H.G.Wells, I like that name", implying that they inspired the stories that he wrote and also the name he goes by.^[43]
• The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper names the Time Traveller as Dr. Robert James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 and disappearing without trace on 18 June 1894, and who was part of the same social and political circle as Wells – in particular, the Fabian Society.
• The Space Machine by Christopher Priest gives the Time Traveller's name as William Reynolds.
• Sherlock Holmes & The Coils of Time by Ralph E. Vaughan gives the Time Traveller's name as Moesen Maddoc.
• The I.C.E. role-playing game supplement Time Riders suggests that the Time Traveller's name is Ashleigh Holmes. It suggests that the Time Traveller is actually a woman who disguised herself as a man during the male chauvinistic Victorian era. She is said to be the sister of Sherlock Holmes.
• It has also been suggested that the Time Traveller was based on Thomas Edison.

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Shechem

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Location

 

1. Biblical Shechem is also known as Sychar in the New Testament, and as Tel Balata and Nablus, today.

 

2. Shechem is located about 30 miles (48 km.) north of Jerusalem and about 30 miles (48 km.) northeast of Tel Aviv.

 

3. It was in the Samaria region of Israel in the territory of Ephraim during Bible times.

 

4. It was on a main north-south travel route that linked the northern and southern parts of Israel.

 

5. It was also on a main east-west route that linked the coastal plain of Israel with the Jordan Valley. 

 

6. Shechem lies between the two famous mountains of Gerizim and Ebal.

 

Historical Background

 

1. Shechem had a significant role in the Bible and is mentioned 58 times.

 

2. God first appeared to Abraham in Shechem and gave him the promise that he would inherit the land.

 

3. Abraham and Jacob lived here.

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4. Jacob lived here and built a well.

 

5. Joseph’s bones are buried here.

 

6. The blessings and curses given on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal took place here. 

 

7. Joshua rallied all Israel and made a covenant with them in Shechem.

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8. Abimelech, son of Gideon, reigned wickedly over Shechem for three years. It was he who burned down the fortress temple here called, "El-Berith," and killed 1,000 people who had taken refuge in it. Later, he was killed by a woman who threw a millstone down on his head.

 

9. The nation of Israel became divided in Shechem.

 

10. Shechem became the capital of the northern tribes of Israel under King Jeroboam’s rule.

 

11. The Samaritans worshiped on top of Mount Gerizim and there are substantial ruins there today. 

 

​12. Jesus met with a Samaritan woman (John 4) at Jacob’s Well in Shechem. Today, this well is located in a Greek Orthodox church called, "The Church of Jacob's Well." 

 

13. The Samaritans were a small group of unfaithful Israelites who remained in the land of Israel and intermarried with foreign unbelievers after the deportation of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. They established their own religion at Mount Gerizim and built their own temple. They were despised and rejected by the Jews and considered unclean. The Samaritans, likewise, despised the Jews and had few dealings with them. The Samaritans only believe in the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament).

 

Places of Interest

 

1. Tel Balata

 

• Visitor Center

 

• Northwest Gate

 

• City Wall

 

• Fortress Temple

 

• Joshua’s Stone (Erected after Joshua made a covenant with the Israelites)

 

• Sacred Courtyard

 

• Houses

 

• Eastern Gate

 

2. Mount Gerizim

 

• 2nd-century buildings

 

• Fortified enclosure

 

• Citadel

 

• Courtyards

 

• 2nd-century mansion

 

• 12 Stone Altar

 

• Byzantine Church

 

• Byzantine Gate

 

• 2nd-century Gate

 

• Byzantine Monastery

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• Eastern Gate

 

3.    Mount Ebal

 

• Joshua’s Rectangular Altar

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• Circular Altar below Rectangular Altar (possibly that of Abraham or Jacob)

 

4. Jacob’s Well (120 feet, 40 m. deep)

 

5. Joseph’s Tomb

 

6. Modern Shechem (Nablus)

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7. Sychar

 

Jacob's Well and the Samaritan Woman In the Bible

 

Shechem, called Sychar, is the place Jesus met a woman at Jacob’s well and conversed with her. 
John 4:1–26: Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep [120 feet, 40 m.]. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain [Gerizim], but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

 

John 4:39–42: Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

 

Other Mentions of Shechem In the Bible

 

1. Shechem is the place where God first appeared to Abraham after he entered the Promised Land. 
Genesis 12:4–7: So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 

 

2. It was at Shechem where Jacob settled after reuniting with his estranged brother, Esau, upon his return from Paddan-aram.
Genesis 33:18–20:  And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city. 19 And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent. 20 There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel (God; the God of Israel).

 

3. The defilement of Dinah, Jacob’s daughter, took place at Shechem.
Genesis 34:1–4: Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. 2 And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. 3 And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 So Shechem spoke to his father Hamor, saying, “Get me this girl for my wife.” 

 

Genesis 34:25–27: On the third day, when they were sore [from being circumcised], two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away. 27 The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.

 

4. It was in Shechem that Jacob buried his foreign gods and committed himself fully to the true and living God of his forefathers.
Genesis 35:4: So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. 

 

5. To the rich pastureland near Shechem, Joseph came to seek his brethren and was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt.
Genesis 37:12–14: Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14 So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.” So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

 

6. The bones of Joseph were buried in Shechem 
Joshua 24:32: Now they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons.

​

7. On the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, Moses commanded the Israelites to pronounce blessings and curses for their obedience or disobedience to Him.  
Deuteronomy 27:11–13: That day Moses charged the people, saying, 12 “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.”

 

The blessings and curses pronounced on Gerizim and Ebal would become the foundational reference point to which God would refer in punishing Israel and Judah by sending them wars, famines, and pestilences. Eventually, their disobedience would lead to their deportations. Because they had broken the covenant on Gerizim and Ebal repeatedly, they deserved the discipline God gave them. 

 

8. As commanded by Moses, Joshua erected an altar on Mount Ebal with uncut stones.
Deuteronomy 27:1–8: Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2 And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4 And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; 6 you shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God, 7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. 8 And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”

 

9. When his end was approaching, Joshua gathered the tribes of Israel at Shechem and gave them his final words of counsel and exhortation. Afterward, he erected a large stone as a monument to mark the covenant with the people and God. This stone can be seen today at Tel Balata.
Joshua 24:1: Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God. 

 

Joshua 24:14–16: Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

 

Joshua 24:25–27: So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. 26 And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore, it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”

 

10. Abimelech, son of Gideon, reigned wickedly over Shechem for three years. It was he who burned down the fortress temple here called, "El-Berith," and killed 1,000 people who had taken refuge in it. Later, he was killed by a woman who threw a millstone down on his head.

Judges 9:46, 49: When all the leaders of the tower of Shechem heard about it, they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith. 49 So all the people also cut down, each one, his branch and followed Abimelech, and put them on top of the inner chamber and set the inner chamber on fire over those inside, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem also died, about a thousand men and women.

​

Judges 9:52-54:So Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it, and approached the entrance of the tower to burn it down with fire. 53 But a woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that it will not be said of me, ‘A woman killed him.’”

 

11. It was at Shechem the nation of Israel became divided, and Jeroboam reigned over the northern section (Israel) and Rehoboam over the southern section (Judah).
1 Kings 12:1–2: Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

 

1 Kings 12:16–17: And when all Israel saw that the king (Rehoboam) did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.

 

12. King Jeroboam fortified Shechem and ordered that two golden calves be erected in Bethel and Dan.
1 Kings 12:25–29: Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. 26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” 28 So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

 

13. Later, Shechem became the central city of the Samaritans, who built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim.

 

Faith Lesson from Shechem

 

1. Of all the events that happened at Shechem, Jesus summed up God’s desire for us when He told the woman at the well, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 2:23–24). 

 

2. Do we worship God in spirit? 

 

3. Do we walk in the Spirit and stay in close fellowship with God (Gal. 5:16–26)?

 

4. Do we worship God in truth?

 

5. Do we know God’s Word well and the truth it contains (2 Tim. 2:15)?

 

6. We will only know God to the degree we know His Word. How well do you know God?