Tomb of Joseph, Nablous
The pilgrims from Jerusalem having left Shiloh would in about ten miles’ further travel reach Joseph’s Tomb, a mile and a half to the south of Nablous. This is supposed to be on “the parcel of ground purchased by Jacob,” and is an object of great veneration. It stands at the eastern entrance to the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Jews, Samaritans, Christians and Mohammedans agree on the identity of this sacred place. The low-domed mosque gleams white against the mountain back ground. The tomb itself is about six feet long and four feet high, covered with ordinary plaster, which has been whitewashed, as are all the Moslem graves of the country. Within the entrance to the inclosure is the vine “whose branches run over the wall,” recording the words of Jacob when he blessed Joseph. Hebrew, Arabic and Samaritan inscriptions are on the wall. It is really the tomb that should mark the resting place of the bones of Joseph, the Hebrew prince of Egypt and the savior of his people. For more than sixty years his mummy traveled with the tribes of Israel, after his four hundred years’ entombment in Egypt, and it must have been a relief to the people when he was at last buried for all time in the little inheritance in Canaan that “Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor for one hundred pieces of silver.” Near by is the “wandering field of Joseph,” where, after days of fruitless search for his brother, he met a certain man of Shechem who had heard his brother say, “Let us go to Dothan.” He had wandered fifty miles to be rejected of his brethren.
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