QUEST. X. Whether Iacob came to Salem.

Vers. 18. HE came safe to Sechem, &c. 1. Some reade, he came to Salem a City of Sechem•, 〈…〉 Sep∣tuag. and Latine translator, and Mercer. but it were superfluous in the same place 〈◊〉 call a City by two names. 2. This Salem some would have to be Silo, as some Hebrewes: some take it 〈◊〉•e∣rusalem, as Iosephus; some for Melchisedecks towne, as Hierome; where the ruines of Melchisedecks Palace were to be seene in his time: some will have this Salem to be that Salem spoken of, Ioh. 3.23. where Iohn Baptist baptized:* and that Salem and Sichem were names of that same City first called Salem, after∣ward Sichem, Tostat. But all these opinions are uncertaine. Silo and Sechem were two distinct places, Iud. 21.19. Salem Melchisedecks towne was Jerusalem, Psal. 76.2. In Shalem i• his Tabernacle, his dwelling in Sion: and if Sichem were the new name, Salem the old, it should in the Gospell be called by the new name rather than the old: and that Salem was a divers place from Sechem, called Sychar, is evident: for Salem was in Judea, Ioh. 3.23. and our Saviour leaving Judea came to Sychar or Sichem, Iohn 4.6. there might be then another towne beside Jerusalem, called Salem, but not the same with Sichem. 3. Where∣fore the better reading is, that Iacob came safe and in peace to Sechem: not for that he was now healed of his halting, as the Hebrewes imagine: which in part remained still as a monument of that combat with the Angell: but he came same safe in respect of the danger which he feared from the hands of Esau.