Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, And in the palaces in the land of Egypt, And say, "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, And see what unrest is in her, And what oppression is among them."
The broad vale near the hill of Dothan , along which the blinded Syrian army followed Elisha to Samaria, contracts into “a narrow valley” , before it reaches Samaria. The author of the book of Judith, who knew well the country, speaks of “the passages of the hill-country” near Dothaim, “by” which “there was an entrance into Judaea, and it was easy to stop them that would come up, because the passage was strait for two men at the most” . : “A series of long winding ravines open from the mountains to the plain; these were the passes so often defended by the ‘horns of Joseph, the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh’ against the invaders from the north.”