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SHUNEM.—A border town of Issachar (Jos_19:18), and the camping-ground of the Philistines before Saul’s last battle (1Sa_28:4). It has been identified from early times with Sôlam, a village five miles south of Tabor, on the south slope of Little Hermon. It is on the north of the Valley of Jezreel, and opposite to Gilboa, where Saul was encamped; the situation suits the scene of the battle well. A Shunem is also the scene of Elisha’s miracle in 2Ki_4:8 ff., where the identification is more doubtful. The narrative suggests a place on the road from Samaria, his home (2Ki_4:1), to Carmel, and not too far from the latter (2Ki_4:25 ff.); Solam satisfies neither of these conditions. Shunammite is applied (1) to Abishag (1Ki_1:2), who is perhaps the original of the Shulammite of Son_6:13, the interchange of t and n being exemplified in the modern Solam = Shunem; (2) to the unnamed friend of Elisha in 2Ki_4:8 ff; 2Ki_8:1-6. The narrative gives us a picture of Heb. home-life at its best, and shows how the legal and theoretical subjection of the wife was often modified in practice. She is ‘a great woman,’ perhaps an heiress, and takes the lead in both stories; by the time of the latter she may have been a widow. For the miracle, cf. 1Ki_17:8 ff..
C. W. Emmet.