SALEM (Hebrew Sálem, Septuagint Σαλημ), — A Canaanite city, of which MELCHIZEDEK was king (Gen. 14:18; Heb. 7:1-2) and which corresponds to Jerusalem, as shown by the parallelism with “Zion” in Ps. 75 (76):3. The relationship with the name Jerusalem, Akkadian Urusalim, Uruslim(mu), is not clear: S. may be an abbreviation, with an allusion to the name of a hypothetical deity S., Salim.
According to the Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Syriac of Gen. 33:8, Jacob, returning from Mesopotamia, came to S., “city of the Shechemites.” But according to the Hebrew text, it should be understood that from that journey “Jacob arrived safely (sálem) in the city of Shechem.”
According to the Greek of Jdt. 4:4 (omitted in the Vulgate), a valley in Samaria was called S.; some scholars identify it with a modern locality named Salim, east of Nablus (Shechem).