JERUSALEM (je-ru'sa-I6m), (Heb. yer oo-shaw-lame' , founded peaceful).
Jerusalem has been the theme for song and story from the earliest ages. "Beautiful for situ ation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sidcs of the north, the city of the great king" (Ps. xlviii :2). "Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together" (Ps. cxxii :3).
1. JV am es. In the time of Abraham it was called Salem (Gen. xiv :18), but when it fell into the hands of the Jebusites, they called it Jebus; then the two words were united into one, Jerusa lem, or "habitation of peace." It is first men tioned as such in Joshua x:i. The Psalmist says (lxxvi :2) : Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." After the death of Joshua the tribes of Judah and of Simeon fought against' the Canaanites, and captured and burned the city of Jerusalem (Judg. i:i-8). Again, we learn that the "children of Benjamin did not drive out the lebusites that inhabited Jerusalem" (Judi; 1:21). This statement has reference, doubtless, to the kower city, and not to what was afterwards called Mount Zion. The latter was conquered by David when he led his forces from Hebron to the conquest, and after this brilliant assault it was called the "City of David." :This latter name, during the reign of the Maccabees, was sometimes applied to the whole city, but gradually shifted back to the spot still known as Mount Zion, and mentioned so many times in Scripture. In Ezekiel xvi:3; it is written: "Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem ; thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite"—and, indeed, we find a remnant of the Hittite population in the city so late as the time of David. The Latins called it Hierosolyma, and once Ariel; the Greeks had a similar name. In 2 Chron. xxv :28, it is called "the City of Judah." Pharaoh-necho took the "City of Cadytis," which historians believe to be Jerusalem. The "City of God," the "Holy City," "Solima," "CoIonia /Elia Capitolina," "Curumobarech," "Leucost," "the Perfection of Beauty," "Princess among the Provinces," are some of the names, while the Arabs speak of it as "El-Khuds"—"the Holy." 2. Situation and Topography. Jerusalem lies near the summit of a broad mountain-ridge, about thirty-five miles east from Joppa on the Mediterranean Sca, eighteen miles west of the north end of the Dead Sea, twenty-two from the Jordan, and with a general elevation of two thousand five hundred feet above the level of the ocean, and three thousand eight hundred and fifty-two higher than the surface of the Dead Sea, the latter being one thousand three hundred and twelve feet below the Mediterranean Sea, and the lowest point on the surface of the globe. "In
several respects," says Stanley, "its situation is singular among the cities of Palestine. Its ele vation is remarkable; occasioned not from its be ing on the summit of one of the numerous hills of Judxa, like most of the towns and villages, but because it is on the edge of one of the highest table-lands of the country. Hebron indeed is higher still by some hundred feet, and from the south, accordingly (even from Bethlehem), the approach to Jerusalem is by a slight descent. But from any other side the ascent is perpetual; and to the traveler approaching the city from the east or west it must always have presented tbe ap pearance beyond any other capital of the then known world—we may say beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earth—of a mountain city; breathing, as compared with the sultry plains of Jordan, a mountain air; en throned, as compared with Jericho, or Damascus, Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness" (S. & P. p. 17o, 171).
The ridge, or mountainous tract, on which Je rusalem stands, extends, without interruption, from the plain of Esdraelon to a line drawn be tween the south end of the Dead Sea and the southeast corner of the Mediterranean; or, more properly, perhaps, it may be regarded as extend ing as far south as to Jebel Araif in the Desert, where it sinks down at once to the level of the great western plateau. This tract, which is every where not less than from twenty to twenty-five geographical miles in breadth, is, in fact, high, un even table-land. It everywhere forms the pre cipitous western wall of the great valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and is everywhere rocky, uneven, and mountainous; awl is, more over, cut up by deep valleys which run east or west on either side towards the Jordan or the Mediterranean. The line of division, or water shed, between the waters of these valleys—a term which here applies almost exclusively to the waters of the rainy season—follows for the most part the height of land along the ridge; yet not so but that the heads of the valleys, which run off in different directions, often interlap for a considerable distance. Thus, for example, a val ley which descends to the Jordan often has its head a mile or two westward of the commence ment of other valleys which run to the western sea.