TIIE ANCIENT AND CITY. Of the history of Jernsalem up to the time of David very little is known. The notices in the Tell el Amarna letters and the statement in Gen. xiv. 18 only show that it was a place of some impor tance long before the Hebrew occupation. The account of the conquest of the region south of Jenisalem by the tribe of Judah (Judges i. 3. 21, in which verse 8 seems to he a late gloss, and verse 21 is to be corrected according to Joshua NV. 63) shows that the city was too strongly fortified to be taken. With this the other ancient reference (Judges xix. 10-12) agrees. It re mained a ,Tehusite city until its capture by David. Its King, Adoni Zedek, was captured, it is true. by Joshua at the battle of Makkedah (Joshua x. 5-26), but the city remained in the hands of the Canaanites.
When David became King over all Israel (II. Sam. v. 1 sqq.), he discerned the advantages of Jerusalem, and determined to make it his capital and sanctuary. He succeeded in taking it from the Jebusites, and at once i.et about improving and fortifying it as the seat of his kingdom (H. Sam. V. 6-12). Soon after he removed thither the ark of Jehovah from its obscurity at Kirjath Jearim (II. dam. vi.). On the basis of the de scription by Josephus (Wars, V. iv. 1) the long current opinion has been that the citadel taken by David and the city which he walled and improved occupied the high southwestern hill. But excava tions and discoveries of remains of old walls and other ancient structures during the past forty years have resulted in the accumulation of a body of evidence which necessitates an entirely different view. This newer view alone agrees with the incidental topographical notices in the Old Testament. The citadel of the Jebusites was on Ophel, the southern part of the ealtern hill, east of the Tyropceon Valley. Between it and the other summit to the north, then used as a threshing floor (cf. II. Sam. xxiv. 15-25; I. Chron. xxi. IS 30 ; xxii. 1; 11. Chron. iii. 1), lay a ravine, after wards gradually filled up by later building opera tions. It was thus isolated on all sides. At the font of its eastern slope was the only natural Apring in the vicinity, anciently called Gihon (I. Kings i. 33, 3S, 45; II. Citron. xxxii. 30; xxxiii. 30), afterwards named the Virgin's Fountain, while the surrounding hills and valleys were waterless. The slopes were steep and easily forti fied. The exact location of David's palace and other buildings (cf. iii. 16) is not known, nor the extent of the fortifications built by him. This hill. called Zion, now became known also as the City of David. It is probable that the Tyro pmon Valley to the west and the southern and eastern slope's of the western hill were settled to some extent. David or Solomon may have thrown a Nvall (the first wall of Josephus) about these settlements, though no satisfactory evidence of this is at hand. This wall ran about due west from the southwest corner of the temple hill as far as the northwest corner of the western hill; then, turning southward. and swinging around the southern slopes of this hill. it crossed over to the south of ()pile]. there joining the fortifications of the City of David. The chief feature of David's fortifications wawllo' (probably a massive tower), often mentioned, but not yet identified.
What David began his son Solomon enlarged. On the hill north of the somewhat small and unpretentious palace of David he built a series of buildings on a scale of magnificence hitherto unknown in Israel. After the necessary leveling of the surface. which involved the partial filling up of the ravine between Zion and the northern hill, and the laying of the substructures, espe cially heavy retaining walls on the south face of the north hill. Solomon built (I) a new royal palace with its adjuncts, and (2) a sanctuary or temple. The palace was a complex of buildings consisting of the 'house of the forest of Lebanon,' constructer[ of cedar pillars and beams, 50 cubits wide, 10u long. and 30 high, a throne-hall, 30 X 50 'cubits. with porticoes, and the palace proper or royal dwelling; somewhere near were apartments built for his Egyptian queen and also the prison (Jer. xxxii. 2; iii. 25-27). These buildings were arranged in the order given from south to north, the house of the forest of Lebanon being nearest David's old palace. the royal dwell ing being nearest the temple. They were not all on the same level, but were on successive terraces, the palace occupying the highest. On a still higher elevation than the palace were the courts and buildings of the temple. The temple was built on the site of the threshing-floor of Araunall (I. Chron. xxii. 1). The main building was of great beauty, though comparatively small (20 X 60 cubits), of stone and cedar. At the entrance stood two large bronze pillars of symbolic sig nificance (I. Kings vi. and vii. 13-50). It was surrounded with a court in which were the altar of burnt offerings and the great molten sea or reservoir (I. Kings vii. 9-12; 13-47). A passage way led from the court to the palace below (I [. Kings xi. 13, 16; xvi. IS). At the dedication of the temple the ark was 'brought up' from the City of David (I. Kings viii. 1, 3; cf. ix. 24) to the new sanctuary. To the temple mount now
considered the dwelling-place of Yahweh, Israel's God, the name Zion was transferred (cf. Amos I. 2; Micah iv. 2; Isa. viii. IS. etc). The temple and palace area was encircled by a strong wall. The city of Solomon was thus larger and more magnificent than that of David. The great buildings and main fortifications were mostly. if not entirely. on the eastern hills. Thence the city gradually spread westward. covering the slopes of the Tyropo'on Ira-Bey and the western hills. With the secession of the northern tribes from the rule of the house of David (c.933 p.c.) Joni salem's importance was diminished. For nearly two centuries it was barely able to hold its own. It was captured several times, and not until the prosperous reigns of Uzziah and his son Jotham (II. Chron. xxvi.. xxvii.) were extensive improve ments undertaken. They greatly strengthened the fortifications by building strong towers near the gates and at the corners of the wall. Heze kiah (c. 720-6S9 n.e.), seeing the necessity of preparing for a conflict with Assyria. paid espe cial attention to the fortifications and the water supply. In place of the extra-mural surface conduit that conducted the waters of Gihon the eastern and then across to the western side of Ophel he had an underground conduit tunneled a distance of 1700 feet to convey the water of Gihon to the pool or reservoir of Siloam. on the southwest slope of Ophel, near the mouth of the Tyroppon Valley. This conduit was discovered in ISS6 by Dr. Schick. About 2.5 feet troin the Pool of Siloam an old Hebrew inscription tells of the meeting of the two parties of work men working toward each other in constructing the tunnel. (See SILOAM.) The pool was hewn out of the rock and measured 71 feet north and south by 75 feet east and west. Stone steps led down to it. Lower down the valley Ilezekiah constructed a seeond reservoir to hold the over flow of Siloam. Walls and fortifications for the protection of these works were also erected (cf. Isa. xxii. 7-11; II. Kings xx. 20; II. Citron. xxxii. 5; 11. Kings xx•. 4 ). Doubtless, the city by this time contained numerous cisterns for surface water. The surplus of Siloam were used for t•he King's gardens about the southern slope of Ophel, and the underground drainage of the three valleys filled a spring or well at the junction of the Hinnom and Kidron valleys called En Hegel (Job's or Joah's well). Senna•herib did not lay regular siege to Je•usa lem, and for nearly a hundred years after Ileze• Isiah the city \Nils in comparative peace. Samarht had been captured in me. 722. and Jerusalem was now without a rival in Palestine, though Judah was but a vassal State of the Assyrian Empire. The city grew; in the reign of Josiah (tte. 639 WS) we read of a 'second quarter' of the town (I1. Kings xxii. 14, Zeph. i. 10) and the mention of numerous gates in Jeremiah and in Nehemiall's account of his reconstrnction of the old walls makes it likely that by the time of the capture by Nebuchadnezzar the city wall incIlised the 'second quarter' as well as the southwestern and eastern hills. This wall, perhaps begun by Hue kiah (see above), probably extended westward from the temple area. which was already well fortified, along the line of Josephus's second wall (Wars, V. iv. 2). After submitting to Nebuchad nezzar, mc. 597, the city rebelled, and in 5S7-5S8 sustained a long and terrible siege of one year five months and seven days. On its capture the temple was burned, the walls broken down, the city laid in ruins, and the best part of the popu lation deported. (II. Kings xxiv. and XXV.; also Jeremiah and Ezekiel, passim.) For years the city was a desolation. In B.C. 530 Cyrus gave permission to the Jews in Babylonia to return to Palestine. Upward of 50.000 availed themselves of the opportunity. Tint as the royal decree. had contained no sion to relmild the city walls, the second temple, on the same site as the old one. but less tious. and completed about 516. was at first. without walls (Ezra i.-vi.; also Haggai and Zech. No permanent success in Availing the city that aoain began to grow up near the temple was achieved until the arrival of Nehemiah (e.445 n.e.) as royal Governor. This energetic man traced and rebuilt the old wall of pre-exilic days, in the remarkably short time of fifty-two days, putting the whole available population at work. lie also completed a fortification near the ple—probably the Paris (of Josephus) vards wade over by Herod into the great castle of Antonia. The description contained in Neh. ii. 12-16 and iii. is an invaluable source for the topography of the old city. but details must. he emitted here. The city area thus walled in being sparsely inhabited, Nehemiah persuaded many to take up their residence there (xi. 1 sqq.). The Law-book pnbliely read by Ezra was adopted as the eonstitution of the community. This act completed the transition from the 'old Hebrew teligion to Judaism, and of Judaism Jerusalem now beenme the head. Foreigners were, as far as possible. excluded from citizenship. (See Ezra ix.-x. and Neh. in Nehemiah's restora tion the old palaces of David's city were not rebuilt.