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Many visitors to presentday Jerusalem have the mistaken impression that the "Old City" the walled section of the eastern city is the site of the ancient Jerusalem of the Bible. In fact, the city whose history would become the common legacy of all humanity had its beginnings outside today's walled city. The biblical City of David was built on the southern slope of Mount Moriah. Only in the reign of King Solomon did it expand northward, to encompass Mount Moriah. The main reasons for King David's choice of Jerusalem as his capital, despite its inferior natural features, are noted in the introductory screen to the First Temple Period. Another reason was the location there of the Gihon Spring. |
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Jerusalem's status was radically altered when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the city: Thus David and all the House of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts and with blasts of the horn (2 Samuel 6:15). This act by King David made Jerusalem the exclusive national, religious, and administrative center of the Israelites. Initially the Ark was not placed on Mount Moriah, of which the summit was then bare and exposed, and which, surprisingly, remained the private property of Araunah, the city's previous Jebusite king. Instead, the Ark was placed in one of the governmental buildings which were built in the bottom part of the "Ophel", or "miloh" (infill), area. During Solomon's reign the lateral valley that separated the city from Mount Moriah was filled in with dirt and became the site of many palaces, while the Temple was built on the summit of the mountain. Despite its fortifications, the city was vulnerable because its water sources were external. On the eve of the Assyrian siege of 701 BCE this fault in the city's defenses was repaired by an engineering feat which produced Hezekiahs Tunnel. The tunnel was the last in a series of such projects and assured the city a constant and regular supply of water. |
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Under King Hezekiah the city achieved the zenith of its development, expanding westward to the slopes of Mount Zion , the area of today's Jewish Quarter and Armenian Quarter inside the Old City wall. An impressive remnant of this expansion is the "broad wall" which was built in order to defend this part of the city on the eve of the siege laid by the Assyrians under King Sennacherib. Heartened by the words of the prophet Isaiah, who advised King Hezekiah, Jerusalem withstood the siege, but in 586 BCE fell to the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar, who ordered the city s annihilation: "He burned the House of the Lord, the King's palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem: he burned down the house of every notable person" (2 Kings 25:9). The great fire also consumed the royal archives but left us with royal seals made of clay ("bullae") which were baked by the great heat of the conflagration and so survived intact. It was in the small area of the City of David that the prophets uttered their resounding perorations during the period of the First Temple, articulating spiritual and ethical values which became pillars of human civilization. The city's residents, who had previously heard the prophet Jeremiah bemoan their coming destruction, now took solace from the consolation he offered - "And I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have banished you, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 29:14) as they were led into exile in Babylon which was destined to last 50 years. |
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