The Jerusalem Bible (Standard Edition)

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This was the home they had been looking for and David’s heart began dreaming of building a house for God.

window, document, "script", "https://95662602.adoric-om.com/adoric.js", "Adoric_Script", "adoric","9cc40a7455aa779b8031bd738f77ccf1", "data-key"); In 2005, 2,850 new immigrants settled in Jerusalem, mostly from the United States, France and the former Soviet Union. In terms of the local population, the number of outgoing residents exceeds the number of incoming residents. In 2005, 16,000 left Jerusalem and only 10,000 moved in. [334] Nevertheless, the population of Jerusalem continues to rise due to the high birth rate, especially in the Haredi Jewish and Arab communities. Consequently, the total fertility rate in Jerusalem (4.02) is higher than in Tel Aviv (1.98) and well above the national average of 2.90. The average size of Jerusalem's 180,000 households is 3.8 people. [334] After three years of flight and exile from Jerusalem ( v. 38), Absalom was enabled to return ( 14:23; cf. 15:8); but in about 980, after additional years of plotting, this oldest surviving son succeeded in driving his father out of Zion ( 15:16, 37) and even occupied the palace, on the roof of which he publicly cohabited with his father’s concubines ( 16:22; cf. 11:2; 12:8, 11, 12 on its retributive character). Scripture traces David’s flight in detail. Whereas certain points, such as his initial tarrying at בֵּ֥ית הַמֶּרְחָֽק, “Beth-merhak” ( 15:17 ASV), “at the Far House” (ASVmg.), remain uncertain, much of his route is identified by yet recognizable geographical features. When David’s party had moved eastward, across the Brook Kidron ( v. 23), he was overtaken by the high priest Zadok and all the Levites bearing the Ark of the covenant from its tent on Mt. Zion; but David had them return to Jerusalem. The group moved E and “went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives” ( v. 30). David was met by Hushai at “the summit, where God was worshiped” ( v. 32), indicating the existence of a shrine, perhaps near the present Dome of the Ascension close to the summit of Olivet. David had taken the shorter, and harder, route over the crest of the ridge rather than going around the southern end of Olivet, as does the modern highway to Jericho. “A little beyond the summit” ( 16:1) he was met by Ziba with provisions, from which point he proceeded past Bahurim ( v. 5), perhaps the modern Ras et Tmim, E of Mt. Scopus (N of Olivet; cf. Wright and Filson, The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, p. 108) and on toward the Jordan. Meanwhile the sons of the priests Zadok and Abiathar were waiting at En-Rogel, just S of Jerusalem, to carry intelligence from Hushai to David ( 17:16, 17), were almost apprehended at Bahurim ( v. 18), but managed to hide and then get the necessary word to David for a prompt crossing of the Jordan River ( v. 22). After the defeat and death of Absalom, David was again installed in his capital of Jerusalem ( 19:15, 40; 20:3).

His son Amaziah, who acceded to the throne in 796, suffered such a defeat before the armies of N Israel that Jerusalem was plundered and 600 ft. of the northern wall, from the Gate of Ephraim to the (NW) corner gate, was demolished ( 2 Kings 14:13, 14). Thiele dates this precisely to 790 b.c., the time of Uzziah’s elevation to coregency ( Mysterious Numbers of the Heb. Kings, 1st ed., pp. 70-72; contrast his less likely, earlier date in the 2nd ed., p. 83). Solomon brought the Ark up to Mt. Moriah from Mt. Zion during the Feast of Tabernacles the following year, 958 b.c. ( 2 Chron 5:2-10). He also reunited it with the remaining elements of the Mosaic sanctuary by bodily transporting the Tabernacle to Jerusalem from Gibeon and laying it up within the new Temple ( 5:5). The climax of the dedication occured when the theophanic cloud of God’s glory entered and filled the Temple ( 1 Kings 8:10, 11), so that it became in very truth the “house of the Lord.” Jerusalem was thus confirmed as the chosen city of God, as the place in which his “name” (q.v.), condescended to dwell ( 2 Chron 6:6).

It is easy to find Jerusalem in the Bible, starting at the beginning. In Genesis, God spoke to Abraham to take Isaac to a particular place within Canaan. He said, By the time Jesus is born in Bethlehem, the centrality of Jerusalem in God’s plan had not decayed. All Israel pilgrimaged to Jerusalem at the time of the moedim– the appointed times, as commanded by God. Jesus also taught and ministered in Jerusalem frequently. David forthwith transferred his residence to Zion, the fortified city of Jerusalem, and named it after himself, “the City of David” ( 2 Sam 5:9). He also engaged in considerable building. This included his palace, by means of cedar timbers and skilled craftsmen provided by Hiram king of Tyre ( v. 11), and the “Millo,” q.v. ( v. 9), “a filling,” which may refer to a reinforcing of the system of platforms and terraces already established by the Canaanites on the eastern slope of Zion (K. Kenyon, BA, XXVII [1964], 43; cf. the similar activity by Solomon [ 1 Kings 9:15, 24] and Hezekiah [ 2 Chron 32:1-5]). One of the earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE [62] [63] and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states: "I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem", [64] [65] [66] or as other scholars suggest: "Yahweh is the God of the whole earth. The mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem". [67] [68] An older example on papyrus is known from the previous century. [69] Close up of the Khirbet Beit Lei inscription, showing the earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem, dated to the seventh or sixth century BCE After the establishment of the state of Israel, Jerusalem was declared its capital city. [219] Jordan formally annexed East Jerusalem in 1950, subjecting it to Jordanian law, and in 1953 declared it the "second capital" of Jordan. [213] [220] [221] Only the United Kingdom and Pakistan formally recognized such annexation, which, in regard to Jerusalem, was on a de facto basis. [222] Some scholars argue that the view that Pakistan recognized Jordan's annexation is dubious. [223] [224]After David’s death, and as Solomon begins building the Temple, the Bible begins connecting the dots. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, Jerusalem and Judea came under Macedonian control, eventually falling to the Ptolemaic dynasty under Ptolemy I. In 198 BCE, Ptolemy V Epiphanes lost Jerusalem and Judea to the Seleucids under Antiochus III. The Seleucid attempt to recast Jerusalem as a Hellenized city-state came to a head in 168 BCE with the successful Maccabean revolt of Mattathias and his five sons against Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and their establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in 152 BCE with Jerusalem as its capital.