HOW DAVID LAID SIEGE TO JERUSALEM; AND WHEN HE HAD TAKEN THE CITY, HE CAST THE CANAANITES OUT OF IT, AND BROUGHT IN THE JEWS TO INHABIT THEREIN. FJAJ 7.13
1. NOW the Jebusites, who were the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and were
by extraction Canaanites, shut their gates, and placed the blind, and the
lame, and all their maimed persons, upon the wall, in way of derision of
the king, and said that the very lame themselves would hinder his entrance
into it
This they did out of contempt of his power, and as depending on
the strength of their walls
David was hereby enraged, and began the siege
of Jerusalem, and employed his utmost diligence and alacrity therein, as
intending by the taking of this place to demonstrate his power, and to
intimidate all others that might be of the like [evil] disposition towards
him
So he took the lower city by force, but the citadel held out still;
(4) What
our other copies say of Mount Sion, as alone properly called the city of
David, 2 Samuel 5:6-9, and of this its siege and conquest now by David,
Josephus applies to the whole city Jerusalem, though including the citadel
also; by what authority we do not now know perhaps, after David had united
them together, or joined the citadel to the lower city, as sect. 2, Josephus
esteemed them as one city. However, this notion seems to be confirmed by
what the same Josephus says concerning David's and many other kings of
Judah's sepulchers, which as the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles
say were in the city of David, so does Josephus still say they were in
Jerusalem. The sepulcher of David seems to have been also a known place
in the several days of Hyrcanus, of Herod, and of St. Peter, Antiq. B.
XIII. ch. 8. sect. 4 B. XVI. ch. 8. sect. 1; Acts 2:29. Now no such royal
sepulchers have been found about Mount Sion, but are found close by the
north wall of Jerusalem, which I suspect, therefore, to be these very sepulchers.
See the note on ch. 15. sect. 3. In the meantime, Josephus's explication
of the lame, and the blind, and the maimed, as set to keep this city or
citadel, seems to be the truth, and gives the best light to that history
in our Bible. Mr. Ottius truly observes, (up. Hayercamp, p. 305,) that
Josephus never mentions Mount Sion by that name, as taking it for an appellative,
as I suppose, and not for a proper name; he still either styles it The
Citadel, or The Upper City; nor do I see any reason for Mr. Ottius's evil
suspicions about this procedure of Josephus. whence
it was that the king, knowing that the proposal of dignities and rewards
would encourage the soldiers to greater actions, promised that he who should
first go over the ditches that were beneath the citadel, and should ascend
to the citadel itself and take it, should have the command of the entire
people conferred upon him
So they all were ambitious to ascend, and thought
no pains too great in order to ascend thither, out of their desire of the
chief command
However, Joab, the son of Zeruiah, prevented the rest; and
as soon as he was got up to the citadel, cried out to the king, and claimed
the chief command. FJAJ 7.14
2. When David had cast the Jebusites out of the citadel, he also rebuilt
Jerusalem, and named it The City of David, and abode there all the
time of his reign; but for the time that he reigned over the tribe of Judah
only in Hebron, it was seven years and six months
Now when he had chosen
Jerusalem to be his royal city, his affairs did more and more prosper,
by the providence of God, who took care that they should improve and be
augmented
Hiram also, the king of the Tyrians, sent ambassadors to him,
and made a league of mutual friendship and assistance with him
He also
sent him presents, cedar-trees, and mechanics, and men skillful in building
and architecture, that they might build him a royal palace at Jerusalem.
Now David made buildings round about the lower city: he also joined the
citadel to it, and made it one body; and when he had encompassed all with
walls, he appointed Joab to take care of them
It was David, therefore,
who first cast the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and called it by his own
name, The City of David: for under our forefather Abraham it was
called (Salem, or) Solyma; (5) Some
copies of Josephus have here Solyma, or Salem; and others Hierosolyma,
or Jerusalem. The latter best agree to what Josephus says elsewhere, (Of
the War, B. VI. ch. 10.,) that this city was called Solyma, or Salem, before
the days of Melchisedec, but was by him called Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem.
I rather suppose it to have been so called after Abraham had received that
oracle Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord will see, or provide," Genesis
22;14. The latter word, Jireh, with a little alteration, prefixed to the
old name Salem, Peace, will be Jerusalem; and since that expression, "God
will see," or rather, "God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt-offering," ver. 8, 14, is there said to have been proverbial
till the days of Moses, this seems to me the most probable derivation of
that name, which will then denote that God would provide peace by that
"Lamb of God which was to take away the sins of the world." However,
that which is put into brackets can hardly be supposed the genuine words
of Josephus, as Dr. Hudson well judges.
but after that time, some say that Homer mentions it by that name of Solyma,
[for he named the temple Solyma, according to the Hebrew language, which
denotes security.] Now the whole time from the warfare under Joshua
our general against the Canaanites, and from that war in which he overcame
them, and distributed the land among the Hebrews, (nor could the Israelites
ever cast the Canaanites out of Jerusalem until this time, when David took
it by siege,) this whole time was five hundred and fifteen years. FJAJ 7.15
3. I shall now make mention of Araunah, who was a wealthy man among
the Jebusites, but was not slain by David in the siege of Jerusalem, because
of the good-will he bore to the Hebrews, and a particular benignity and
affection which he had to the king himself; which I shall take a more seasonable
opportunity to speak of a little afterwards
Now David married other wives
over and above those which he had before: he had also concubines
The sons
whom he had were in number eleven, whose names were Amnon, Emnos, Eban,
Nathan, Solomon, Jeban, Elien, Phalna, Ennaphen, Jenae, Eliphale; and a
daughter, Tamar
Nine of these were born of legitimate wives, but the two
last-named of concubines; and Tamar had the same mother with Absalom. FJAJ 7.16