THE HEBREW KINGS
From the citadel of Zion the Jebusites looked down on David’s men
arrayed beyond the dividing valley. Like many other defenders of a
doomed city, they mocked their foes, and they set the lame and the
blind on the wall, “saying, Thou wilt not enter here unless thou
removest the blind and the lame: meaning, David cannot enter here.
Nevertheless David took the hilltop of Zion: it is the city of David.
And David said that day, Every slayer of the Jebusite will also reach
by the ravine both the lame and the blind. They hate David’s self,
wherefore they say, Blind and lame he will not come into the place. So
David dwelt on the hilltop, and called it the city of David. And David
built round about from the Millo and inwards.”[96]
[Sidenote: DAVID’S CITY]
The city of David is here identified with the hilltop of Zion; but as
Jerusalem grew larger, the term seems to have been expanded to include
all the Jerusalem of David’s time, and in later days it was applied to
the lower city. This term is used forty times in the Old Testament, and
in four passages it is equivalent to Zion.[97] Josephus never uses it
except in relating David’s capture of the citadel. He always, in other
passages, substitutes the name “Jerusalem.” He says that David--like
all later captors--first took the lower city, but that the citadel held
out till Joab crossed “one of the underlying ravines” (which would
probably be the Tyropœon), and “ascended” to the citadel itself. He
continues that David afterwards made buildings in the lower city. He
identifies the citadel with the upper city of his own time, and places
the lower city to the north. He is only following the Bible account as
he understood it, but there is no reason to doubt that he is right. He
was not merely writing his own fancies, for “the Millo” had already
been long identified, by the Greek translators of the Bible, with the
_Akra_ or “citadel” which defended the lower city.[98] We can, of
course, only conjecture what “the Millo” was, since its position and
character are not explained in the Bible. It was a “filling” of some
kind, whether a valley filled in with earth or a filling place--perhaps
the old Jebusite pool cut in rock immediately outside the north wall
of the citadel. Jewish writers always connect it with the lower city,
and Solomon “built up the Millo, and shut up the breach of the city of
David his father,” or, according to the Greek translators, “founded the
Akra closing the fence of the city of David,” or otherwise “made the
Akra to fence in the fence of the city.” Considering that the “city of
the great king” (or overlord) is described as being on the “flanks of
the north,”[99] there seems to be no improbability in the view taken by
Jewish writers of early date. There was in Jerusalem, somewhat later,
a place called the Maktesh,[100] or “hollow,” apparently a quarter of
the city; this was probably the lower city in the wide Tyropœon Valley
north of the citadel, and it is possible that the Millo was on that
narrow isthmus of land to defend which the “broad wall,” or “wall of
the broad place,” was built.[101] The fact that the lower city was
first fortified by David seems to show that it was only an open town,
beyond the citadel, in Jebusite times.[102]
In the city of David’s time were his palace, and the place where the
Ark was kept in a tent. Here also David and many of his successors
were buried. The civilisation of Babylonia, as then extending to
Phœnicia, was the model for the new Hebrew kingdom, as it had been
for the Canaanite even in Abraham’s time. The “house” of David was
built by Phœnician artisans, and seems to have been in the lower city,
below the Temple ridge and Ophel, but the great palace of Solomon was
outside the city of David. The Ark, apparently, was established at the
original palace, until the Temple was built.[103] The royal tombs were
perhaps just inside the north wall of Jerusalem, as will be explained
in speaking of the later Hebrew kings.
[Sidenote: ABSALOM’S HAND]
The story of David’s life is told in one of the most vivid and
picturesque books of the Old Testament, and contains scattered
allusions to places at Jerusalem. The scribe--perhaps the prophet
Nathan[104]--does not spare his hero in his account of Bathsheba; but,
in spite of his crime of passion, the generosity of David’s character
accorded with that ideal which we find most admired among free Semitic
races, from the days of Job to those of Muḥammad or of Saladin; and
“whatsoever the king did pleased all the people.”[105] His sin met
its nemesis when Ahitophel--Bathsheba’s grandfather[106]--rose to be
a court favourite, and then deserted to the rebellious Absalom. His
schemes soon failed; but David, looking back to the day when Uriah was
betrayed to death, must have recognised his punishment, and humbly
submitted to the rod. To save the city, he marched out[107] with his
faithful guards--the old band that followed him to Gath in earlier
days--and on crossing the Kidron he sent back the Ark into the town. By
the Anathoth road he ascended Olivet, praying on its northern summit,
and so took the way to the wilderness and to Gilead. His faithful
spies were hidden in the cave of En-rogel; and after the defeat and
death of Absalom we are told that this rebel son had erected a “hand,”
or monument, in the “King’s Dale,” which still remained when the
chronicle was written, being--as already mentioned--perhaps somewhere
to the south in the Valley of Hinnom, though mediæval pilgrims thought
that they had found it at the Greco-Jewish tomb east of the Kidron,
where--ever since the fifteenth century A. D. at least--the Jews have
raised heaps of stones, each pilgrim casting his pebble at the supposed
monument of the wicked son.
David’s adventurous life drew towards its end. An old man at the age
of seventy years, the king was nursed by the fair Abishag of Shunem.
His fourth son, Adonijah--the two eldest having met violent deaths,
and the third being perhaps also dead--was supported by his cousin
Joab and by Abiathar the priest. On the rock Zoheleth,[108] beside
En-rogel--a precipice visible from the upper city--he slew sacrifices,
and proclaimed himself king. The old lion was roused by the news
to renew his oath to Bathsheba. Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the
commander who had superseded Joab, were sent with the swordsmen and
light troops--two regiments of guards distinguished like those of
Assyrian and Egyptian armies--to escort Solomon, on the king’s mule,
“down to Gihon.” There he was anointed by Zadok the priest, with oil
brought from the tent in which the Ark still abode; and apparently the
choice of the place was due to the position of Zoheleth, which was
nearly opposite to it on the east side of the Kidron ravine, Gihon
being thus in sight of Adonijah’s adherents. The piping of pipes, the
shouts of the people, and the sound of the trumpet were heard by Joab
and Adonijah as they feasted, and they fled to take sanctuary at the
altar.[109]
[Sidenote: GIHON]
It is here assumed that Gihon was another name of the spring En-rogel,
though this is, of course, not absolutely certain. The word means
“spouting forth,” and the title is not applicable to a tank, while it
recalls the sudden gush of the Kidron spring as already described.
Gihon lay in a ravine (_naḥal_), a term which is applied in many
passages to the Kidron Valley, as contrasted with the _gai_ or gorge
of Hinnom. It is also described as a “source” (_moṣa_), which word is
used of the Kidron spring in Hezekiah’s inscription at Siloam. The wall
of Ophel, moreover, is said to have run “westwards to Gihon in the
_naḥal_,” so that it is clear that this “source” was not on the west
side of Jerusalem.[110] In the fourteenth century, it is true, the
old map of the city shows the “Upper Pool of Gihon” (at the _Birket
Mâmilla_), and the “Lower Pool of Gihon” (at the _Birket es Sulṭân_),
but such pools are never mentioned in the Bible, or by Josephus, though
the misunderstanding survives even now. The lower of these pools was
made by the Germans about 1172 A. D., and it is not mentioned by any
writer before that age. Gihon was not a pool or tank, and the term
seems most clearly to apply to a source which spouted out at intervals
in the Kidron ravine, and which was otherwise named En-rogel because of
a water channel down which the stream was led.
The building of the Temple was Solomon’s first great work. It stood on
the ridge east of the city, where the threshing-floor of Araunah was
consecrated by David’s altar. There is no doubt that it was placed on
the “top of the mountain,”[111] and that the site of the holy house
itself remained unchanged in later times, when it was rebuilt by
Zerubbabel, and again enlarged by the priests in the time of Herod the
Great. The area of the enclosure was then increased, especially on the
west, by the banking up of earth supported in places on vaults within
the great Herodian walls; but the natural site was very restricted.
The strata are tilted up towards the north-west, so that the ridge
presents an almost precipitous slope on the west side, sinking nearly
200 feet from the level of the Ṣakhrah, or “rock,” to the valley in
which the west Ḥaram wall was built. The eastern slope is less steep,
but the ridge--which was naturally highest on the north-west--is
narrow throughout, except in the neighbourhood of the Dome of the
Rock, which now covers the Ṣakhrah. In this part there is a small
plateau measuring about 200 yards across, and sinking on the east and
south about 20 feet below the crest of the Ṣakhrah itself. As to this
rock site, which forms the natural position for a building surrounded
by courts which were at lower levels, there is no doubt at all. The
visitor can see the rock for himself on the surface to east, south,
and north-west of the platform on which the Dome of the Rock stands,
and the levels of this bare rock have been accurately ascertained. The
Ṣakhrah rises on its west side about 4 feet above the level of the
pavement, and slopes gently eastwards. On the north-west part of the
platform the rock is flat, and is found just under the pavement. It is
just under the floor east of the Ṣakhrah, within the walls of the Dome
of the Rock. Its level north of the building has been ascertained in
the well mouths of the two rock tunnels now used as tanks, and also in
that of a similar excavation to the south-east of the Dome. Rock scarps
are visible on the north and north-east sides of the platform, while on
the south-east and south-west sides there are vaults in which no rock
is found at all. These facts I verified by descending into the tanks
and examining the small vaulted chambers under the platform. If the
platform itself could be removed, there is little doubt that we should
find beneath it two rocky terraces at two levels, that to the east
being some 10 feet lower than that to the west.
[Sidenote: SOLOMON’S TEMPLE]
The Ṣakhrah itself is the controlling feature, because it rises at its
crest 8 feet above the average level of the surrounding rock terrace.
If the Holy House was built over the Ṣakhrah, then the levels of the
descending courts naturally agree with those of the rock site. But
if the Temple itself is placed to the south or to the west of the
Ṣakhrah, it is no longer on the top of the mountain; and any student
who draws a section, in accordance with the ascertained levels of the
rock, will find that he has, in these cases, to suppose foundations of
masonry of at least 30 feet necessary to support the heavy walls of
the building. On the west the rock is found in a cistern mouth, only
100 feet from the Ṣakhrah, but already more than 20 feet lower; and
it descends steeply to the foot of the west Ḥaram wall, where it is
found to be nearly 200 feet lower than the Ṣakhrah crest, which--on
these suppositions--would be the level of the outer court, since it
cannot have been left protruding above that level. Thus, although to
the student who merely considers the plan of the building it seems
allowable to propose any position he prefers, near the Ṣakhrah, as the
exact site of the Holy House, we are in reality very strictly confined
to the conclusion that this sacred “rock” was the foundation on which
it rose. For the later Temple was more than 100 feet long, and it is
unnatural to suppose that it would have been built on the west slope,
or on the lower part of the small plateau, to the south, and raised
up by foundations of such height as would be needed, when there was
just room for the Temple and its inner court on the higher part of
the small plateau. Josephus appears to be quite right in saying, not
only that the Temple was on the “top of the mountain,” but yet more
definitely that “at first the highest flat part barely sufficed for
the Holy House and the altar: for the ground about it was very uneven
and precipitous.” He says that Solomon “built a wall on its eastern
side,” but that “on other parts the Holy House stood naked.” The west
enclosure wall was apparently not erected till much later; and although
when Pompey besieged Jerusalem there was already a bridge from the
upper city to the Temple ridge, the west side of the hill was even
then “abrupt,”[112] and not filled up with earth, within the rampart,
to bring it to a level with the Temple courts. “New banks”--according
to Josephus--were added in later times, and thus “the hill became a
larger plateau.”
Such practical considerations and historic statements fully agree with
Jewish tradition. No Jerusalem Jew doubts that the Temple stood over
the Ṣakhrah “rock,” which they identify with that “Stone [or, Rock] of
Foundation” which, even in Herod’s time, was visible in the Holy of
Holies. The Mishnah was composed in our second century, and records
the statements of rabbis who had witnessed the great destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 A. D., and who had seen the ruins of the Temple as the
Romans left them. In the Mishnah we read[113] the description of the
awful Day of Atonement, when--once a year--the high-priest, in fear
and trembling, entered the Holy of Holies, where there was no longer
any Ark. “When the Ark was removed, a stone was there, since the days
of the first prophets” (that is, of David), “and it was called the
‘foundation’: it was three fingers above the ground, and on it he put
the censer.”
[Sidenote: THE PIERCED STONE]
The Ṣakhrah is a very remarkable rock cut in steps on the west, as
though to form the base of a wall, and having a cave beneath on the
east, with a shaft through its roof to the surface. It is also said
to have another excavation below the floor of the cave,[114] and
this cave was very probably a granary originally connected with the
threshing-floor, and resembling an ancient example near Nazareth.[115]
To identify the rock with the Altar of the Temple is to upset the
whole section of the building, and the altar was of stones, and not of
rock. In the fourth century we find the Jews wailing at this “Pierced
Stone,” as the site of their Holy House.[116] The Moslems have adopted
their tradition, and speak of the Ṣakhrah as the foundation of the
world, a rock of Paradise suspended over the abyss where souls dwell
till the judgment. The Christians of the Middle Ages equally regarded
the Dome of the Rock as the “Temple of the Lord.” The site is one of
the very few as to which there is a general agreement and an unchanging
tradition.
Of the Temple courts we have no full description in the Old Testament.
The Holy House itself is said to have been double the size of the
Tabernacle, not counting the three tiers of small chambers built
against the walls. In the details of its architecture it recalls the
art of Babylonia or of Phœnicia, rather than of Egypt, and its masons
and artificers came from Tyre. The combination of large, well-hewn
masonry with cedar roofs, and adornment of bronze and of gold, carved
figures on the wall, and sacred Ark within, reminds us not only of the
temples in Babylon which Nebuchadnezzar describes in his inscriptions,
but of that famous account, in the Akkadian language, which Prince
Gudea of Zirgul in Chaldea has left us, on his cylinders and statues,
describing the temple which--perhaps as early as 2800 B. C.--he adorned
with precious metals and with cedar wood from Lebanon. We think of the
Cherubim as many-winged angels, such as Italian artists have painted;
but the word _Kirubu_ is written in Assyria over a representation of
one of those winged bulls which, as “guardians,” stood in temples, or
are represented flanking the mystic tree of life, just as Solomon’s
cherubs flanked the palm trees. They were not painted, like the
figures in the dark interior of Egyptian shrines, but carved on the
walls in low relief, and overlaid with gold. They were seen by none
save priests, and even to them they were only dimly visible in the
darkness of a shrine unlighted from without, by the glimmer of the
seven-branched golden lamp. Yet Solomon--like many later kings even
down to the seventh century B. C.--disregarded the command written
on the ancient “token tablets” still stored in the Ark, “Thou shalt
not make unto thee any graven image”; for besides these carvings
and the huge olive-wood cherubs which overshadowed the older golden
guardians of the Ark itself, he also placed his bronze laver on the
necks of bronze bulls, and adorned the steps of his ivory throne with
lions, after the fashion of Babylonian and Phœnician kings. In his
old age the princesses from Sidon and Moab, and the daughters of the
Hittites, Ammonites, and Edomites, whom he wedded, “turned away his
heart after other gods.” But even in his youth he followed the ways of
the Canaanites, while seeking to honour Jehovah by a splendid shrine.
The making of images, in his day as in all times, was the sure sign of
superstition creeping in, to guard against which the commandment of
Moses was written.
[Sidenote: THE TEMPLE GATES]
The description of the Temple need not be further detailed,[117] as
it is clearly understandable in the Bible narrative. The buildings
included an “inner court,”[118] and probably, therefore, an outer one
as well, but we are not told what space these covered, though it has
been conjectured that the former was double the size of that of the
Tabernacle, which would mean roughly about 300 feet east and west by
150 feet north and south.[119] In late accounts we read of a Court of
the Priests and of a great court, and there are passing allusions to
gates, on each side of the enclosure at different levels, and to a
“higher court” by the “new gate.” It would seem that there was a west
gate called that of “Departure” or “Casting Out,” in various passages,
a north gate called “the High Gate of Benjamin,” a “Foundation Gate,”
perhaps in the lower court, and--in the outer wall, which was that of
the city itself--a gate where the “guard” or garrison of the Temple
mustered, by the “Court of the Guard” (or “Prison,” as rendered in
the English). The gate of “Runners” (light troops), on the way to the
palace south of the Temple, was perhaps not the same. The king held his
court of justice at the High Gate, which was “towards the north”; but
another “King’s Gate” seems to have been on the east side of the outer
court. All these were swept away when the Temple was enlarged and its
courts rebuilt by Herod; but the general impression is that the Temple
courts were at first confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the
plateau surrounding the holy house, and that outside them there was
only the city wall on the east; while on the west the natural slope of
the hill remained visible, and no wall divided the Sanctuary from the
city. On the south also the ridge sloped down to Ophel, where the great
court of the palace extended towards the Horse Gate and the Court of
the Guard.[120]
After the Temple the new palace of Solomon was built. It was not in
the city of David, for “the daughter of Pharaoh” remained there “until
he had made an end of building his own house,” and then “came up out
of the city of David unto her house which he had built for her.”[121]
Thus Josephus is apparently right in saying that the queen’s house
“adjoined” that of the king, being in fact the _ḥarîm_ of the palace.
This palace resembled those of Assyrian or of Egyptian kings, as well
as that of later times at Persepolis. It included a main building
measuring 100 cubits by 50 cubits, with cedar pillars and a cedar
roof. There were also separate halls, each 50 by 30 cubits, and two
residences, for the king and queen, as well as a hall of justice, or
throne-room, in which was the ivory throne. Round and within these
buildings there were open courts, besides the “Great Court,” which
apparently included the stables for the king’s horses, which came in
by the “Horse Gate” in the city wall, at which gate Queen Athaliah,
fleeing back from the Temple to her palace, was slain: this gate was
to the south of the Temple courts, as described by Nehemiah. In the
latter book also we find that the “King’s High House” lay on Ophel,
near the “Water Gate,” which was above the Gihon spring, and which
had a rock shaft leading down to the water. In Nehemiah’s time this
palace was called “the house of David,” meaning, apparently, that of
David’s family, just as certain royal tombs are called--in the same
account--“sepulchres of David,” because certain kings of Judah were
there buried; for David would himself evidently not need more than one
sepulchre.
[Sidenote: THE PALACE]
The description is not sufficiently detailed to allow of any plan of
these buildings being drawn,[122] but--including the courts--it is
clear from the dimensions that the palace covered the greater part of
the little Ophel spur, which became the royal quarter, where also--in
later times at least--the high-priest had his house, and where the
Nethinim lived. Moreover, the “king’s garden” was in the Tyropœon
Valley, near Siloam, and in or near it were the “king’s wine-presses,”
which are noticed as marking the south limit of the later city. The
city of David was no doubt densely crowded, and there was no room in it
for a new palace. This was, moreover, placed close to the Temple for
convenience in attending the daily services. In later times Ezekiel
denounces the proximity of the dwelling of idolatrous kings to the
Temple of Jehovah, and the building of a wall of separation, as well as
the burial of the kings inside the city.[123]
The latest buildings of Solomon were shrines in honour of foreign
gods, including Ashtoreth, Milcom, Chemosh, and Molech.[124] The three
former were on “the hill facing Jerusalem”; the last named was no doubt
at Topheth, in the valley which was devoted to the worship of this
savage deity. They are again noticed in the time of Josiah, nearly four
centuries later, and (except Molech) stood on “the Mount of Corruption”
(or, more correctly, of “anointing”), which was apparently the Mount of
Olives. A much-defaced Phœnician text, found by M. Clermont-Ganneau at
the village of Silwân, contains the words “Beth-Baal,” and has been
supposed to be possibly connected with one of these shrines.
The prosperity of Jerusalem declined on the death of Solomon, when
the kingdom was divided; and five years later the city was sacked by
Shishak--the first king of the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty--about
960 B. C. Topographical details are, however, very scanty, though
Jehoash of Israel (about 820 B. C.), attacking Amaziah of Judah, is
said to have broken down the wall from the Gate of Ephraim (which
would be on the north) to the Corner Gate (which was pretty clearly
at the north-west corner of the upper city), a distance of 400
cubits. He thus made his assault, as usual, on the weakest point in
the fortifications.[125] He again carried off the treasures of the
Temple and of the palace. The next king of Judah, Azariah (otherwise
Uzziah), strengthened this point by building towers at the Gate of the
Corner and at the Gate of the _Gai_--a term used exclusively of the
Hinnom Valley. Both these gates--as will appear later--were near the
isthmus which exists inside the present Jaffa Gate; and the towers
were the predecessors of Herod’s “royal towers,” which defended the
upper city at this neck of high ground. Uzziah is also said to have
placed engines--no doubt like those of the Assyrian bas-reliefs--on the
walls.[126]
[Sidenote: THE OLD POOL]
Jotham (about 745 B. C.) is the first Hebrew king who is said to
have built a wall on Ophel,[127] though he may merely have made it
stronger, as it possibly formed part of Solomon’s wall round Jerusalem,
including the Temple and the palace. He was no doubt alarmed at the
progress which was then being made by the Assyrians in the conquest
of Syria. His successor, Ahaz, was attacked by Pekah of Israel and
Rezin of Damascus some ten years later, though they failed to take the
city.[128] We have some details of interest as to the water-supply
of Jerusalem at this time, before the great works of Hezekiah were
carried out[129]; for, in connection with this attack, Isaiah notices
the “conduit of the upper pool,” and the “waters of Shiloah that go
secretly”; he speaks also rather later of the “collection of the waters
of the lower pool,” and of the “place where the waters of the old pool
flowed together between the two walls.” Whether we are to understand
that the Siloam tunnel was begun as early as the time of Ahaz, or
that the older conduit--already described--was then made, there is
apparently no connection between the secret water-supply of Shiloah
and the other pools noticed by Isaiah. It is certain that the Upper
Pool must have been on the west side of the city, since it was there
that the Assyrians appeared in 703 B. C., and the site of the Assyrian
camp was still pointed out as late as 70 A. D. in this direction.[130]
The conduit from this pool to the “lower pool” was no doubt that which
also existed in the time of Herod, and which still carries water to the
so-called “Pool of the Bath” or “of Hezekiah.” The last named may very
well be regarded as the “Old Pool,” being “between the two walls”--that
is to say, inside the wall of the lower city and outside that of the
upper city. This important reservoir, which was “old” even in the
time of Isaiah, thus seems to have been possibly of the Jebusite age.
The work of Ahaz consisted in forming an upper reservoir (now called
_Birket Mâmilla_) to supply the old pool by a conduit leading into the
city.
The fall of Damascus to Tiglath-pileser, in 732 B. C., caused general
consternation in Palestine. Ahaz had already asked aid of the Assyrian
against Israel and the Syrians, and he now hasted to offer tribute to
the conqueror, whose troops were overrunning Gilead and Galilee, and
raided even to Philistia. On the occasion of his visit to Damascus,
Ahaz is said to have seen an altar on which he sacrificed, and a
copy of which he introduced into the Temple at Jerusalem, displacing
Solomon’s bronze altar which he reserved “to inquire by.”[131] There
appears to have been a “covered place” in the Temple adorned with gold
or silver, as was also the “king’s entry,” and these were now stripped
to pay Tiglath-pileser.[132] Ten years later Samaria was captured by
Sargon, and it was then perhaps--or in 711 B. C., when Sargon captured
Ashdod--that the Assyrian outposts appeared at Nob near Mizpeh, where
the most distant glimpse of Jerusalem is caught from the north.[133]
[Sidenote: SILOAM]
Ahaz had been succeeded by Hezekiah six years before the fall--in
722 B. C.--of Samaria. Preparations for a siege, such as might now
be expected, continued to be made at Jerusalem. The older account
merely tells us that Hezekiah “made a pool and a conduit, and brought
water into the city”; the later independent statement says that
besides adding a new outer wall, and repairing “the Millo in the city
of David,” he stopped all the fountains and “the brook that flowed
through the midst of the ground,” and moreover “dammed the source of
the waters of the Upper Gihon, and made it straight below, westwards
to [or, for] the city of David.”[134] Whether this was a completion
and improvement of the Siloam tunnel begun by Ahaz, or a new tunnel
to supersede the older one which may perhaps have already led from
the Kidron spring, is not clear; but the characters in which the
Siloam inscription--recording the making of the tunnel--are written
seem to be nearest to those found on Phœnician weights, in Assyria,
which are rather later than the time of Ahaz. This inscription is the
oldest of Jerusalem monuments as yet found, and is indeed the oldest
purely Hebrew text known. It is of great importance as showing the
civilisation of Hezekiah’s age, which, however, is equally attested by
the historic cylinder of Sennacherib.
The present Pool of Siloam has been found (by Dr. Guthe in 1881) to
be much narrower than that which was probably first cut by Hezekiah
in connection with his tunnel, which perhaps required the reservoir
to be deeper than the older pool there existing. The pool thus became
30 feet deep and 60 feet square,[135] having a flat walk on each side
about 7 feet wide. The tunnel from the Gihon spring is a third of a
mile long, and it was begun from both ends. The spring and the pool
lie in a south-west direction respectively, but the tunnel winds, and
the lower part runs west, either because some soft stratum of rock was
followed, or more probably because, working in the dark, the direction
was lost till a shaft, 30 feet high, was driven down from the surface,
and the correct direction recovered. At the spring a short passage
was driven in west, from the back of the cave, and from this the main
tunnel (1,707 feet long) began. Here also it is first cut in the wrong
direction, westwards, and then bends round south; and here also a great
shaft (discovered by Sir Charles Warren), with a rocky stairway, was
carried down from the surface of Ophel. This no doubt marks the site of
the “Water Gate”; and access to the spring from within the city wall
was so attainable, which may be what is intended by “brought water
into the city.” Finally, when the two parties of miners heard each
other calling, a short cross-cut was made east and west. This point I
examined in 1881, and found that each of the tunnels had been abruptly
stopped where this cross-cut (about 4 feet long) occurs. It seems also
to have been then found that the tunnel was not at a sufficiently low
level in its southern part, and that the water would not flow freely,
which would account for the Siloam end of the tunnel being much more
lofty than the part nearer the spring, the floor level having been cut
down.[136]
[Sidenote: THE SILOAM TEXT]
The famous inscription was carved on the east side of the tunnel near
its mouth, in ancient characters of the alphabet of Hezekiah’s age,
presenting some minor peculiarities which became distinctive of the
script of Israel. It was discovered in 1880 by a Jewish boy, and was
reported by Herr Schick, and visited by Dr. Sayce. The first correct
copy published was taken from my squeeze, and an excellent copy was
almost simultaneously published by Dr. Guthe, through whose courtesy
I had been enabled to work with ease in the tunnel. A cast was also
fortunately made, for the text was afterwards cut out of the rock by
a Greek villain, who was duly punished. Unfortunately, though now
preserved in the Museum of Constantinople, this valuable inscription
has been broken and damaged. When first found, the letters were full of
lime deposit, which Dr. Guthe removed with hydrochloric acid without
injuring the stone, and a true copy could not be made till this was
done. The text may be thus translated, the ends of the lines being
injured, when first found, by the scaling off of the rock.
[Illustration: THE SILOAM INSCRIPTION.
From the Author’s squeeze.]
(1) “The tunnel, and this is the method of the tunnel: while (the
miners) raised
(2) the pick each towards his fellow, and while yet three cubits
were ... the voice of one calling
(3) to his fellow, for there was an excess in the rock to the right
... they struck to the right
(4) in the tunnel: they hewed this cutting each towards his fellow,
pick to pick, and flowed
(5) the waters from the source to the pool for two hundred and one
thousand cubits,
(6) and ... a cubit was the height of the rock at the top of this
cutting.”
The hewing to the right hand in both the excavations was what actually
occurred. The measurement--in round numbers--of 1,200 cubits gives us
roughly a cubit of 17 inches, but the “three cubits” gives us more
exactly a cubit of 16 inches, which appears to have been that used by
Hebrew masons.[137]
This remarkable engineering work had perhaps not long been finished
when, in the third year of his reign, Sennacherib invaded Philistia in
703 B. C., and sent his Tartan or “general,” his Rabsaris or “chief
eunuch,” and his Rabshakeh or “chief headman” from Lachish “with a
great host against Jerusalem.” The curled and oiled Assyrian mockers
stood beneath the wall, beside the “conduit” at the west gate, and
parleyed in Hebrew with the men above. The Hebrew politicians were much
divided in opinion, whether to submit to Assyria or to seek aid from
Egypt. Isaiah alone seems to have relied on the help of Jehovah in that
hour of danger, which passed away when misfortune overtook Sennacherib
on the borders of Egypt. In his own boastful inscription[138] the
invader gives us no reason why the city escaped, though it appears
from his account, as well as from the Bible, that Hezekiah had already
offered tribute. “As for this Hezekiah,” says Sennacherib, “he shut
himself up, like a bird in a snare, in Jerusalem, his royal city. He
raised forts for himself. He was forced to close the gates of his
city.”[139] But no siege or capture is recorded, and it is only claimed
that the priests and warriors of the city subsequently sent tribute,
and Hezekiah large presents, including gems, slaves, and an ivory
throne. Never again, apparently, did Sennacherib attempt the conquest
of Jerusalem: he “went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh,” and was busy
fighting in Babylonia and Elam till his murder about 681 B. C.
Manasseh succeeded his father Hezekiah in 699 B. C., and was also a
tributary of Assyrian kings; of him it is recorded[140] that he “built
a wall outside the city of David, westwards to Gihon in the valley,
and to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and surrounded Ophel and raised
it very high.” This apparently refers to the line of the Ophel wall,
which, in later times at least, ran south-west from the corner by the
Horse Gate, for about 250 yards, to the Water Gate above the Kidron
spring. The Fish Gate, as will appear later, was on the north side of
the city.
[Sidenote: TOMBS OF THE KINGS]
Manasseh was not buried with his fathers, but in the palace garden
near Siloam, where also, in the “field of burial,” the leper Uzziah
had probably been buried, and perhaps Ahaz also. This cemetery is
afterwards noticed as the “sepulchres of David,” but we may now inquire
where the seven kings who were buried, “in” or “at” the city of David,
with David himself and Solomon, were most probably entombed; for the
site was clearly not the same,[141] and was either within or close to
the old city of David’s time. The seven later kings buried “with their
fathers” were Rehoboam, Abijah, Jehoshaphat, Amaziah, Jotham, Hezekiah,
and Josiah, and of these Hezekiah is said to have been laid in the
“upper chamber” (_m’aalah_) of the tomb, which was still known in the
time of Herod, and yet later in that of the apostles.[142] Josephus
gives a remarkable account of this tomb, which was opened by John
Hyrcanus in 134 B. C., and “another room” by Herod yet later, in search
of treasure. He says that the latter “did not come to the coffins of
the kings themselves, for their bodies were buried underground so
artfully that they did not appear even to those that entered into
their monument.” The sepulchre was evidently one of the kind used by
the Hebrews, and by the Phœnicians, with _kokîm_, or “tunnels”--one
for each body--running in lengthwise from the sides of the chamber.
But it had the peculiarity that some at least of these were under the
floor, as in the earlier Phœnician examples--an arrangement which is
not usual in Hebrew tombs; while the mention of an “upper chamber,”
in which Hezekiah was buried, shows that a second tier, on the ground
level, was excavated for later kings thought worthy to rest with David
and Solomon who lay below. There is only one known ancient sepulchre at
Jerusalem, in the city of David, to which this account applies--namely,
the tomb in the west apse of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,[143]
traditionally containing the graves of Joseph of Arimathæa and of
Nicodemus. A wall has been built across it, but it appears to have
had originally nine _kokîm_ graves, of which six are on the ground
level, while three (on the south) are under the floor, together with
a pit[144] probably used for the purpose of funereal deposits, such
as Josephus says were taken out by Herod, including “vessels of gold
and precious things.” The mouths of the _kokîm_ were originally closed
by slabs, and, if these were like others which I have myself removed,
it would be possible to enter the chamber without knowing--till very
closely examined--that there were any _kokîm_ behind them, while
those under the floor would be even less suspected. The remarkable
correspondence between the statements above noticed--in the Bible and
in the accounts by Josephus--seems to make it highly probable that we
have here, still existing, the tombs of the more famous kings. Whether
they were just inside or just outside the north wall of the city of
David is perhaps uncertain, but that they were visible in a low scarp,
facing east, even later than Herod’s time, seems to be clear. This tomb
of David was distinct from the cemetery in the garden of the palace
near Siloam, which has not as yet been found, but to which the term
“field of burial belonging to the kings” seems to be first applied in
speaking of Uzziah, “for they said, He is a leper.”[145] The above
suggestion has met with acceptance by several writers since I first
made it thirty years ago, but it unfortunately leaves us without hope
of recovering either the treasures which were abstracted by Hyrcanus
and Herod, or the bodies of the kings, which, if they had not crumbled
away, appear to have been removed by later desecrators of this very
ancient sepulchre.
[Sidenote: NEBUCHADNEZZAR]
Passing on to the history of the capture of Jerusalem by
Nebuchadnezzar, it may be noted that the empire of Assyria collapsed
suddenly on the death of Assur-bani-pal in 626 B. C. He was a very
remarkable ruler who imitated ’Ammurabi by concentrating in his own
hands even the most minute details of government. We possess his
political letters, which give us a high opinion of his justice and
courtesy. On his death, Nabopolassar, governor of Babylon, became
independent, and about 610 B. C. he took Nineveh in alliance with the
Medes. He died apparently in 608 B. C., when his son Nebuchadnezzar
became king of Babylonia in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of
Judah. This new race of Babylonian monarchs was apparently native to
the city, for Nabopolassar says in a recently discovered text: “I and
the chief rulers of the great city have purified Babylon where we
dwell--our land which the oppressor seized--to establish in its midst
the throne of righteousness.”[146] He refers to Nebuchadnezzar as
his eldest son, the “delight of his heart,” “upholding the dominion
faithfully and gloriously with my hosts.” The first attack on Palestine
was made by Nebuchadnezzar as prince, after the defeat of Necho the
Pharaoh at Carchemish. The latter had aided the attack on Nineveh,
but the allies soon quarrelled. Josiah had been slain by Necho in 612
B. C., and Nebuchadnezzar was obliged to hurry back from Palestine on
his father’s death four years later; but the respite was short, and
Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians about 590 B. C.
We do not as yet possess any monumental account of Nebuchadnezzar’s
campaigns in Palestine, though he has left rock texts in Lebanon and
near Beirût. These record his piety in erecting temples, but one
recently found attests his widespread conquests,[147] for, speaking
of contributions to a temple, he says: “I gathered revenues from all
peoples of mankind, from the upper sea to the lower sea, from distant
lands of widespread peoples of mankind, kings ruling the mountains
and the sea coast.... Princes of the land of the Hittites, near the
Euphrates on the west--for by command of Merodach my lord I had
swallowed up their power--were made to bring strong beams from Mount
Lebanon to my city Babylon.”
[Sidenote: IDOLATRY]
There are many passing allusions in the Book of Jeremiah to the
Jerusalem of this age.[148] When the city fell, in the eleventh year
of Zedekiah, the men of war fled towards Jericho by night, “by the way
of the gate between two walls which is by the king’s garden.” This
gate, as we shall see later, was at the recess above Siloam where
the wall crossed the Tyropœon Valley at a re-entering angle. The
whole city was then burned, and its treasures carried away, with its
chiefs, priests, and all but the “poor of the land, vine-dressers and
husbandmen.” Jerusalem had become a pagan city, full of ugly little
statues of Ashtoreth, and of Baal shrines at each street corner; for
“according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up
altars to Bosheth, altars to burn incense to Baal.”[149] The ancient
human sacrifices, offered to Molech, continued to be celebrated in
the Valley of Topheth as in Isaiah’s time. The city in extent was the
same which Nehemiah found in ruins, and its ancient walls were then
merely rebuilt, but a more detailed account of this topography will
be conveniently deferred till the next chapter, in which the work of
Nehemiah’s time is to be considered.
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER III
[96] 2 Sam. v. 6–9; see LXX. The Greek reads “and his house” for “and
inwards.”
[97] 2 Sam. v. 7; 1 Kings viii. 1; 1 Chron. xi. 5; 2 Chron v. 2.
Josephus, “Ant.,” VII. iii. 1; “Wars,” V. iv. 1.
[98] Septuagint of 2 Sam. v. 9; 1 Kings xi. 27 (1 Chron. xi. 5–8
differs in the Greek).
[99] Ps. xlviii. 2.
[100] Zeph. i. 11.
[101] Neh. iii. 8. See LXX., _tou plateos_.
[102] Some references seem to make the city of David include the lower
town--see 1 Kings viii. 1, ix. 24; 2 Chron. v. 2, viii. 11; 1 Macc. i.
33, ii. 31, vii. 32--but these are of late date. Stairs ascended from
near Siloam to the city of David (Neh. iii. 15, xii. 37).
[103] 2 Sam. v. 11; 1 Kings viii. 1, ix. 24; 1 Chron. xv. 29; 2 Chron.
v. 2, viii. 11.
[104] Wellhausen’s views as to a double narrative have nothing
convincing to support them.
[105] 2 Sam. iii. 36.
[106] 2 Sam. xv. 12, xxiii. 34; _cf._ xi. 3.
[107] 2 Sam. xv. 13–30, xvii. 17, xviii. 18.
[108] 1 Kings i. 5–53. The Hebrew _eben_ means “a rock” as well as “a
stone” (Gesenius, “Lex.”). Gen. xlix. 24; Job xxviii. 3.
[109] The learned fancy which makes the Cherethites (“hewers”) and
Pelethites (“swift ones”)--who are otherwise called _Kāri_ (“stabbers”)
and “runners”--to have been mercenary Philistines and Carians, has no
solid foundation in any ancient statement. A “Gittite” was a dweller in
Gath--like David himself--but not of necessity a Philistine.
[110] 1 Kings i. 33, 38, 45; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14. The _naḥal_ is
noticed in the latter passage; and, in 2 Sam. xv. 23, the term applies
to the Kidron, as also in 1 Kings ii. 37, xv. 13; 2 Kings xxiii. 6,
12; 2 Chron. xv. 16, xxix. 16, xxx. 14; Neh. ii. 15; Jer. xxxi. 40;
and probably 2 Chron. xxxii. 4. Josephus (“Wars,” V. iv. 2) calls the
Kidron spring “Solomon’s Pool.”
[111] Ezek. xliii. 12; Micah iv. i. Josephus, “Ant.,” VIII. iii. 9, XI.
iv. 1; “Wars,” V. v. 1, _tô anôtatô khthamalon autou_.
[112] “Ant.,” XIV. iv. 2; “Wars” V. v. i.
[113] _Yoma_, v. 2.
[114] The _Bîr el Arwâḥ_, or “Well of Souls.”
[115] See my account of the rock granary at Yâfa, near Nazareth (“Mem.
West Pal. Survey,” i. pp. 353, 354). It is a cave with inner chambers,
and two tiers of grain wells under the floor.
[116] Bordeaux Pilgrim, 333 A. D., “Sunt ibi et statuæ duæ Hadriani, et
non est longe a statuis lapis pertusus, ad quem veniunt Judæi singulis
annis et unguent eum et lamentant se cum gemitu,” etc.
[117] 1 Kings vi. 1–35.
[118] 1 Kings vi. 36.
[119] See Exod. xxvii. 9, 12.
[120] 2 Chron. iv. 9; see 2 Kings xxi. 5. The “Higher Gate” (2
Kings xv. 35) is perhaps the “High Gate of Benjamin” (Jer. xx. 2;
see Ezek. ix. 2); the Gate Sur (“of departure”), 2 Kings xi. 6, may
be Shallecheth (“casting out”), 1 Chron. xxvi. 16, on west; the
“Foundation” or “Middle” Gate (2 Chron. xxiii. 5; Jer. xxxix. 3), the
Gate of the “Muster” (_Miphkad_, Neh. iii. 31) or “Guard” (Neh. xii.
39; 2 Kings xi. 19, “of Runners”), and the “New Gate of the Higher
Court” (Jer. xxvi. 10, xxxvi. 10) are doubtfully placed. The “King’s
Gate” (1 Chron. ix. 18) was on the east.
[121] 1 Kings iii. 1, ix. 24 (see vii. 8); 2 Chron. viii. 11; Josephus,
“Ant.,” VIII. v. 2 (see 1 Kings vii. 1–12); Isa. xxii. 8; “Middle
Court,” 2 Kings xx. 4; the “throne,” 1 Kings x. 18; “Great Court,” 1
Kings vii. 9; “Horse Gate,” 2 Kings xi. 16; 2 Chron. xxiii. 15; Neh.
iii. 25, 28; “High House,” Neh. iii. 25; “House of David,” Neh. xii. 37.
[122] Stade’s plan, given by Dr. G. A. Smith (“Jerusalem,” vol. ii. p.
59), is purely conjectural, and the Temple is wrongly placed on the
west slope of the hill.
[123] 2 Kings xxv. 4; Neh. iii. 15; Jer. xxxix. 4; see 2 Kings xxi. 18,
26; Zech. xiv. 10; Ezek. xliii. 8: see LXX., “in the midst,” for “in
high places.”
[124] 1 Kings xi. 5, 7; 2 Kings xxiii. 10, 13; Isa. xxx. 33.
[125] 2 Kings xiv. 13; 2 Chron. xxv. 23.
[126] 2 Chron. xxvi. 15, 20.
[127] 2 Chron. xxvii. 3.
[128] Isa. vii. 1.
[129] Isa. vii. 3, viii. 6, xxii. 9, 11, xxxvi. 2.
[130] Josephus, “Wars,” V. xii. 2.
[131] 2 Kings xvi. 10–16.
[132] 2 Kings xvi. 18.
[133] Now _Tell en Naṣbeh_; see Isa. x. 32, xx. 1.
[134] 2 Kings xx. 20; 2 Chron. xxxii. 4, 5, 30.
[135] The level of the bottom is 2,080 feet above sea-level, or 7 feet
lower than that of the commencement of the tunnel.
[136] See my report, “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883,
pp. 345–65. The inscription was copied by me on July 15, 1881.
[137] See my article “Weights and Measures” in “Murray’s Bible
Dictionary,” 1908, p. 944, for details.
[138] Taylor cylinder; 2 Kings xviii. 17.
[139] 2 Kings, xviii. 14. The Assyrian reads: _Sasu kima iṣṣuri kuuppi
kirib ali Urusalimmu alu sarrutisu esir-su: khalsi ilisu urakisma, aṣie
abulli ali-su utirra ikkibus_, etc.
[140] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 14.
[141] 2 Chron. xvi. 14, xxvi. 23, xxviii. 27, xxxiii. 20; Neh. iii. 16.
See for the suggested tomb of David my “Handbook to the Bible,” 1879
(3rd edit. 1882, p. 341). Rev. Selah Merrill has recently adopted this
suggestion: “Anct. Jer.,” 1908, p. 258.
[142] 2 Chron. xxxii. 33; Tosiphta, _Baba Bathra_, ch. i.; Josephus,
“Ant.,” VII. xv. 3, XIII. viii. 4, XVI. vii. 1. The kings elsewhere
buried were Asa, Jehoram, Uzziah, Ahaziah, Joash, Ahaz, and Manasseh.
See Acts ii. 29. The Mishnah (_Baba Bathra_, ii. 9) says that tombs
should be 50 cubits outside the city, but the Tosiphta says that those
of the family of David were inside it.
[143] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, pp. 319–31.
[144] This pit is too short to have been a grave.
[145] 2 Chron. xxvi. 23. This tomb is again noticed in chap. x.
[146] Hilprecht, “Nippur Memoir,” I. i. plate 32.
[147] Hilprecht, “Nippur Memoir,” I. i. plate 34. This translation of
these two texts is from the original.
[148] 2 Kings xxv. 2, 12; Jer. xxxii. 1.
[149] Jer. xi. 13. It is very doubtful whether Bosheth means “shame.”
Jeremiah refers to Topheth (vii. 32, xix. 6), to the tower Hananeel
and the Corner Gate (xxxi. 38), to Gareb (“the plantation”) and Goath
(ver. 39), to the valley of dead bodies and ashes, and the “enclosures”
of Kidron, with the “corner of the Horse Gate” (ver. 40), to the “East
Gate” or “Pottery Gate” (xix. 2), and to “the graves of the common
people” (xxvi. 23), as well as the “Higher Court” and “New Gate” of the
Temple (xxxvi. 10), and the “Gate of Benjamin” (xxxvii. 13) already
noticed. See also Ezek. viii. 3; Joel iii. 2; Zech. xiv. 10. There was
also a baker’s bazaar in Jerusalem (Jer. xxxvii. 21).