City of David Overview 

 

Introduction

 

​1. This is where Jerusalem began. It was where Melchizedek lived and met with Abraham around 4,000 years ago.

​

2. Later, King David captured the city from the Jebusites and set it up as his capital around 3,000 years ago. 

 

3. It is strategically located with the Kidron Valley to the east, the Tyropoeon Valley to the West, and the Hinnom Valley to the south. These valleys provided it with natural protection.

 

Psalms 125:2: As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.

​

4. David prepared a place for the Ark of the Covenant in the City of David.

​

5. This site has so much to see, and its history is packed. We'll see and explore the following:

​

• Ancient ruins dating back over 3,500 years.

• King David's Palace and retaining wall.

• Walls Nehemiah built.

• What's believed to be Melchizedek's Temple.

• Gihon Spring

• Hezekiah's Tunnel

• Tower of Siloam

• King David's Tomb

• Pool of Siloam

• Pilgrim's Road

​

7. Let's explore and experience this incredible site where Jerusalem began.

 

Location

 

1. The City of David is located just south of the Temple Mount on a plateau ridge.

 

2. It’s where all the history of Jerusalem began.

 

3. It is strategically located with the Kidron Valley to the east, the Tyropoeon Valley to the West, and the Hinnom Valley to the south. These valleys provide it with natural protection.

 

Psalms 125:2: As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever.

 

4. It has been the most excavated site in Israel over the past 150 years.

 

Historical Background

 

1. Abraham traveled here when he met with the King of Salem (Jerusalem).

 

2. Later, Abraham would be willing to offer his son, Isaac, to the Lord on Mt. Moriah, just above the City of David.

 

3. King David made the City of David, also known as Jerusalem, the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago.

 

4. The City of David had an amazing source of fresh water known as the Gihon Spring.

 

5. The City of David is also called Zion in Scripture.

 

2 Samuel 5:7: Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.

 

Places of Interest

 

1. A theater with an excellent movie showing the history of the City of David.

 

2. Bet Hatsofeh Lookout – Great place to see a panoramic view of the City of David and the sites around it.

 

3. Palace of King David

• Royal Phoenician Capital – 2 Samuel 5:11: And Hiram king of Tire [Phoenicia] sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. 

​

• Two Bullae (clay seals) – Recently unearthed, these clay seals date to the beginning of the 6th Century BC and bear the names "Gedaliah son of Pashur" and "Jehucal son of Shelemiah." Both officials are named in the Bible. Jeremiah 38:1 says: "Then ... Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jehucal the son of Shelemiah... heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people." This is the first time two bullae from a single Bible verse have been discovered in one place.

​

• From here, David looked down upon Bathsheba bathing.

2 Samuel 11:2: It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

​

4. Givati Excavation Area

• Excavations began in 2007. It was a parking lot.

• Jeremiah's Dungeon was likely in this area.

Jeremiah 38:6: "So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud."

• Public building: 900-700 BC

• Fortification structure: 300-200 BC

• Multilevel structure: 100-0 BC

• Massive Roman Villa: 63 BC - 100 AD

• Byzantine structure: 600 - 700 AD

• Muslim bakery structure: 700 - 800 AD

 

5. Stepped Stone Retaining Wall by King David's Palace

​

6. Ancient 3,000-year-old walls

​

7. Walls Nehemiah repaired

 

8. House of Ahiel (four-room house)

​

9. Hasmonean Tower

​

10. Burnt Room – Evidence of a room burnt during the Babylonian destruction in 586 BC. A burnt ash level from this same time period was also discovered throughout the site.

 

• Jeremiah 52:12–13: "In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. 13 And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down."

 

11. Gihon Spring

• Jerusalem’s primary water source

​

• King Solomon was anointed here, along with many other kings. 1 Kings 1:45: Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise which you have heard.

​

• King Hezekiah diverted the water down to the Pool of Siloam.

 

12. Hezekiah’s Water Tunnel

 

13. Canaanite Tunnel

 

14. Warren Shaft System

 

15. Melchizedek's Temple

 

16. Ancient 3,000-year-old walls Nehemiah repaired.

​

17. Tower of Siloam

Luke 13:1-5: There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

 

18. The Hezekiah Tunnel Inscription

• Also known as the Siloam Inscription, it commemorates the construction of the Siloam Tunnel in 8th century BC Jerusalem and provides one of the earliest Hebrew records of public works.

​

• Inscription Wording: “… (When) (the tunnel) was driven through. And this was the way in which it was cut through: While (…) (were) still (…) axe (s), each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, (there was heard) the voice of a man calling to his fellow, for there was an overlap in the rock on the right (and on the left). And when the tunnel was driven through, the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the reservoir for twelve hundred cubits, and the height of the rock above the head of the quarrymen was 100 cubits” (W.F. Albright, ANET 321).

 

19. Tomb of King David

​

20. Synagogue of Theodotus

• In John chapter 9, when Jesus rubbed clay on the blind man’s eyes, He told him to go wash it off in the Pool of Siloam. After the blind man was healed, he was brought to this synagogue to be questioned by the Pharisees. The synagogue is located below the Tomb of David.

 

21. Pool of Siloam – Siloam means “safe”

• Herod the Great enlarged the Pool of Siloam to make it a massive Mikveh

• A blind man was healed here by Christ

 

22. Pilgrim's Road leading up to the temple from the Pool of Siloam is called the Herodian Street. Countless Jews used it to ascend to the temple. There is no doubt Jesus walked this road as well.

 

23. There was a canal tunnel under the Herodian Street that was used for waste purposes. In this tunnel, thousands of Jews were slaughtered by the Romans in 70 AD as they tried to escape the city.

 

24. In this same tunnel, a rare gold bell sewn onto priests' garments, an ancient silver shekel used to pay the half-shekel temple tax, and a Roman sword with its leather sheath still partly intact were recently discovered.

 

City of David in the Bible

 

1. The City was known as Salem (peace) and was where Melchizedek lived. Abraham met Melchizedek here after rescuing Lot.

Genesis 14:17-20: After his return from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Valley of the King) [Kidron Valley]. 18 And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. (He was the priest of God Most High). 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Maker of heaven and earth. 20 And blessed be God Most High who delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave to him a tenth of everything.

 

2. Before King David conquered this site, it was known as the city of Jebus.
1 Chronicles 11:3–5: So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord through Samuel. 4 Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus); and the Jebusites, 5 the inhabitants of the land, were there. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You shall not enter here.” Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion (that is, the city of David).

 

2 Samuel 5:9: So David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from the Millo and inward.

 

3. David built houses for himself and prepared a place for the Ark of the Covenant in the City of David.
1 Chronicles 15:1: Now David built houses for himself in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.

 

4. David brought the Ark of the Covenant to the City of David.
2 Samuel 6:12: Now it was told King David, saying, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, on account of the ark of God.” David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness.

 

5. David strongly desired to build a house for the Lord, but God said "no" because of all the bloodshed he had shed in battle. However, he made all the plans and prepared much of the materials his son, Solomon, would use to build the House of the Lord.
1 Chronicles 22:5: Now David said, “Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it.” So David made abundant preparations before his death.

 

6. From David’s palace rooftop, he saw Bathsheba bathing and committed a serious sin.
2 Samuel 11:2: It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

 

7. David died and was buried in the City of David.
1 Kings 2:10: Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. David’s tomb is located close to the City of David.

 

8. King Solomon was anointed as king at the Gihon Spring.
1 Kings 1:45: Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise which you have heard.

 

9. After David built his palace and much of the city of David, his son, Solomon, built the temple just north of the City of David.
1 Kings 6:1: In the four hundred and eightieth year after the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the Lord.

 

10. The people would go up from the City of David to the temple to worship God.
Isaiah 2:3: And many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”

 

11. Later, King Hezekiah built a tunnel to divert the water from the Gihon Spring (the city’s water source) down to the Pool of Siloam to keep the water inside the city walls so warring armies (the Assyrians) couldn’t cut off the water to the city.
2 Chronicles 32:30: This same Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them down to the west side of the city of David.

​

12. In 586 BC, the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and the City of David because of continued disobedience to God.

2 Kings 25:8-10: In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. 10 And all the army of the Chaldeans [Babylonians], who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

 

Faith Lesson from the City of David

 

1. The City of David has provided overwhelming archaeological evidence supporting the truthfulness of Scripture. Do we embrace this growing body of evidence proving that the Bible is true and historically accurate?

 

2. The City of David is a place where people have worshipped God for thousands of years. It began with Melchizedek and continued with King David, who was a man after God's own heart. It was David who made plans to build the temple on Mt. Moriah and made all the plans. What about us? Do we have a heart like David? Do we seek to lead others in worship to God like David?

​

3. In 700 BC, King Hezekiah faced an epic danger from the invading Assyrians. He built amazing defenses to protect Jerusalem. Some trusted in these defenses rather than in God. Hezekiah trusted in God, and because of his faith, God supernaturally protected Jerusalem by sending an angel who killed 185,000 Assyrians. What about us? Do we trust in our efforts, or God? 

 

4. The City of David, along with Jerusalem, was destroyed by the Babylonians because of Israel’s disobedience to God. Do we understand that obedience brings life and peace, but disobedience brings death and destruction?

 

5. The Pilgrim's Road was a place where the Jews prepared their hearts to enter the temple and worship God. What about us? Do we prepare our hearts to seek the Lord and worship Him?​

​