The Walls Of Jerusalem

Ancient cities were usually built like a fortress (a walled city's greatest strength), surrounded by agricultural lands, and often the city's primary water supply (a walled city's greatest weakness). In the case of water, it was sometimes a security trade-off between building the city on high ground, which was more defensible, or at a lower elevation where water could be more easily accessed.

The Hebrew word that is translated as "city," pronounced aw-yawr, means a guarded place, referring to the perimeter wall that protects the inhabitants from invaders, or in the case of the first-recorded city builder, Cain, those who sought revenge against him. Cain named his city after his son, Enoch, the walls of which to the fearful and tormented murderer must have been more like a prison - Cain did his "life sentence" behind those walls.

"^4:13 And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. ^4:14 Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

^4:15 And the LORD [see Christ's Warning To Cain] said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

^4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. ^4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." (Genesis 4:13-17 KJV)

The next specific mention of cities in the Holy Scriptures came after the Flood (see The Floods Brought By Christ). As evident from the definition of "city," they were built by a great military man, in "Babylon" (see What And Where Is Babylon Today?).

"^10:8 And Cush [see also The Family Of Ham] begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. ^10:9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. ^10:10 And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

^10:11 Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh [see also The Nineveh Prophecies], and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, ^10:12 And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city." (Genesis 10:8-12 KJV)

"So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David"

Jerusalem (earlier known as Jebus, after the people who lived there i.e. Judges 19:10) existed long before the Israelites took it in the time of, and personally by, King David after the Israelite Civil War (see The Civil War Kings). The people of the city boasted that their walls could not be penetrated, but David found a way because the Way was with him.

"^5:1 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron [see also A View Of Heaven And Hell From Hebron], and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. ^5:2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.

^5:3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel [see also David, Future King Of Israel].

^5:4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. ^5:5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

^5:6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land: which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither. ^5:7 Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion [see Anti-Zion Is Anti-Christ and Moriah: Separating The Wheat From The Chaff]: the same is the city of David.

^5:8 And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.

^5:9 So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward. ^5:10 And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him." (2 Samuel 5:1-10 KJV)

As explained above, a city was a strong enclosure, but it was rarely self-sufficient. The two greatest falls of Jerusalem happened after a long siege that cut off the city's supply lines. In the case of Jerusalem's fall to Babylon, it came after an 18-month siege when "the famine prevailed in the city."

"^25:1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon [see Ancient Empires - Babylon] came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it: and they built forts against it round about. ^25:2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. ^25:3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. ^25:4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the king's garden: now the Chaldees were against the city round about: and the king went the way toward the plain. ^25:5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him. ^25:6 So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. ^25:7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah [see Zedekiah Of Judah], and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

^25:8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: ^25:9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire [see Jerusalem In Flames]. _25:10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. ^25:11 Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away. ^25:12 But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.

^25:13 And the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD [see Raiders Of The Lost Ark], and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon. ^25:14 And the pots, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away. ^25:15 And the firepans, and the bowls, and such things as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, the captain of the guard took away.

^25:16 The two pillars, one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the brass of all these vessels was without weight. ^25:17 The height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the chapiter upon it was brass: and the height of the chapiter three cubits; and the wreathen work, and pomegranates upon the chapiter round about, all of brass: and like unto these had the second pillar with wreathen work.

^25:18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door: ^25:19 And out of the city he took an officer that was set over the men of war, and five men of them that were in the king's presence, which were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host, which mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land that were found in the city: ^25:20 And Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took these, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah: ^25:21 And the king of Babylon smote them, and slew them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land." (2 Kings 25:1-21 KJV)

Fact Finder: The walls of Jerusalem that were destroyed by the Babylonians were rebuilt in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the people of Judah returned from their 70-years exile in Babylon (see also Jeremiah's Field). They lasted for about 5 centuries until another siege of Jerusalem, by the Romans, destroyed much of the walls of Jerusalem again. What did Jesus Christ say, and warn, about that?
See What Did Jesus Christ Say About Those Stones? and The Strait Gate

This Day In History, July 7

1307: King Edward I of England died on his way north to subdue a rebellion in Scotland; he was succeeded by Edward II.

1534: The first recorded encounter of Europeans and native people of the Gulf of St. Lawrence area occurred, in what is today the Canadian Province of New Brunswick.

1543: France invaded Luxembourg.

1575: The Raid of the Redeswire; the last major battle between England and Scotland.

1668: Isaac Newton received his MA from Trinity College, Cambridge.

1798: Napoleon Bonaparte's army began its march towards Cairo, Egypt, from Alexandria.

1807: The first of the Treaties of Tilsit was signed, during which France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, and Russia, under Czar Alexander, became allies and divided Europe between them.

1846: During the Mexican-American war (a geographically-inaccurate term, since all people of the continents of North and South America, from the northern tip of Canada to the southern tip of Argentina, are "Americans"), the U.S. annexed California from Mexico. By the end of the war in 1848, Mexico lost the territories of what is today California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, plus parts of Colorado and New Mexico. As well, Texas broke away from Mexico and later joined the U.S.

1865: Lewis Paine, David Herold, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were executed by public hanging in Washington's Old Penitentiary. They had been convicted of "treasonable conspiracy" in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1898: U.S. President William McKinley declared the Newlands Resolution to annex Hawaii as a territory of the U.S.

1928: The Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri introduced a new product to the market - pre-sliced bread.

1930: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, English author and creator of "Sherlock Holmes," died.

1937: Following the establishment of a commission to investigate the mandate in Palestine, the Peel Report was published in Britain (listen to our Sermons The Balfour Declaration and The Ottoman Empire).

1937: Japan invaded China.

1959: The planet Venus (the pagan name that scientists have given to the planet) occulted (blocked from view) the star Regulus. The event is used to calculate the diameter of Venus.

1967: Civil war began in Biafra.

1978: The Solomon Islands were granted independence from Britain.

1980: Sharia was instituted in Iran.

2005: Terrorist explosions in London's transport system killed 56 people (including the four suicide bombers) and injured over 700.