Siege of Jebus

The Siege of Jebus is a siege described in biblical passages as having occurred when Israelites under King David of Israel besieged and conquered the Canaanite city of Jerusalem, then known as Jebus. The Israelites gained access by a surprise assault, making Jebus the capital of Israel under the new name, City of David.

Siege of Jebus
Part of Later Israelite Campaigns

Jebusite Jerusalem
Date1010 BCE
Location
Jerusalem, Canaan
Result Israelite victory
Belligerents
Israelites Jebusites
Commanders and leaders
David ?
Strength
unknown unknown
Casualties and losses
no reliable estimates no reliable estimates

The identification of Jebus with Jerusalem has been challenged. Niels Peter Lemche notes that every non-biblical mention of Jerusalem found in the ancient Near East refers to the city with the name Jerusalem, offering as an example the Amarna letters which are dated to the 14th century BCE and call Jerusalem Urasalimmu. He states that "There is no evidence of Jebus and the Jebusites outside of the Old Testament. Some scholars reckon Jebus to be a different place from Jerusalem; other scholars prefer to see the name of Jebus as a kind of pseudo-ethnic name without any historical background."[1]

Biblical description

The capture of Jebus is mentioned in 2 Samuel 5 and 1 Chronicles 11 with similar wordings:

And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, "You will not come in here." Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.

— 1 Chronicles 11:4-5
gollark: And the empirical things which are vaguely related go the other way.
gollark: I mean, it seems like you'd either have to make wildly insane assumptions or... somehow empirically check.
gollark: How do you even prove something like that?
gollark: I like Newcomb's paradox.
gollark: Newcomb's paradox!

See also
  • Siege of Jerusalem (disambiguation), list of sieges for and battles of Jerusalem

References
  1. Lemche, Nies Peter (2010). The A to Z of Ancient Israel. Scarecrow Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780810875654. Retrieved 3 April 2020.

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