Jerusalem was called the City of David; because David built a house there, and most of the kings of Judah were buried there.
Again, in 1 Kings i., "Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fatlings by the Stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En-Rogel," and sought to get himself proclaimed king. But when Nathan the prophet, and Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, had acquainted David with the proceeding, David gave orders to place Solomon upon the king's mule, and "bring him down to Gihon," and proclaim him as king. There the trumpet was blown, the people piped with pipes, and Adonijah and his guests heard the noise. Before we can fully realise these scenes we must know all the localities, and how they stood related to one another, and to the position of David's house.
The Old Testament history is full of such local references, and so are the Books of the Maccabees; and perhaps most of all, the chapters of Josephus which describe the siege of Jerusalem by Titus. Let us then try and make ourselves acquainted with the features of the ground, and learn to apply the names to the proper localities.
1. The City as it is.
Its position.—Jerusalem is well described in Smith's Dict. of the Bible. It lies near the summit of the broad mountain ridge, or high, uneven table land which extends from the Plain of Esdraelon to the desert of the south. This tract is everywhere not less than from 20 to 25 miles in breadth, and has a surface rocky and uneven. Its height at Jerusalem is 2500 feet above the Mediterranean Sea; but it continues to rise towards the south, until, in the vicinity of Hebron, the elevation is nearly 3000 feet.
The city occupies the southern termination of a table-land which is cut off from the country round it on the
