Are you aware that throughout the course of history Jerusalem has had at least 72 different names?

Here is a sampling:

-Jerusalem (most common name used in Bible)

-Zion (where the Jebusite fortress stood)

-Mount Moriah (identified with the Temple Mount and part of Jebus (Judges 19:10). Araunah, referred to as Ornan in 1 Chronicles, sold his threshing floor to David for 600 shekels of gold. David constructed an altar on it. This altar became the core of the Temple of Solomon. (1 Chronicles 21:26).

-The City of David (2 Samuel 5:7-10)

-Salem (Genesis 14:18. Psalm 76:2 parallels Shalem with Zion)

-Uru-salim (Sumero-Akkadian name)

-Urusalim (Amarna Letters. These were diplomatic pieces of correspondence between Egypt and Canaan, Amuru, and other kingdom leaders during the New Kingdom Period of about 1360BC to almost 1332BC)

-Yerushalayim (Hebrew name)

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According to the Books of Joshua and Samuel, the Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe that inhabited Jerusalem (then known as Jebus {trampled place}) before the Israelite Conquest begun by Joshua (Joshua 11:3 and Joshua 12:10), and completed by King David (2 Samuel 5:6-10).

The Books of Kings and 1 Chronicles also state Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this conquest. David is believed to have captured Jerusalem about 1003BC. No evidence of the Jebusites has been discovered outside of the Old Testament.

The British Assyriologist Theophilus Pinches interpreted the word "Yabusu" on a contract tablet dated about 2200BC as an ancient form of Jebus.

According to the Table of Nations (Genesis 10) the Jebusites are identified in third place among the Canaanite groups, between the Hittites and the Amorites. The Hittites were between the time of Abraham, (about 2000BC and 1500BC) up to the time of Ezra (after the Israelites returned from their Babylonian exile, about 450BC).

In the late 19th Century, the Hittites were identified as an Indo-European-speaking empire of Anatolia. The Amorites came from Southern Mesopotamia in the 21st Century BC to the end of the 17th Century BC. The Amorites were famous for Babylon.

The Jebusites may have been connected to the Hurrians. The last Jebusite king of Jerusalem was Ornan. Four Hurrian names are listed in the Biblical Conquest. They are Piram the king of Jarmuth, Hokam the king of Hebron (Joshua 10:3), as well as Sheshai and Talmai who were sons of Anak (Joshua 15:14).

The Hurrians descended as a group from the Central Alborz Mountains south of the Caspian Sea (in Northern Iran). They lived east of the Tigris River and in the Zagros Mountains, Northern Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean coast.

Exodus describes Jerusalem as a portion of the "good and large land, flowing with milk and honey" God promised Moses for the Hebrews.

The Book of Joshua details how Adonizedek, the king of Jerusalem at the time, led Jebusite and Amorite warriors from Jarmut, Eglon, Japhia, Hebron, and Lachish in battle against Gideon, who defeated them. The Hebrews killed Adonizedek, and the kings of the cities they defeated in this conflict, by trapping them in a cave and executing them.

The Book of Joshua is believed to have been compiled around 600BC. In Joshua 15:63 it is stated Judah could not eliminate the Jebusites in Jerusalem. Judges 1:21 says the Jebusites continued to dwell in Jerusalem in the territory occupied by the Tribe of Benjamin, south of the Kingdom of Israel.

According to Classical rabbinical literature, the Jebusites, as part of the price Abraham paid for the Cave of the Patriarchs, approximately 19 miles south of Jerusalem in Hebron, received a covenant that the Israelites would not capture Jerusalem against the will of the Jebusites. They engraved this covenant in bronze.

When David wanted to capture Jerusalem, the strongest fortress in Canaan, the Jebusites boasted "even the blind and lame could withstand David's siege." Medieval French rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, better known as Rashi, was an acclaimed authority on the Talmud and Hebrew Bible Commentator. He stated the Jebusites had two statues in Jerusalem with their mouths containing the words of Abraham's covenant. The blind one represented Isaac and the lame one represented Jacob.

That was why the Israelites could not conquer Jerusalem during Joshua's campaign and David was prevented from entering the city. David promised a reward of captaincy to whoever destroyed these bronzes. Joab did. David paid the Jebusites the full value of Jerusalem by collecting money from the Israelite tribes so Jerusalem became their common property.

A conflict of versions of David's attack exists between the Mesoretic Texts (the Hebrew texts of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible), and the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament.

The Mesoretic Texts claim David conquered Jerusalem by a surprise attack, led by Joab, through the city's water supply tunnels. The Gihon Spring, one of the world's largest intermittent springs, is the only natural water supply Jerusalem posseses. This is the main source of water for the City of David, the original site of Jerusalem.

In the 19th Century, a part of the water supply system known as Warren's Shaft, that is found next to the Gihon Spring, Bronze and Iron Age Jerusalem's main water source, was discovered by the British Archaeologist Charles Warren.

In 2005, a set of heavy fortifications, and towers around what would have been the line of attack at the base of the Warren's Shaft, are now thought to have made such an offensive implausible.

The Septuagint claims the Israelites had to attack the Jebusites with their daggers, not through Jerusalem's water system.

It remains undetermined what became of the Jebusites.

Sources:

Bible
biblegateway.com
amazingbibletimeline.com
jewishencyclopedia.com
newworldencyclopedia.com





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