Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

6. Incidents of the History better realised.

The Taking of Jerusalem by David:—The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, who felt so secure in their stronghold that they mocked David by putting the lame and the blind upon the walls as defenders. Nevertheless, “David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the City of David ... and David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the City of David” (2 Sam. v.). The stronghold here spoken of is not that which is now called the tower of David, near the Jaffa Gate, nor is the Zion here spoken of the south-western hill. The parallel statement in Josephus is that David “took the Lower City by force, but the Akra held out still.” Joab, however, scaled the fortress, the Jebusites were cast out of the Akra, and then David rebuilt Jerusalem, renamed it the City of David, and dwelt there (Antiq. vii. 3. 1 & 2). It is not the High Town which is here spoken of but the Akra; and in the place where Josephus gives a general description of the city he tells us that Akra was the hill of the Lower City, while the Upper City was called by King David the Phrourion, that is, the hill-fort or watch-post.

It would seem that in those early days the south-western hill was not yet inhabited, or at any rate was not yet enclosed by a wall, although a garrisoned watch-tower stood upon it. The highest hills are not always deemed the best positions for a citadel or castle. It was not so at Athens, and it is not so in Edinburgh. The Jebusite population of Jerusalem was mostly clustered on the eastern hill. In 1879 Sir Charles Warren said: “The strongest point, to my mind, in favour of Ophel having been the ancient site of the Jebusite city is the fact of the one spring of water being found there. I have carefully noted the manner in which the Kaffirs have located themselves close to water in their various strongholds, and I think that unless there were very urgent reasons, the Jebusites would have located themselves near what is now called the Virgin’s Fountain.”

But while the eastern hill was Zion,[33] the Akra was the stronghold of its owners and defenders, their castle occupying an advantageous promontory defended by valleys and ditches. A castle or fort so situated, could not, however, stand a siege, unless it possessed a secret supply of water; and Warren has spoken of the Virgin’s Fountain as the only spring. But there is some mystery about the Hammam esh Shefa, and many, including Warren himself, are inclined to believe it may be connected with a spring. The water is stated to be clear and free from the impurities of rain water, and the supply is never exhausted. The position of this “well” is in the Tyropœon Valley, in a line between Akra and the Dome of the Rock. The entrance to the fountain is by a narrow opening, but the shaft soon expands to about 12 feet square. At the bottom is an excavated chamber on one side, and a passage on the other. The passage expands into a vault, beyond which the channel becomes crooked and irregular. It appears that an ancient conduit enters the vault at the extremity of the horizontal passage, but its direction and source are unknown. May not some conduit have enabled the besieged garrison of the Akra fort to draw water from this source?

A few years ago the Rev. F. W. Birch, arguing on the supposition that it was the city on Ophel which Joab captured for David, suggested that he found his way into it by the secret tunnels and shafts from the Virgin’s Fountain. That Ophel might be captured by surprise in that way seems likely; only it was not Ophel that Joab had to capture, but Akra. The Lower City had all been taken, except that the Akra held out still. If its garrison obtained water from the Hammam esh Shefa, may not Joab have effected an entrance from that spring? He did not have to get up to a “gutter,” nor yet to a “water course,” but to “reach them by the aqueduct” (B’Tzinnor).

David’s flight and exile; the Spies.—David at first dwelt in the stronghold (the Akra fort), but we afterwards find references to a house which he had and which was on the Ophel slope. We have had evidence of this in the Book of Nehemiah, and we find confirmation in such passages as 1 Kings viii. 1–6, where the ark is brought up out of the City of David into the temple (and 2 Sam. xxiv. 18; 1 Kings ix. 24). When David decided to flee from Jerusalem because of the rebellion of Absalom, he would go down the stairs of the City of David, pass out by the Gate between two walls, and go through his own garden grounds; and then, as we are told, he passed over the Kedron, ascended Olivet, and went down to Jericho and over the Jordan.

But he left friends behind him at his house, and it was arranged that two sons of the priests should act as spies and bring him news (2 Sam. xvii.). They waited outside the city, at En Rogel, and a wench went and told them. En Rogel is now identified with the Virgin’s Fountain; and it would not be a bad place for the spies to hide in, seeing that its passages were dark, and communicated both with the hill and the valley. The maid servant, descending the staircases from above, might take a pitcher or a bucket to draw water, and so escape suspicion; the spies below on receiving the message, could hie away over the mountain to the Jericho road and Jordan.

The evidence that the Virgin’s Fountain is En Rogel will increase upon us as we proceed; but one reason may be stated here. En Rogel is etymologically the Spring of the Fuller, and was so called, no doubt, because fullers washed clothes at the place; but it may also be made to mean the Spring of the Steps, because fullers trode the clothes with their feet, and hence got their name (from Regel, the foot, and metaphorically a step). The Virgin’s Fountain is now called by the Arabs, Ain Umm ed Deraj, “Fountain of the Mother of Steps,” a designation commonly supposed to refer to the two flights of steps which lead down to it, but which may be derived by tradition from “En Rogel.” The steps were not always there. The explorers of Jerusalem say, “The pool seems originally to have been visible in the face of a cliff, and the vault and steps are modern. Possibly the original exit of the water was down the Kedron Valley.”

Adonijah’s Banquet at the Stone of Zoheleth.—After Absalom’s death David returned to Jerusalem. But by-and-bye he grew old and infirm, and then there were speculations and plots about the succession to the throne. Adonijah thought to gain favour by assuming royal state and showing princely generosity. He set up chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him; and he slew sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En Rogel. Abiathar the priest was at the banquet, and Joab the veteran general; all was going merrily, and the guests shouted, “God save King Adonijah!” (1 Kings i.) But news of these proceedings was carried to David at his house on Ophel. Bathsheba came in and told him what was occurring, and reminded him of his oath that Solomon her son should sit upon the throne. While the queen was yet speaking, Nathan the prophet was announced, who confirmed the story, and inquired anxiously who was to reign. Then David called for Zadok and Nathan, the priests, and Benaiah, the soldier, chief of the king’s bodyguard, to go with them as the representative of force, and indeed to take his men, and said, “Cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon (i.e., Siloam Pool), anoint him there, and blow the trumpet, and say, God save King Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead.” This was done, and all the people said, “God save King Solomon!”

We shall realize these events better when we look at the position of Zoheleth, the discovery of which was one of the happy results of M. Clermont Ganneau’s investigations in 1870. Nearly in the centre of the line along which stretches the village of Siloam there exists a rocky plateau surrounded by Arab buildings, which mask its true form and extent: the western face, cut perpendicularly, slightly overhangs the valley. Steps rudely cut in the rock enable one to climb it, not without difficulty, and so to penetrate directly from the valley to the midst of the village. By this road, troublesome, and even dangerous, pass habitually the women of Siloam, who come to fill their vessels at the so-called Virgin’s Fountain. Now this passage and this ledge of rock in which it is cut are called by the fellahin, “Ez Zehweile,” which means “a slippery place,” or perhaps “the serpent stone.” This was M. Ganneau’s discovery, and he knew at once the bearings of it, in helping to fix En Rogel at the Virgin’s Fountain, and the king’s garden somewhere in its neighbourhood. Perhaps the discovery would have been made earlier, only that the village of Siloam, owing to the turbulence of its inhabitants, is almost unvisited by Europeans.