David Takes Jerusalem and Brings the Ark
about 1003 BC, estimated dateEstimated date
David captures the Jebusite stronghold of Zion, makes it his capital and brings the ark of the covenant there with music and dancing. Jerusalem becomes both the royal city and a centre of Israel’s worship.
Joshua and Judges say that neither Judah nor Benjamin drove the Jebusites out of Jerusalem, and that they still lived there (Joshua 15:63) (Judges 1:21). Once he was king of all Israel, David marched against the city. The Jebusites said that even the blind and the lame could keep him out. “Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion. This is David’s city” (2 Samuel 5:6–7). Samuel mentions a watercourse in connection with the attack (2 Samuel 5:8); Chronicles says that Joab went up first and was made commander for it (1 Chronicles 11:4–6).
David lived in the stronghold and built around it, and Hiram, king of Tyre, sent cedar, carpenters and masons to build him a house (2 Samuel 5:9–11). The Philistines came up against him twice in the valley of Rephaim and were beaten back (2 Samuel 5:17–25).
David then went with thirty thousand men to fetch the ark of God from the house of Abinadab at Kiriath-jearim, where it had been taken after the Philistines returned it (Samuel and the Loss of the Ark). It was carried on a new cart. When the oxen stumbled, Uzzah put out his hand to steady the ark and died beside it. David was afraid and left the ark for three months in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite (2 Samuel 6:1–11) (1 Chronicles 13:5–6).
Hearing that Obed-edom’s house had been blessed, David brought the ark up to Jerusalem with sacrifices, shouting and trumpets. Wearing a linen ephod, he “danced before Yahweh with all his might”. The ark was set in a tent he had pitched for it; he offered sacrifices, blessed the people and gave food to everyone (2 Samuel 6:12–19). Michal, Saul’s daughter, despised him for dancing; David answered that he had danced before the Lord, who had chosen him over her father (2 Samuel 6:16, 20–23). Chronicles adds that this time Levites carried the ark on poles, as the law of Moses required, and that David appointed Levites to sing and play before it (1 Chronicles 15:2, 13–16; 16:4–7).
A city that the Jebusites had held until then became the king’s own, and with the ark it became a place of worship as well. Psalm 132 remembers David’s vow to find a dwelling for the Lord and says, “Yahweh has chosen Zion” (Psalm 132:1–5, 13–14). David’s wish to build a house for the ark leads to the promise of God’s Covenant with David and to Solomon Builds the Temple.
How this is dated
Estimated date. A scholarly estimate from primary evidence, with a margin of years.
David reigned seven and a half years at Hebron before he reigned in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:5). With his accession about 1010 BC, the capture of the city falls about 1003 BC. That year is reckoned backwards from later reigns that Assyrian records fix, through the regnal figures of Kings, on the chronology of Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (3rd ed., 1983). It depends on forty-year reigns for David and Solomon, which may be round numbers; David Becomes King sets out the reckoning. Samuel does not say how long afterwards the ark was brought up. Chronicles tells of the first attempt soon after its account of the capture (1 Chronicles 13:1–6).
What Jerusalem was like in the tenth century BC is disputed among archaeologists. Eilat Mazar, The Palace of King David (2009), attributes a large stone building she excavated in the City of David to this period. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon (2006), argue that Jerusalem was then a small hill town and that the biblical picture was drawn later.
Primary sources
In context
Grows out of
- about 1010 BC to 1003 BC, estimated date
- about 1070 BC, traditional date
Leads to
- about 1000 BC, traditional date