Israel [antikvár]

im JERUSALEM Condensing Jerusalem's four-thousand-year history into a few pages is difficult indeed, particularly since Jerusa- lem's past is so immensely varied and dramatic. Situated in the fudean mountains, ferusalem is a city sacred to humanity. For Moslems, it is El Kuds, the Holy: for Jews, Yerushalim, their capital city since the time of King David: for Christians, the site of Christ's Pgssion and Crucifixion. The name «ferusalem» means «City of Peace», but how few have been the periods of peace in its history! Jerusalem has been invaded and laid waste by the Egyptians, Babylonians. Greeks. Romans. Persians. Mos- lems, Christians, Mamelukes and the Turks. Jerusalem's first inhabitants lived on the hill south of the Temple Mount area which Josephus called the Ophel. They were a Canaanite tribe called the Jebusites. Their city had been mentioned in an Egyptian Execration Text of the second millennium B. C. as « Ursalim », one of a long list of citiesconqueredby Pharaoh. In IOOOB.C Davidconquer- ed Jerusalem and bought the top of Mount Moriah from the Jebusite king Arauna on which to build an altar to the Lord. He transferred the Ark of the Covenant. symbolizing the union between God and his people, therefrom Hebron. It had accompanied the People of Israel throughout the long years of wandering in the desert before arriving in the Promised Land and had gone with them into many bat- tles. Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, also chose Mount Moriah as the site for the grand and sumptuous First Temple he built around 950 B.C. The Temple itself mas later destroyed but the wisdom of its builder would be remembered for centuries to come. After Solomon's death, discord among the tribes split his kingdom into fwo parts: Israel in the north and Judah. with its capital in Jerusalem, in the south. The kingdom of Israel succumbed to Assyrian advances shortly thereafter and became an Assyrian pro- vince. Judah resisted a bit longer. While King Sennacherib failed to conquer Jerusalem in 701 B.C the Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar succeeded to do so in 587 B.C. He sacked the city, destroyed the Temple and took thousands of Jews back with him to Babylonia. This Babylonian exile lasted nearly fifty years, until the Persian King Cyrus conquered Babylonia and allowed the exiles to begin their return to Judah. Approximately one hundred years later, Nehemiah the Prophet and Ezra the Scribe supennsed the