Citizens felt safe in their walled city of Jebus, former name of Jerusalem. They had no idea enemy soldiers knew about the shaft inside the city that dropped 45 feet (13 meters) in the unguarded cave of Gihon Spring below. And they never expected any soldiers to try climbing it.
6King David and his men marched north to Jerusalem. They intended to take the city from Jebusite people who lived there. Jebusites were so confident of their defenses that they yelled down to David, “Hey, you can’t get in here. A blind cripple could stop you.”7David took the walled city anyhow. People sometimes call the city Zion. But David called it the City of David. The name stuck.8David said, “Let’s show those blind cripples how much I hate them. To get to them, you’re going to have to climb up the shaft that drops into their spring of water.” That’s where the old saying comes from, that “The lame and blind aren’t allowed in the Temple.”
Jebus becomes City of David
9David moved into the walled town and named it City of David. He fortified the position even more, from Millo tower on the perimeter and then toward the center of the city.10David became a stronger and more respected leader because the LORD of everyone was on his side.11King Hiram decided to give David a palace as a gift. So, he sent ambassadors along with carpenters and masons, supplied with cedar trees.12David took that as a sign that the LORD had, in fact, given him the job of king over Israel and had lifted his status for Israel’s sake.13After David moved to Jerusalem, he took more women into his harem—concubines and wives. They gave him more sons and daughters.14The names of David’s 11 children born in Jerusalem include: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,15Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,16Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
