Map Jerusalem: Israel's worship site
Jerusalem: Israel's worship site
David’s Jerusalem
David's Jerusalem
Gehenna Valley
Gehenna Valley
Gehenna Valley. Once apparently a city dump for Jerusalem and possibly a place where Israelites sacrifice to idos. Jesus used it as a symbol of God's punishment for sin, perhaps because some thought that the idol sacrifices offered there were a reason God let the Jews get conquered and exiled. When Jesus talks about the valley in those terms, translators created an English word to express the idea: Hell.
Valley of Gehenna
Valley of Gehenna
Photo Kidron Valley
Photo Kidron Valley
Kidron Valley
Map Gehenna Valley
Map Gehenna Valley
Map Gehenna Valley, location of an ancient trash heap and where Israelite kings once sacrificed their sons.
Gehenna trash heap
Map of Jericho Road
Map of Jericho Road
Jericho Road
Map the Triumphal Entry
Map the Triumphal Entry
Map the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday before his crucifixion on Friday, followed by his resurrection on Sunday.
Triumphal Entry
Map Mount of Olives ridge
Map Mount of Olives ridge
Map Mount of Olives
Mt. of Olives ridge
Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
Mt. of Olives
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Map road from Bethany
Map road from Bethany
Road from Bethany
Map Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed
Map Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed
Map Mount of Olives. This is where Jesus prayed on the night of his arrest.
Jesus prays on the Mt. of Olives
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Ancient Jerusalem
Ancient Jerusalem
Map Jerusalem hilltop
Map Jerusalem hilltop
Map of the Jerusalem hilltop, the City of David, the Mount of Olives, and the Kidron Valley, with Gethsemane.
Jerusalem hilltop city and Temple
Map Jerusalem on Mount Zion
Map Jerusalem on Mount Zion
Jerusalem on Mt. Zion
Bible map of Hezekiah’s Jerusalem
Bible map of Hezekiah's Jerusalem
Hezekiah's Jerusalem
Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna)
Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna)
Painting of ridgetop city of Jerusalem
with Hinnom and Kidron Valleys
Two Israelite kings in Jerusalem sacrificed a son in Hinnom Valley. That's the name in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. In the Greek language of the New Testament, the name is Gehenna Valley.Ahaz
"Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He lived in Judah’s capital city of Jerusalem. He was not a good king in God’s eyes because he didn’t follow in the footsteps of his ancestor, David, who obeyed the LORD. Ahaz lived like the idol-worshiping kings of Israel. He even burned his son as a sacrifice, which is despicable to God. Other nations used to do that, too, but God drove them off the land. Ahaz sacrificed at shrines set up on hilltops and under shade trees in the valleys" (2 Kings 16:2-4, Casual English Bible).Manasseh
King Hezekiah’s boy, Manasseh, was 12 years old when he became king of Judah. He reigned 55 years. [1] His mother was Hephzibah. 2Manasseh was a poor excuse of a king, in God’s eyes. Manasseh reverted to some of the old, pagan religions of nations God drove off the land. This king practiced repulsive worship rituals. Jesus later used the valley as a metaphor to describe God's punishment for sin. English translators of the Bible coined a word for that metaphor: Hell. When Jesus spoke of a place translated as "hell," he was more literally referring to the valley that apparently later became the city dump.... Manasseh sacrificed his own son and burned the body on an altar. [6] He consulted sorcerers, wizards, fortunetellers, along with mediums who tried to contact the dead. [7] These sins made the LORD angry" (2 Kings 21:1-2, 6, Casual English Bible).For more Bible features
Jerusalem with Hinnom, Kidron Valleys
Solomon’s Jerusalem Temple
Solomon's Jerusalem Temple
Solomon's Jerusalem Temple
Solomon's Jerusalem Temple sits on what is known as the Temple Mount at the rocky top of the ridge on which Jews built their Jerusalem Temple. King David lived down the hill in the City of David, a walled city below the top of the ridge. His son and successor, Solomon, expanded the city north, to the Temple Mount, where he built the first Jewish Temple. Solomon's extension of Jerusalem to the hill north of the City of David produced a walled city about 1 kilometer north to south (three-fourths of a mile). Ophel hill sat on the elbow of the ridge between the City of David below and the king's palace and the sprawling Temple above. Babylonian invaders destroyed the Temple and the entire city about 400 years later, in 586 BC. They exiled the surviving Jews. Persians conquered the Babylonians 50 years later and freed the Jews to go home. They rebuilt the Temple in 516 BC. So, they had lived without a Jerusalem worship center for 70 years. Then, 70 years after they built the second Temple, Nehemiah, a Jewish winetaster for the Persian king, got permission to go to Jerusalem and repair the walls. He served there as governor for about 13 years.Solomon's Jerusalem & Temple Mount
Saul kills all 85 priests at Nob
Saul kills all 85 priests at Nob
Saul kills priests at Nob
King Saul wiped out an entire community of priests. He killed all 85 priests in Nob. David, on the run from King Saul, tricked those priests at Nob into giving him and some of this men food. They had no idea he had fallen out of favor with King Saul and that Saul was hunting him. When Saul found out the priests had helped him, here's what happened, reported in 1 Samuel 22:11-19.Saul sends for the priests
11Saul sent for the priest and his entire family. Everyone came. 12Saul told the priest, “Listen up, son of Ahitub.” The priest said, “I am here listening, my king.” 13Saul said, “Why are you helping my enemy, the son of Jesse? You gave him bread, a sword, and you took his requests to God. And now he’s leading a rebellion against me and trying to kill me. You helped him do that. Why?” 14Ahimelech said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What official or any other servant do you have who is more devoted to you than David? My goodness, he’s your son-in-law. When you give him a mission, he completes it quickly. Everyone in your family respects him. 15Besides, that wasn’t the first time I took one of his questions to God. So, I don’t understand why there’s a problem with this one. Please don’t think that me or my family opposes you. I don’t understand what you’re saying about us or David.”Sentenced to death
16“You’ll understand this,” the king said. “I sentence you and your family to death.” 17Saul ordered the nearby guards, “Kill the priests. They’re with David. They knew he was a fugitive. And they didn’t bother to tell me that he came to them.” The guards refused to kill priests of the LORD. 18So the king said, “Doeg, kill the priests.” Doeg killed 85 men who were dressed in the linen that priests wore. 19Then Doeg went to their town of Nob and killed the people and their livestock. He led the slaughter of men, women, children, babies, cattle, donkeys, and sheep. He killed them all with swords. 20One of Ahimelech’s sons escaped: Abiathar. He went to David. 21Abiathar told David that the king had killed his entire family, including all the priests of the LORD. Compare the story in other Bible translations at Bible Gateway.Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Temple Mount in Jerusalem
The Temple Mount is at the rocky top of the ridge on which Jews built their Jerusalem Temple. King David lived down the hill in the City of David, a walled city below the top of the ridge. His son and successor, Solomon, expanded the city north, to the Temple Mount, where he built the first Jewish Temple. Babylonian invaders destroyed it and the entire city about 400 years later, in 586 BC. They exiled the surviving Jews. Persians conquered the Babylonians 50 years later and freed the Jews to go home. They rebuilt the Temple in 516 BC. So, they had lived without a Jerusalem worship center for 70 years. Then, 70 years after they built the second Temple, Nehemiah, a Jewish winetaster for the Persian king, got permission to go to Jerusalem and repair the walls. He served there as governor for about 13 years.Jerusalem Temple, walls rebuilt
Jerusalem Temple, walls rebuilt
Jerusalem Temple, walls rebuilt
Prophet Ezra convinces Jerusalem Jews to finish rebuilding the Temple that invading Babylonians destroyed about 70 years earlier. Then in another 70 years or so, Nehemiah, the Jewish wine-taster of the Persian king gets his king's permission to repair some of the walls around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah rebuilds walls of Jerusalem
Nehemiah rebuilds walls of Jerusalem
Nehemiah rebuilt walls, gates of Jerusalem
Nehemiah is one odd story. He’s a Jew serving wine to a Persian king in what is now Iran. Who saw that coming? The king, Artaxerxes, trusts this Jewish man with his life. How did Nehemiah get there? Likely he was the descendant of Jews taken captive to Babylon (Iraq) about 150 years earlier, when Babylon leveled Jerusalem and other cities and took the Jews captive. About 50 years later, Persia (Iran) defeated Babylon and freed the Jews and other captives to go home. But many Jews stayed because they grew up in exile. Iraq and Iran was the only homeland they knew. Yet, many returned to the land of their ancestors to rebuild Jerusalem and the other cities. Nehemiah gets word that Jerusalem’s walls are still broken down and the city gates are gone. It’s a city undefended. He can’t believe it. By this time, Jews have had about 90 years to fix those walls.Winetaster becomes city builder
So, Nehemiah talks the king into giving him a 12-year leave of absence so he can repair the walls. It certainly seems odd that the king would grant his winetaster’s Big Ask. Yet the king also agrees to give him the wood for the job, sends him with a detachment of soldiers as an escort, and then appoints him governor over the Jewish province of Judah. That’s what the southern Jewish nation of Judah had become, a Persian province ruled by a Persian king who even chose the songs Jews could sing at the Temple (Nehemiah 11:23). Earlier, when Babylon exiled Jews from their homeland, settlers moved in. They hated the idea of Jews returning to power because it meant the Jews would try to take back the land and get rid of everyone else. Nehemiah had 12 years to fix the walls. It took him 52 days. Nehemiah rallied Jerusalem-area Jews to join the work. They felt the clock sands slipping away while their neighbors plotted to stop the work. Murdering Nehemiah seems to have been one plan on the table. Attacking the work crew was another. Jewish construction workers carried their weapons on the job in daylight, guarded the walls all night, and didn’t get much sleep during those 52 days and nights. Nehemiah spent the rest of his 12-year leave reminding the people what it meant to be Jewish. They studied the Laws of Moses that we read today as the first five books in the Bible.JERUSALEM’S WALL BUILDERS: ROLL CREDITS
NEHEMIAH’S MOTLEY CONSTRUCTION CREW
Nehemiah 3 1Teams of people worked together repairing different parts of Jerusalem’s damaged wall and destroyed gates. SHEEP GATE. Elisheba the high priest worked alongside other priests to rebuild the Sheep Gate. Then they built the doors, set them in place, and dedicated the entire area to God. They did this all the way from the Tower of the Hundred to the Tower of the Hananel. 2WALL. Jericho men worked on the wall beside the gate. Zaccur son of Imri worked just beyond them. 3FISH GATE. Hassenaah’s sons built the Fish Gate. They set in the door and placed the beams, bolts, and bars. 4WALL. Meremoth worked beside them on wall repairs. He was the son of Uriah and grandson of Hakkoz. 5WALL. People from the village of Tekoa made repairs. But their noble leaders wouldn’t stoop to manual labor—even for the Lord. It was beneath them.More
Jerusalem walls, gates in time of Nehemiah
Map city gates Jerusalem
Map city gates Jerusalem
Map city gates of Jerusalem in about 520 BC, when the walls and gates were still broken from an earlier invasion. Babylonians destroyed the walls and the Jewish Temple a generation earlier, in 586 BC. But the prophet Zechariah said God promised to fill a rebuilt city from one gate to another until the city is crowded. But in Zechariah's time, Jerusalem was still rubble from the war.
Gates of Jerusalem 520 BC
