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Bible Dictionaries
Zion
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
or (See JERUSALEM.) Lieut. Conder (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, Oct. 1877, p. 178) takes Zion for a district name, like "Mount Ephraim." It means sunny mountain. Hezekiah brought his aqueduct (2 Chronicles 22:30; 2 Chronicles 33:14) from Gihon, the Virgin's fountain, to the western side of the city of David (which is thus Ophel). Zion was the city of David (2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Chronicles 11:7; 1 Chronicles 11:2 Chronicles 5); even the temple was sometimes said to be on Zion (1 Maccabees 4:5:2)
The name thus appears to have had a somewhat wide application; but it mainly applies to the eastern of the two main hills on which Jerusalem latterly was built. W. F. Birch (Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, July 1878, p. 129) remarks that ancient Jerusalem stood on a rocky plateau enclosed on three sides by two ravines, the king's dale on the W. and S., the brook Kedron on the E. Another ravine, the valley of Hinnom, cleft the space thus enclosed. Between the "brook" and "valley" was the ridge on the southern end of which stood at the beginning of David's reign the hereto impregnable fortress of Jebus (afterward called Zion). In the valley W. of the ridge lay the rest of the city, once captured by the Israelites, but now occupied by the Jebusites. On its eastern side near the" brook" was an intermittent fountain, called then Enrogel, once Gihon in the "brook," afterward Siloah, now the fountain of the Virgin.
tsinor , "gutter," as the subterranean aqueduct was called, should be commander in chief. Joab ventured and won.
How David heard of the secret passage, and how Joab accomplished the feat, is not recorded; but Capt. Warren (3000 years subsequently) found the ascent of the tsinorJudges 2:22-26).
(See TEMPLE.)
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Fausset, Andrew R. Entry for 'Zion'. Fausset's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/fbd/z/zion.html. 1949.
