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David, City of.

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This name is applied in Scripture to two different places. 1. In 2 Samuel 5, we read that David, having taken Jerusalem, and stormed the citadel on Mount Zion, "dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David" (1 Chronicles 11:7). After that time the castle and palace of Zion appear to have been called "the City of David," as contra-distinguished alike from Jerusalem generally, and from Moriah and other sections of it (1 Kings 8:1; 1 Kings 3:1; 2 Chronicles 5:2). In it David and most of his successors on the throne were buried (1 Kings 2:10; 2 Chronicles 9:31, etc.). Mount Zion, or the City of David, is on the south-west side of Jerusalem, opposite Moriah, or the temple-mount, with which it was connected by a bridge spanning the deep valley of Tyropceon. The tomb of David on Zion is to this day one of the most honored sanctuaries of the Mohammedans; and the square keep, called the Castle of David, on the northern end of Zion, is one of the most ancient and interesting relics in the Holy City. (See JERUSALEM).

2. In Luke 2:4; Luke 2:11, Bethlehem is called the City of David. Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth "unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem." This was David's birthplace, and the home of his youth. We know not at what time the little mountain village began to be called by his name; but there is no trace of such a designation in the O.T. It appears, however, to have been pretty generally used in the time of our Lord. (See BETHLEHEM).