132 



DR. E. W. G. MASTERMAN, ON 



Jebusites, which King David captured, occupied the then very- 

 strong and well-fortified south-east hill we have here called 

 the " Ophel Hill." Let me anticipate criticism by sajang that, 

 small as the site seems to us, the really ancient sites we have 

 explored in Palestine are all similar in this respect. Gezer, 

 which was certainly a more important site in pre-Hebrew times, 

 has been fully explored and its ancient walls measured. A wall 

 traced round the circumference of the summit of this south- 

 eastern hill would not be very much less than that which existed 

 at the same age in Gezer. The arguments that this w^as the site 

 are briefly these. Here, at the foot of this hill, is the great 

 spring Gihon (now the Virgin's Fount), the only considerable 

 spring in the district. It was, without doubt, the existence of 

 this copious source which attracted the first settlers to this 

 neighbourhood, and their primitive cave-dwellings near the 

 spring have been unearthed. In connection with this spring 

 are some extraordinary rock cuttings. The most ancient of 

 these is the so-called " Warren's Shaft," and not only is the very 

 existence of this great work proof that the original inhabitants 

 of the walled town on this hill had to make this great w^ork to 

 supply themselves vdih water in times of siege, but it is probable 

 that we have a reference to this very work in the account of 

 Da\dd's capture of the city. The Jebusites were so secure 

 within their fortifications that they could mock David's little 

 army. The passage is obscure, but we read that they said 

 " Thou shalt not come hither : the blind and the lame shall turn 

 you away." But David knew of this secret passage (2 Sam. v, 8) 

 and it was up this " water course " (Hebrew tsinnur) that 

 Joab and his men (1 Chron. xi, 6) m^ade their way and, arriving in 

 the heart of the city unexpectedly, made a ready capture of it. 

 To do this they must have waded through the water in the cave 

 at the source and ascended the perpendicular shaft. The feat 

 looks hazardous, but some British officers in 1910, without any 

 assistance from ladders, did the same, and what they could do in 

 European clothes and boots, David's hardy mountaineers would 

 certainly find possible. 



As additional support to this view of the site of Zion, one may 

 refer to the frequent references of the carrying wp of the ark 

 of God from the " City of David " to the temple hill, an ex- 

 pression quite understandable if the ark went from here, but 

 inapplicable if it was carried from the lofty south-west hill. 

 Even more convincing are the references to Hezekiah's aqueduct 



