THE WALLS OF JERUSALEM AT VARIOUS PERIODS. 139 



Mr. M. L. Rouse said : The story of the capture of the chief 

 Jebusite city by Joab for David recalls the capture of Naples from 

 the Ostrogoths for Justinian by his general, Belisarius : the 

 Byzantine troops then clambered through the tunnel of the great 

 drain of the city and took its defenders by surprise. 



I should like to call attention to a striking coincidence and con- 

 trast in Bible history. When, as we this evening have heard 

 explained, the Jebusites, in mockery of David, set the blind and 

 lame to protect the city, they challenged him if he could to remove 

 them ; and he replied by offering the highest military honour for 

 valour in these words : " Whoever first getteth up to the watercourse 

 and smiteth the Jebusites and the blind and the lame that are hated 

 of David's soul " (or " that hate David's soul " as another reading 

 has it) " shall be chief and captain " ; and Joab won the 

 honour. 



Centuries rolled by, and the Lord Jesus, the eternal King of 

 Jerusalem, entered amid triumphant, though fickle, honours into 

 the city ; and after He had for a second time purged His temple 

 of the avaricious, we read that the blind and the lame came to 

 Him " there, and He healed them." 



Mr. Eouse writes the following additional comment, which he 

 had intended to make upon the lecture : If the Canaanites occupied 

 with their city only the south-eastern crescent hill, then we can 

 understand what has always been hard to comprehend, how 

 Abraham could have ascended a hill-top in Mount Moriah and in 

 complete privacy prepared for the solemn faith-testing sacrifice of 

 Isaac ; in privacy he meant it to be, for he had told his servants 

 to wait below while he " and the lad " went " yonder to worship." 



Dr. ScHOFiELD : Is there any evidence that in ancient times Ophel 

 was considerably higher than the insignificant proportions attributed 

 to it, and that between it and Mount Moriah there was a deep valley, 

 and that to talk of the citadel of Zion would be more relevant, 

 because there was a large city outside the city of Zion which was 

 taken by Joshua, although no one could find the citadel ? This 

 citadel was no doubt the site of the original city. Jericho is smaller 

 than the whole of Ophel, the first city which was taken, and, therefore, 

 may it not have been built round it ? Would Dr. Masterman allow 

 a distinction between the city of Zion and the hill of Zion ? 



