Holy city of the Jews

According to the Bible, David brought the sacred Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem from Qiryat Ye’arim (a holy place of the time, west of Jerusalem) and installed it in a new tabernacle, built a royal palace and other buildings, and strengthened the city’s fortifications.

Although David greatly expanded the Kingdom of Israel and made Jerusalem its capital, the city and the temple he built were quite modest.

Solomon, his son and successor, improved the temple and enlarged the city. He built a city wall and many buildings on a scale of magnificence previously unknown in Israel.

Solomon’s Temple was destroyed and the Jews exiled by the Babylonians in the year 586 bc.

In 539 bc, Babylonia was conquered by the Persians (see Persia), who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem the following year. The construction of a new temple, or Second Temple, was then undertaken on the ruins of the old.

Jerusalem was captured by Alexander the Great in 333 bc, and after his death it came under the rule first of Egyptians and later of Syrians.

The Syrian ruler Antiochus IV attempted to wipe out the Jewish religion by destroying a large part of Jerusalem in 168 bc.

This caused a Jewish revolt under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, a member of a priestly ruling family, the Hasmonaeans (see Maccabees).

He liberated Jerusalem from the Syrians in 165 bc and later extended Hasmonaean rule over a large part of Judea.

Jerusalem became the destination of annual Jewish pilgrimage from the outlying area, since certain religious obligations could only be fulfilled in the temple.

All Jewish sacred and secular law and power came to be concentrated in the city.