Jerusalem > Yerushalayim Israel Israel

The occupation of Ophel, within present-day Jerusalem, is indicated by ceramic evidence to date as far back as the Copper Age during the fourth millennium BCE, with evidence of a permanent settlement during the early centuries of the Early Bronze Age, around 3000-2800 BCE.

Some archaeologists, including Kathleen Kenyon, believe West Semitic people in around 2600 BCE founded Jerusalem as a city with organized settlements.

…the inland hilltop town of Jerusalem and its earliest rulers, the Egyptians.

The first settlement at the site of Jerusalem had been established near Gihon Spring around 4500-3500 BCE, as suggested by archaeological evidence.

The first known mention of the city was in about 2000 BCE in the Middle Kingdom Egyptian Execration Texts, in which the city was recorded as Rusalimum.

The root S-L-M in the name is thought to refer to either "peace" (compare with modern Salam or Shalom in modern Arabic and Hebrew) or Shalim, the god of dusk in the Canaanite religion.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Canaanites had by the seventeenth century BCE built massive walls (four and five ton boulders, twenty-six feet high) on the eastern side of Jerusalem to protect their ancient water system.

The Book of Genesis 14:18, mentions a city called Salem, which most Jewish commentators believe refers to Jerusalem, ruled by King Melchizedek, whose name means "my king is zedek", where Zedek is believed to refer either to the Canaanite deity Sydyk or the word righteous.

Manetho, an Egyptian priest who will write a not-too-reliable history of Egypt in Greek, probably for Ptolemy I (r. 305-282 BCE), will suggest that after the Hyksos were driven from Egypt in the sixteenth century, they founded the city of Jerusalem and constructed a temple there.

Some scholars, as early as Josephus, have associated the Semitic Hyksos with the ancient Hebrews, seeing their departure from Egypt as the story retold in the Exodus.

Notably, Canaanite/Hebrew names occur among the Hyksos.

Other Canaanite rulers, such as Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, complain of Labaya's depredations (e.g., EA 289).

Abdi-Heba will himself be referred to in later years, however, as "another Labaya" in EA 280.

The community of Jerusalem, a small stronghold supervising the few agricultural villages and large numbers of pastoral groups in the thinly settled southern hills, lies twenty miles to Shechem's south.

Its name, known in its earliest form as Urusalim, is probably of western Semitic origin and apparently means Foundation of Shalem, or Foundation of God, appears in the Amarna letters, which contain a message from the city's ruler, Abdi-Heba, requiring his sovereign's help against the invading Ibrus, or Habiru, or Hapiru.

Shechem and Jerusalem are to become major centers of the action during the coming Early Iron Age in Palestine.

…Jerusalem and …

The Israelites’ desire for a king arises because their loosely organized tribal league in the hill country of Canaan is unable to meet the military threat posed by the Philistines inhabiting the coast.

The united kingdom of the Israelites forms, according to the Hebrew scriptures, in about 1020, comprising the territories of Israel, in the north, and Judah, in the south.

The Israelites supposedly clear the Canaanites or Philistines from the central hill country and extend their authority into southern Judah and northern Transjordan.

Power is consolidated, following a civil war, in Jerusalem, which becomes the political and religious capital of the kingdom.

The pro-monarchical source and the anti-monarchical source are the most prominent sources in the early parts of the first book of Samuel.

The anti-monarchical source describes Samuel (thought by a number of scholars to be a cipher for God himself) to have thoroughly routed the Philistines, yet begrudgingly accepting that the people demanded a ruler, and thus appointing Saul by cleromancy.

The pro-monarchical source describes the divine birth of Saul (a single word being changed by a later editor so that it referred to Samuel instead), and his later leading of an army to victory over the Ammonites, which resulted in the people clamoring for him to lead them against the Philistines, whereupon he is appointed king.

Saul, the son of Elkanah, from the tribe of Ephraim, is identified in the Books of Samuel as having been appointed the first king of the Kingdom of Israel.

According to the Hebrew scriptures, David, a son of Jesse, from the tribe of Judah, enters the army of Saul and rises quickly to the rank of commander, becoming close friends with Saul’s son Jonathan.

Saul’s judgment has begun to self-destruct due to the lack of religious support coupled with Saul's growing envy and suspicion of his brilliant young commander.

The original purpose of the Biblical story of David and Goliath was to show David's identity as the true king of Israel.

Goliath or Goliath of Gath is a giant Philistine warrior defeated by the young David in the Bible's Books of Samuel (1 Samuel 17).

The earliest Bible manuscripts, such as the fourth-century CE Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209, narrate that Goliath challenges the Israelites to combat, the Israelites are afraid, and David, already with Saul, accepts the challenge.

The oldest manuscripts—the Dead Sea Scrolls text of Samuel, the first century historian Josephus, and the fourth century Septuagint manuscripts—all give his height as "four cubits and a span" (six feet nine inches or 2.06 meters).

The victory of an unarmored slinger and his five stone bullets against an armored swordsman of superior size and strength illustrates the utility of the slingshot as a combat weapon.

Saul's jealousy finally forces David to flee.

He seeks refuge first as a bandit leader, then as a Philistine mercenary.