What Goes Up, Goes Up; And What Goes Down, Goes Down

Several years ago, my friend, archaeologist Eli Shukron, suggested to me the “fortress of Zion” (2 Sam. 5:7, 9) was the fortifications built around the Gihon Spring within the City of David, Jerusalem. He based his suggestion upon the text of 2 Samuel 5:17, which described how David “went down to the stronghold (fortress, המצדה).” The fortifications built around Jerusalem’s water source, the Gihon Spring, lay below the ridge of the eastern hill, Mount Zion, where some suggest David’s palace was located. By describing David’s descent to the fortress, Eli surmised that the large fortifications built to protect the spring were the fortress to which David descended.