History of the Jews

by Paul Johnson

David established a national and religious capital which was also his personal conquest. The Israelites had never been able to take Jerusalem in over 200 years, though it was the most strategically important city of the interior: ‘And as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah unto this day.’ Jerusalem controlled the main north–south route in the interior; more, it was the natural junction between north and south. The failure to take it was one of the most important reasons why two separate groupings of the Israelites emerged – what later became known as the Kingdom of Israel in the north, and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.