commences just at the southern brink of the valley of Hinnom, and stretching off northwest towards the Mediterranean. Even to the north-west, the prospect is somewhat open; for the eye penetrates up along the upper part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, and from many points can discern the existing mosque of the place called Neby Samwil, (prophet Samuel,) which stands on a lofty ridge at a distance of about five miles. From this it will be seen that the site is not so entirely shut up by surrounding hills, as more general statements have led most persons to conceive. Yet these inclosing hills do give a marked and even peculiar character to the site, which did not escape the notice of the sacred writers, and which supplies a beautiful and consoling simile to the psalmist "As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about his people," Psalm cxxv. 2.

The country around Jerusalem is all of limestone formation, and not particularly fertile. The rocks everywhere come out above the surface, which, in many parts, is also thickly strewn with loose stone; and the general aspect of the whole region is barren and dreary. Yet the olive thrives in it abundantly, and fields of

grain are seen in the valleys and level places, although they are considerably less productive than in the neighbourhood of Hebron and Shechem. Neither vineyards nor fig-trees flourish on the high ground about the city, although the latter are found in the gardens below Siloam, and are very common a few miles south in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem.

The climate of the elevated tract in which Jerusalem is situated, differs from that of the temperate parts of Europe, more in the alternation of wet and dry seasons, than in the degree of temperature. The variations of rain and sunshine, which in the west exist throughout the whole year, are here, as in the rest of Palestine, confined chiefly to the latter part of autumn and the winter. The rains come mostly from the west or south-west, (that is, from the Mediterranean Sea,) whence our Lord, when at Jerusalem, said, "When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh rain; and so it is," Luke xii. 54. Snow often falls at Jerusalem in January and February, to the depth of a foot, or more, but it seldom lies long upon the ground. The ground never freezes, but the standing pools in the valley of Hinnom are sometimes covered with a thin film of ice.

Returning now to the history, we find that David was no sooner in possession of Jerusalem, than he proceeded to make great improvements in it, to adapt it to its new destination as the capital of an important kingdom. Gratified with his new conquest of the fortress on Mount Zion, and after the practice of which there is an example in 2 Sam. xii. 28, he called it after his own name, "the city of David," 2 Sam. v. 7, 9. This denomination, however, though sometimes used in Scripture, and which seems to be applied by Josephus to the whole of Jerusalem, (Antiq. vii. 3, 2,) did not supersede the former and more proper designation, as, in fact, such complimentary appellations never do in the east. They exist for a time among great persons and official people; but the old name is retained among the great body of the people, and in the course of ages is the only one that remains permanently connected with the place.

David, however, had more ground for imposing his name upon the place than the right of conquest gave. His improvements were so important and extensive, that Josephus considers it as amounting to a "rebuilding" of Jerusalem; and if we accept his reasonable interpretation of 1 Chron. xi. 7, 8, it would appear that he

not only rebuilt the citadel upon Mount Zion, and erected thereon, by the assistance of Hiram king of Tyre, a palace for his own residence ; but, by enlarging the lower city, and inclosing the whole within one continuous wall, he made the whole one united city, instead of two cities, as they seem to have been hitherto considered. In 1 Chron. xi. 8, it is added, according to our version, "And Joab repaired the rest of the city." It is not very clear in what capacity this duty could have devolved upon, or have been undertaken by Joab, whereas there is a perfect propriety in his having been made 'governor of the city," which his valour had been so highly instrumental in bringing under the power of David; and this is the interpretation which is given to the clause by Josephus and the Targum, and which Kennicott and others believe to be the correct rendering of the text.

In making himself master of Jerusalem, David demonstrated that the city was not impregnable -the belief of which had no doubt much contributed to its previous safety: and as he had taken it from the Jebusites, his more powerful enemies did not see why they need despair of taking it from him. The Philistines-those

valiant and inveterate enemies of the Israelites -were those who resolved to make the attempt, and they therefore appeared in great force in the plain of Rephaim, to the south of the city. It was not the inclination of David to await their attack; and finding his own wish sanctioned by the Divine approval, he left the city on the opposite quarter, and, by making a circuit, fell upon the camp of the Philistines by surprise, and defeated them with great slaughter, 2 Sam. v. 17-25. It was to his attention to such intimations of the Divine will, and to his implicit reliance upon the strength of the Almighty arm, that David owed all his successes and all his greatness; and in all Israel there was no man so deeply sensible of this fact as himself. It was this that in his official capacity, as king of the chosen people, made him more entirely "the man after God's own heart," than any monarch that ever reigned over them. David being now thoroughly settled in his new capital, conceived the intention of removing the ark of the covenant, which, since its restoration by the Philistines, had remained fifty years on the premises of Abinadab, at Kirjathjearim. This has been construed into an intention to constitute Jerusalem the ecclesiastical as