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Jerusalem

also called Salem · Jebus · Zion · City of David · the Holy City

Tissot Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem — James Tissot
Tissot Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem · James TissotWikimedia ↗

Jerusalem is the Bible's most-mentioned city — its name appears more than eight hundred times across the Old and New Testaments. The city sits on a plateau in the Judean highlands, surrounded on three sides by deep valleys, and bears more biblical names than any other place: Salem, Jebus, Zion, the City of David, the Holy City, the City of the Great King.

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It is first mentioned in Genesis 14 — *Melchizedek, king of Salem* — and again in Genesis 22, where Abraham binds Isaac on Mount Moriah, the hill on which the temple will later stand. The city was a Jebusite stronghold until David captured it around 1000 BC and made it his capital. Solomon built the first temple there a generation later. Babylon destroyed the city and temple in 586 BC; both were rebuilt under Cyrus, Ezra, and Nehemiah.

In the New Testament, Jerusalem is the city where Jesus was presented as an infant, taught as a boy, was crucified, was buried, and rose again. Pentecost happened there. Stephen was stoned there. The first church council met there. And in Revelation 21, the city's name returns one final time — the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven — as the Bible's vision of God's eventual dwelling with man.

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Source · Template entry — replace with content from Smith's Bible Dictionary (PD, 1863) or ISBE (PD, 1915).

Key passages

Genesis 142 Samuel 51 Kings 8Pentecost·Acts 2All Things New·Revelation 21:5

See also

People

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In the Bible

772

Verses where Jerusalem is named. Berean Standard Bible (public domain).

  • 1 Chronicles 3:4

    These six sons were born to David in Hebron, where he reigned seven years and six months. And David reigned in Jerusalem thirty-three years,

  • 1 Chronicles 3:5

    and these sons were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. These four were born to him by Bathsheba daughter of Ammiel.

  • 1 Chronicles 6:10

    Johanan was the father of Azariah, who served as priest in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem,

  • 1 Chronicles 6:15

    Jehozadak went into captivity when the LORD sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

  • 1 Chronicles 6:32

    They ministered with song before the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, until Solomon built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. And they performed their duties according to the regulations given them.

  • 1 Chronicles 8:28

    All these were heads of families, the chiefs according to their genealogies, and they lived in Jerusalem.

+766 more verses naming Jerusalem.