Siege of Jebus


The Siege of Jebus is a siege described in biblical passages as having occurred when Israelites under King David of Israel besieged and conquered the Canaanite city of Jerusalem, then known as Jebus. The Israelites gained access by a surprise assault, making Jebus the capital of Israel under the new name, City of David.
The identification of Jebus with Jerusalem has been challenged. Niels Peter Lemche notes that every non-biblical mention of Jerusalem found in the ancient Near East refers to the city with the name Jerusalem, offering as an example the Amarna letters which are dated to the 14th century BCE and call Jerusalem Urasalimmu. He states that "There is no evidence of Jebus and the Jebusites outside of the Old Testament. Some scholars reckon Jebus to be a different place from Jerusalem; other scholars prefer to see the name of Jebus as a kind of pseudo-ethnic name without any historical background."

Biblical description

The capture of Jebus is mentioned in and with similar wordings: