Some buildings in Acra. Bezetha. Millo.

There was also a fourth hill, saith the same Josephus, "which was called Bezetha, situate over-against Antonia, and divided from it with a deep ditch. Now Bezetha, if you would render it in Greek, one might call it 'The New City.'" And yet there is a place where he seems to distinguish between Bezetha and the New City: for he saith concerning Cestius, "But Cestius, passing over, set fire upon Bezetha, so called, and the New City."

Bezetha was seated on the north part of Antonia, and that and Caenopolis (or the New City) filled up that space, where Sion ended on the east, and was not stretched out so far as Acra was. "(The city), abounding with people, crept, by little and little, out of the walls: and on the north side of the Temple, at the hill, making a city, went onward not a little; and a fourth hill is inhabited, which is called Bezetha," &c.

Interpreters differ about Millo. There is one, who supposes it to be a large place, appointed for public meetings and assemblies. Another interprets it of heaps of earth, thrown up against the wall within, whence they might more easily get up upon the wall: and when David is said to build Millo, that he erected towers upon these heaps, and banks. Some others there are, who understand it of the valley or street that runs between Jerusalem and Sion; and so it is commonly marked out in the maps,--when, in truth, Millo was a part of Sion, or some hillock cast up against it on the west side.

Let that be observed, 2 Chronicles 32:5; "And he restored, or fortified, Millo, of the city of David": or, as our English reads, "in the city of David." The Seventy read, "the fortification of the city of David." When, therefore, David is said to build "Millo, and more inwards," it is all one as if he had said, 'he built on the uttermost part of Sion, which was called Millo, more inwardly to his own castle.' And Joab repaired the rest, 1 Chronicles 11:8.

The street or valley, running between Sion and Acra, was called, as if one should say, The valley or street of cheesemongers. There was also, The market of beams, which Josephus joins with Bezetha, and the New City. "Cestius (saith he) wasted Bezetha and Caenopolis, and that which is called the beam-market, with flames."