2 Samuel 5:9

9 After capturing the fortress, David lived in it and named it "David's City." He built the city around it, starting at the place where land was filled in on the east side of the hill.

2 Samuel 5:9 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 5:9

So David dwelt in the fort
The strong hold of Zion, which he took:

and called it the city of David;
from his own name, to keep up the memory of his taking it, and of his habitation in it:

and David built round about, from Millo and inward;
built a wall about it, and enlarged the place, increased the buildings both within and without. Millo is supposed to be a ditch round the fort, full of water, from whence it had its name; or was a large hollow place which divided the fort from the lower city, and which afterwards Solomon filled up, and made it a level, and therefore is called so here by anticipation; though Jarchi says it was done by David. According to Dr. Lightfoot {o}, it was a part or Sion, or some hillock, east up against it on the west side; his first sense is best, Millo being no other than the fortress or citadel; which, as Josephus says F16, David joined to the lower city, and made them one body, and erecting walls about it made Joab superintendent of them; and this was the "round about", or circuit, which David made, reaching from Millo, or the citadel, to that again, which is meant by "inward", or "to the house" F17, as it should be rendered; that is, to the house of Millo, as in ( 2 Kings 12:20 ) ; and so it is said ( 1 Chronicles 11:8 ) ; that David built the city "from Millo round about"; that is, to the same place from whence he began F18.


FOOTNOTES:

F15 Works, vol. 2. Chorograph. Cent. c. 24. p. 25.
F16 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 3. sect. 2.
F17 (htybw) "et ad domum".
F18 See Dr. Kennicott, ut supra, (Dissert. 1.) p. 49

2 Samuel 5:9 In-Context

7 (But David did capture their fortress of Zion, and it became known as "David's City.")
8 That day David said to his men, "Does anybody here hate the Jebusites as much as I do? Enough to kill them? Then go up through the water tunnel and attack those poor blind cripples." (That is why it is said, "The blind and the crippled cannot enter the Lord's house.")
9 After capturing the fortress, David lived in it and named it "David's City." He built the city around it, starting at the place where land was filled in on the east side of the hill.
10 He grew stronger all the time, because the Lord God Almighty was with him.
11 King Hiram of Tyre sent a trade mission to David; he provided him with cedar logs and with carpenters and stone masons to build a palace.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.