King David's reign is remembered in Jewish tradition as the first Golden Age of the Jewish people. It was David who established the Israelite empire that extended from ‘the entering of Hamath unto the river of Egypt [Wadi El Arish]’ or, in another version, 'from the river of Egypt unto the great river the river Euphrates'. Although this empire disintegrated about eighty years after its foundation and was revived only for some thirty years in the days of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel (c. 785-750 BC), David succeeded in welding the Israelite tribes together into a national entity of such coherence that even after the kingdom was split into two, the Jewish people were established for over one thousand years - with only short intervals - as the dominant factor on the Palestinian land-bridge.

The Bible provides us with enough details to reconstruct the fascinating personality of the king. Modern Europeans might find in his nature something of a Robin Hood, a Percival, an Arthur, a Richard the Lionheart and a Lear all combined. Medieval chivalry chose David as one of its main paragons from among les neuf-preux. Jewish lore has accorded him the epithet 'Ahuvya’ (beloved of God or God's darling). Yet if we attempt to form a coherent picture of David's military campaigns, not to speak of their details, we find disappointingly little information.

David's personal exploits - first in the service of Saul, later as a leader of a band of outlaws, and still later as a vassal to Achish, king of Gath - are beyond the scope of these pages. It must be stressed, however, that these narratives provide us with a much more detailed picture of David's apprenticeship before he attained supreme command than we have for any of the other biblical captains. In those days very little, if any, schooling in theory was provided for a military leader, and whatever knowledge he acquired, or personal talents he developed, were the outcome solely of the personal experience he gained during his formative years.

Thus we do know from the Bible that David had attained proficiency as a fighter and as a commander of regular forces while still serving in Saul's army. Later he acquired first-hand knowledge, both as hunter and as prey, of guerrilla tactics; and then as independent captain of feudal mercenaries he learned all the ruses and tricks, as well as the lightning strikes, needed to beat the nomad raiders at their own game. Thus prepared, David was elected king over the tribe of Judah and its affiliates after the death of Saul, while Saul's trusted general, Abner, installed Saul's eldest surviving son, Ishbosheth, as king over the rest of Israel.

David's first concern was to secure Judah from the incessant inroads of the Negev nomads. He set the pattern for generations to come by settling the men of his old regiment, together with their families, among the existing settlements in the Hebron mountains. His intention was threefold: his superbly trained fighters would form the nucleus of a widespread network of resistance and head the local forces against hostile raiders, wherever they penetrated into the Hebron mountains; by settling his men among the Hebronites, who were most exposed to the raiders and the first to bear the brunt of their incursions, David assured their maximum vigilance by making them guard their own homes; finally, by allotting them land, he relieved himself of the burden of paying them.

With an eye to the needs of a united kingdom that would compass all the Palestinian land-bridge east and west of the Jordan, David next went on to capture Jerusalem as his capital. The town of Jerusalem was ideally sited in the centre of the Cis-Jordanian mountain massif. It had easy access to the sea, with Jaffa as its natural port. It also commanded the crossroads between the Jaffa-Rabbath-bene-ammon road, which was the main artery between the Mediterranean and Trans-Jordan in the centre of the country, and the watershed road, the main north-south artery of the Cis-Jordanian massif. Its defensive position was good, situated as it was on a ridge that was surrounded by valleys on all four sides. Jerusalem's climate was pleasant, and rainfall in winter was usually so abundant that it would fill cisterns and reservoirs to last the whole year. As late as 1948, in fact, when the Jewish sector of Jerusalem was cut off by besiegers from all outside sources of water, the rainwater accumulated in the city’s cisterns supplied the needs of the population throughout the siege. A perennial major spring existed at the foot of the ridge, and the population had access to it by means of a covered approach, even in times of siege. An important political consideration was that Jerusalem had no Israelite tribal affiliations, and no tribal amour propre would be offended if it was chosen. Finally, the masters of the city at the time were the Jebusites, a small ethnic community, alien to the autochthone Canaanites, who did not command any special sympathies among most of the neighbouring peoples.

The capture of the strongly fortified town was nonetheless a major effort for the Israelite forces. David succeeded in securing a lodgement in the acropolis, which was in the northern portion of the elongated, narrow ridge, not only because this was the highest area but because a shallow saddle connected it to the section of the city later known as the Temple Mount.

Our interpretation of the events follows the text, without additional comment: 'And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites ... which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither. Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion ...' (2 Sam. 5:6-7). The word 'stronghold' is a free translation of metzudah ('fortress', though, in the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 11:5, the word is translated ‘castle'). Thus David did succeed, possibly by some coup de main, in capturing the citadel, but then he could not gain access to the town proper. The marshalling of 'the blind and the lame' for the city's defence has been interpreted not as a derisive gesture but as a magic spell, well understood and accordingly feared by the Israelites, which made them hold back.

To give new impetus to his assault, David searched for a different approach. His keen eye discerned the tzinor, the rock-hewn, subterranean passage that led under the town-wall down the eastern slope of the ridge to the Gihon Spring: 'And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter (the tzinor), and smiteth the Jebusites ... he shall be chief and captain' (ibid., v. 8). Having discovered the tzinor, David decided to launch a surprise attack through it while attention was centred upon the northern sector of the city. To overcome the fear of the magic spell, he offered a high command to the leader of the attacking party. The challenge was taken up by Joab: 'So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief’ (1 Chr. 11:6) As so often in sieges, secret passages into defended localities tend to be insufficiently guarded. They are the proverbial Achilles' heel of seemingly unassailable places. It is safe to assume that the Jebusites were taken largely by surprise when Joab and his men appeared at the head of the tzinor, and this enabled him to gain a secure foothold around this approach while additional men streamed in to capture the city.

The tzinor is usually identified with 'Warren's Shaft', named after its first explorer, the later General Sir Charles Warren. Kathleen Kenyon, another of the outstanding explorers of ancient Jerusalem, subsequently cleared the tzinor further, and stressed repeatedly the difficulties Joab must have encountered in negotiating these passages. Joab's exploit cannot be sufficiently appreciated until we are cognizant of the fact that he and his men had to ascend a fifty-foot-high vertical shaft between the tunnelled approach from the town and the channel which led the spring waters to its bottom. These waters were drawn up in pails through the shaft, but it seems that an additional reason for its construction was to prevent a penetration into the town via its water-inlet - exactly as was amazingly achieved, in spite of this precaution. Doubts have been recently raised by Y. Shiloh, the last person to excavate and investigate comprehensively the City of David throughout the ages, as to the pre-Israelite date of Warren's Shaft, attributed by him to a Solomonic initiative or later. If this can be proved beyond doubt, the tzinor was one of the geological fissures that had been utilized in its construction, and which served as its makeshift predecessor, without having been sufficiently camouflaged. This does not alter essentially the story of the city's penetration and the physical exertions involved. It perhaps calls for even greater stress on the diversionary efforts launched by David from the captured citadel.

The capture of Jerusalem triggered off the first of several Philistine interventions, and by the last of them Philistine power was broken and a Jewish bailiff sat in Gath. The first two Philistine interventions seem to have followed each other closely (2 Sam. 5:17-25). Both were straight incursions through the Elah Valley. Underestimation of their enemy after the battle of Gilboa, or conceit at dealing with a former vassal, made the Philistines disregard the dangers inherent in this gorge, with its steep slopes and defiles, though more than once they had already met defeat there through the Israelites' exploitation of the valley's topography.

With the aim of making their defeat decisive, David each time permitted the Philistines to approach deep into the Judean mountains, as far as the Rephaim Valley (whose head extends up to present-day Jerusalem's railway station). David himself took up a covered position to the west of the Philistines, and attacked them from their rear. The extent of the defeat they suffered on their first attempt is evidenced by the fact that, in their haste to flee, the Philistines left all their sacred images in their abandoned camp.

The second Philistine defeat was again brought about by a surprise Israelite attack from the rear in the Rephaim Valley. This time, the Israelites approached stealthily through a wood in the Philistine rear or flank. Fighting in woods is considered a double-edged sword by military experts. While affording cover, forest hampers communication, command and control. It restricts the use of heavy armament, and the claustrophobic influence of the forest has often had an adverse effect upon the morale of the troops confined in it. It was this feeling that led the Greeks to coin the word 'panic' after the spirit of the forests, Pan.

While these negative properties of combat in the woods made the Philistines keep their forces outside the forest of Bechaim trees (the exact botanical definition is uncertain), they probably set their flank or rear against it.. The Israelites, exploiting the cover provided for their light-footed and lightly armed fighters, benefited from the tactical advantages provided by the selfsame feature. David made further subtle use of the weather. Aware of the fact that the daily breeze from the sea reaches the Jerusalem area at about noon, he timed his attack for this hour, so that the rustle of the trees would cover the steps of the stealthily approaching Israelites. The surprise was once again complete, and David had not neglected to elaborate the last phase of his battle plan: exploitation of success. This time he had taken pains to bar the Philistine retreat straight through the Elah Valley, and he was able 'to smite' the Philistines over a long-drawn-out rout of flight 'from Geba until thou come to Gazer'.

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Battles of the Bible: Table of Contents

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