“In considering the annals of the city of Jerusalem,” says Mr W. Aldis Wright, “nothing strikes one so forcibly as the number and severity of the sieges which it underwent. We catch our earliest glimpse of it in the brief notice of the first chapter of Judges, which describes how ‘the children of Judah smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire;’ and almost the latest mention of it in the New Testament is contained in the solemn warnings in which Christ foretold how Jerusalem should be compassed with armies, and the abomination of desolation be seen standing in the Holy Place. In the fifteen centuries which elapsed between these two points, the city was besieged no fewer than seventeen times; twice it was razed to the ground, and on two other occasions its walls were levelled. In this respect it stands without a parallel in any city ancient or modern.” The first siege appears to have taken place soon after the death of Joshua. The men of Judah and Simeon “fought against it and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire” (Judges i. 8). Josephus adds that the siege lasted some time, and that the part of the city captured at last was “the lower,” but that the part above them[21] was so difficult, by reason of its walls and from the nature of the place, that they relinquished their attempt upon it. As long as the strongest part of the city remained in the hands of the Jebusites they practically had possession of the whole. The Benjamites followed the men of Judah to Jerusalem, but they could not drive out the Jebusites (Judges i. 21). A Jebusite city it remained until the days of David. Jerusalem was taken by David, _circa_ 1044 B.C. He took the castle of Zion, which is the City of David, and dwelt in the castle (2 Sam. v. 6; 1 Chron. xi. 4). Then David built round about, from Millo and inward, and Joab repaired the rest of the city. As long as Solomon lived the visits of foreign powers to Jerusalem were those of courtesy and amity; but with his death this was changed. Rehoboam had only been on the throne four years when Shishak, king of Egypt, invaded Judah, and advanced against the capital. Rehoboam opened the gates to him, and Shishak did not depart without plundering the temple and the palace. B.C. 886. In the reign of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, the Philistines and Arabians attacked Jerusalem, broke into the palace, spoiled it of all its treasures, sacked the royal harem, and killed or carried off the king’s wives and all his sons but one. This was the fourth siege. B.C. 881.