of desperation, and finally to the assassination of Ishbosheth by his own subjects. Without an alternative, the elders of the northern tribes came to Hebron and anointed David king of all Israel.

As the anointed king of Israel and Judah, the only remaining impediment to his movement to unite the north with the south was the fortified city of the Jebusites, Jerusalem. The walled city occupied an impregnable position, and had been occupied since pre-history. As an independent Canaanite city, Jerusalem had its own king, Melchizedek. The priest-king Melchizedek became the model for sacred kingship which David would introduce into the customs of his realm. When David conquored Jerusalem by having his soldiers enter the city through a water tunnel, which began     outside the walls and connected with a vertical shaft inside the city, the city was taken so totally by surprise that there was no defense, and no blood shed. In a move that would become routine in the desert culture of the Fertile Crescent, King David took wives and concubines from the conquored city, confirming his rule over it and establishing it for all time as "the city of David."

King David proceeded to vanquish the Philistines in battles fought west of Jerusalem, in the region that separated Judah from the northern kingdom of Israel. Having solidified his rule he now went on to establish a powerful empire, conquoring and occupying the kingdoms of Edom and Moab, east of Jordan, and installing garrisons at strategic points farther north in Syria, particularly at Damascus. He created a system of tributary states so vast that it was estimated that his non-Israelite subjects outnumbered his Israelite subjects. The realm of King David extended from the upper Euphrates to the Gulf of Aqaba.

David realized that in order to unify the people of his realm he had to make Jerusalem an effective center for his newly united kingdom, with religious as well as political significance. With his genius for insight into the human heart, King David recognized that he had to invest the new royal capital with an emotional appeal for his people. This task was a genuine challenge, as Jerusalem had to compete with other sites that had long histories of sacredness, while Jerusalem was a new acquisition with no role in Israel's past. The sacred sites were places where the community  made appointed pilgrimages to celebrate the divine presence since ancient times, and were revered for their continuity of ancient tradition. Shechem, Hebron, Gilgal, Shiloh, Mizpah and

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