What is the significance of the walls of Jerusalem?

Answer

Parts of modern-day Jerusalem have been walled since at least the time of Abraham, when the Jebusites inhabited their city Jebus there. In fact, remnants of that original wall are still visible in the southeast of the city. Seven and a half years into his reign, David conquered Jebus and made it his capital (2 Samuel 5:1-10). At that time, there was already a wall in the area “And David sat between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a man running alone.”, (2 Samuel 18:24), but Solomon was the one who built both the temple and the wall around the city “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.”, (1 Kings 3:1), fulfilling David’s prayer in Psalm 51:18. Presently, the wall of Jerusalem stretches approximately two and a half miles. It stands at an average height of nearly 40 feet and an average thickness of 8 feet. The wall also includes over thirty watchtowers and eight gates.

Later on, the well-meaning but imprudent king of Judah, Amaziah, challenged the mighty king of Israel, Jehoash, to a battle (2 Kings 14). Jehoash attempted to dissuade his opponent, but Amaziah remained determined. Jehoash and his army defeated Amaziah, captured him, and demolished a significant portion of the wall of Jerusalem in the north and northwest. Several generations later, Hezekiah ascended to the throne of Judah. When Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, invaded Judah, Hezekiah had a reason to fortify the wall.All that Jehoash had broken, as well as a larger wall around the settled area of Jerusalem southwest of the temple mount «Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without, and repaired Millo in the city of David, and made darts and shields in abundance. », (2 Chronicles 32:5). God protected Judah and Jerusalem at that time and sent an angel to destroy Sennacherib’s army «And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. », (2 Kings 19:35).

Neither the peace nor the wall of Jerusalem lasted long. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came through, demolished the royal court, and tore down the wall (2 Kings 25). The wall remained in its fallen state throughout the Jewish exile until Nehemiah made it his personal mission to rebuild (Nehemiah 2). Nehemiah’s wall was smaller than Hezekiah’s; under Nehemiah’s oversight, the wall reverted to the tadpole shape that encompassed the temple mount and the settlement to the south.

Around the time of Jesus, Herod the Great ruled Jerusalem and wished to leave his mark. To the south, Herod’s wall resembled Hezekiah’s. A smaller portion of the Jerusalem wall extended out to the northwest. But Herod really made alterations to the wall around the temple mount. He not only built up, he built out, outside the original, and then filled in the plateau until it was much bigger than the original—big enough for a colonnade around the sides (John 10:23;Acts 3:11;Acts 5:12). A great ramp started at the southwest corner of the temple mount and raIn an L-shape, extending north and east, leading to an entrance at the southern end of the western wall (Robinson’s Arch, a few rows of stones protruding from the wall, are all that remain). Coins minted after Herod’s death have been discovered beneath the foundation of the wall, prompting archaeologists to believe that Herod the Great never witnessed the completion of his own legacy.

When Rome ransacked Jerusalem in AD 70, the walls were once again destroyed. It wasn’t until around the year 300 that Emperor Diocletian ordered the restoration of Jerusalem’s wall. Empress Eudocia, who received philosophical training from her father and converted to Christianity upon marrying Emperor Theodosius II, was exiled from the court and settled in Jerusalem around 450. She spent her time there composing poetry and refurbishing the walls. Eudocia’s walls stood until shortly after the year 1000 when an earthquake brought them down. Despite the reconstruction of the walls, they suffered significant damage during the Crusades as Jerusalem was captured, lost, and recaptured by Christians and Muslims. From 1535 to 1538, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent reconstructed the walls, and they have endured to the present day.