And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; and they spoke to David, saying, Thou shalt not come in hither, but the blind and the lame will drive thee back; as much as to say, David will not come in hither.
Israel has just made David king over the whole nation. His first move is against the one place in the middle of the land that Israel had never taken. The Jebusites answer him with mockery, not an army. Why did this fortress matter so much to David? And why did God love this city above every other?
Jerusalem's fortress had never fallen — not under Joshua, and not in the long years since. Its owners knew it.
Whatever Joshua had conquered, and whatever Israel won later, this stronghold still stood. It was in the very middle of the land, in the centre of Jerusalem itself, held by the Jebusites. The time had come to mark a most important change. The kingdom could not be what God wanted while Zion stayed in enemy hands. It had to be won for the king from people who had dared to defy God's people. David felt this with full force. He felt keenly the dishonour done to God: the very heart and fortress of the kingdom belonged to an accursed people of Canaan.
The Jebusites did not say the blind and the lame were their best defence. They said such men were all the defence needed.
They were sure of their walls, and sure that their stronghold could not be taken. So they saw no need to use fit, healthy men to fight off the king's attack. Even these disabled people would be enough for the task, they thought. "Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion" (v. 7). Not another word about it; the project succeeded as simply as if it had cost nothing. In fact, this victory costs God nothing. This is how He will fight all man's enmity against Himself and against His Anointed.
Even the name of these people says something. So do the ones who stood with them on the walls.
The Jebusites held the key position in the land. The fortress of Zion was in their hands... Strangely, it was the stronghold of the "treaders down," for that is the meaning of the name Jebusites. The "blind and the lame" were there, and David's soul came to hate them. The Jebusites taunted him that even these could hold the castle against him, since it was so strong. There are always those who hold key positions and tread down God's heritage. They usually bring with them people whose sight and walk are both wrong.
Nothing in the city itself explains the choice. The reason lay on God's side.
What reason did God have to interest Himself in this place more than another? There was no reason at all except that He loved this city. It had been under the power of the Jebusites, the enemies of Jehovah and of His anointed. He set His heart on this place, for here He wanted to set up the throne of His grace on earth once and for all.
Scripture gives the capture one quiet sentence. Yet Israel's whole later story turns on it.
I know nothing more striking in Scripture than this. The Holy Spirit records so quietly how complete the blow was. It fell at the heart of the land, on a place that had challenged and beaten every effort of Israel until that day. Zion, in short, becomes a new name of the deepest importance. It is the sign of divine grace in royalty. That grace took up the people at their lowest, and through the man God used it raised them step by step to a place of power and blessing and glory such as never was before, and never can be again until Jesus comes and makes this very Zion the centre of His earthly government, with the blessing and glory due to His name.
David conquered the city but had nothing to give the disabled people inside it. A later King came to the same place.
David the King took possession of Zion. But he hated the blind and the lame inside it. He did not have in him the grace that could free such people from their bondage. Its display awaited the coming of great David's greater Son. He has already come. He walked in His temple as Zion's true King, though people did not recognise Him, and "the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them" (Matthew 21:14).
The same pattern appears elsewhere in Scripture: a loud boast, then a short record of the work done anyway.
These principles stay the same, whether the task is to defend Jerusalem or to take it. Tobijah says, "If a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall"; but Nehemiah says, "we built the wall". The Jebusites said to David, "You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off"; but "David took the stronghold of Zion".
- Defiance. The Jebusite fortress had held out since Joshua's day. Its owners were so sure of it that they said the blind and the lame could hold the walls.
- And yet. The boast cost God nothing to answer. Scripture settles the unbeatable fortress in one calm sentence.
- Zion. God chose this place for no reason found in it — He loved it, and set His king's throne of grace there.
- Grace. From this day Zion stands as the sign of grace in kingship, lifting a people at their lowest into blessing.
- The greater King. David hated the blind and the lame; the Son of David healed them in that same city — the mercy David lacked.
But David took the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David.
One word carries the fall of a fortress the Jebusites thought no one could take: "Nevertheless." Behind that quiet sentence stands a turning point. The stronghold at the heart of the land passes to God's chosen king, and gains a new name.
One stronghold in the middle of the land still belonged to the enemy.
The kingdom could never be what God meant it to be while Zion stayed in enemy hands. That enemy had openly defied His people. The king had to take it, and David felt this with full force. He felt the full dishonour done to God. The very heart and fortress of the kingdom belonged to an accursed people of Canaan. There they sat, proud and at ease. They had held the fortress so long that they laughed at every attacker.
Scripture spends no words describing the assault. The brevity itself is the point.
"But David took the stronghold of Zion" (v. 7). Not another word about it; the project succeeded as simply as if it had cost nothing. In effect, this victory costs God nothing. This is how He will fight all man's enmity against Himself and against His Anointed. What divine irony! "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." God answers: "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision" (Ps. 2:3-4).
From this moment the name "Zion" carries a weight it never had before.
"And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David." The Spirit names this briefly, yet it becomes a turning point in Israel's history ever after. Now that David had taken the fortress from the Jebusites, this becomes the great fact that stamps its character on Israel. In short, Zion becomes a new name of the deepest importance. It is the sign of divine grace in royalty. That grace took up the people in their lowest condition. Through the man God used, it raised them step by step to a place of power, blessing and glory such as had never been before. It can never be again until Jesus comes and makes this very Zion the centre of His government on earth.
Nothing in the place itself recommended it.
What reason did God have to interest Himself in this place more than in another? There was no reason at all, except that He loved this city. It had been under the power of the Jebusites, the enemies of Jehovah and of His anointed. His heart was set on this place. Here He chose to set up the throne of His grace on earth for ever. "The LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His dwelling place: this is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it" (Ps. 132:13-14).
Zion stands against another mountain. What sharpens the contrast is the moment God acted.
No mountain in the Old Testament stood in such contrast with Sinai as Zion. Sinai was the never-to-be-forgotten scene of the nation's responsibility to the law. Zion was Jehovah stepping in with grace for His king when all was ruin. People and priests alike were wicked. The Philistines had taken the ark. Israel had confessed that the glory was gone. Israel's king and his sons had been killed. And the Jebusite was not only in the centre and stronghold of Jerusalem, but defiant and insulting. Then it was that Jehovah, as He chose David, so also chose the mount Zion which He loved.
The verse has a sequel. The Son of David came to God's house in the same city.
2 Samuel 5:6-8 records David's sentence against the blind and the lame: he said they "shall not come into the house." The great Son of David had now arrived in Zion, and He reverses David's action. That day He loved and blessed the very people "hated by David's soul." The money-changers had misrepresented the God whose house it was, and made men blaspheme His name. By healing the needy, Jesus truly represented the very heart of God, and the result was praise.
Believers are not left waiting for this mountain.
"You have come to Mount Zion," says the apostle. None of the requirements, none of the terrors of Sinai exist any more for those who believe. While still here on earth we have found the mountain of grace in the place where the cross of Christ was set up. We have set our foot on this sure foundation, the first rung for climbing up into all the heavenly blessings.
- Ruin first. David takes Zion only after ruin: the ark taken, the king and his sons killed, the enemy defiant inside Jerusalem.
- Grace next. God chose the hill for no reason but love, and made it the throne of His grace on earth.
- Nevertheless. The fortress that disabled men were meant to hold fell in half a sentence. Fighting man's enmity costs God nothing.
- A new name. From that day Zion means grace in royalty: God lifting a people from their lowest condition through the man He chose.
- A greater King. David shut the blind and the lame out of the house. Jesus came to the same city and healed them. Believers have already come to that mountain of grace.
And David said on that day, Whoever smites the Jebusites and gets up to the watercourse, and the lame and the blind hated of David's soul ...! Therefore they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
David now rules over all Israel. One place still holds out against him: a fortress in the middle of the land. The Jebusites there mocked him from the walls. This verse is his answer. He points to a way in through the water shaft. He also voices a hatred of "the lame and the blind" that would later become a proverb about the house.
The fortress stood in the middle of the land God had given His people, and an enemy held it. One writer explains why David could not leave it there.
The kingdom could not be according to God while Zion stayed in the hands of the enemy who had so boldly defied His people. It had to be taken for the king, and David felt this with full force. He felt deeply the dishonour done to God: the very heart and fortress of the kingdom belonged to a cursed people of Canaan. They sat there proud and at ease. They had held their fortress so long that they laughed at every attacker... The blind and the lame were enough to keep the stronghold against David and his men.
The capture itself takes one line to tell. Another writer draws out what that says about God:
"Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion" (v. 7). Not another word about it; the project succeeded as simply as if it had cost nothing. In effect, this victory costs God nothing. This is how He will fight all man's enmity against Himself and against His Anointed.
The word behind "gutter" in older translations is a technical one. A reference work defines it plainly:
tsinnor, "waterspout or watercourse," spoken of by David in reference to the attack on the stronghold of the Jebusites in Jerusalem.
The gates were shut. David sent his men to the one opening the defenders had missed. Another writer finds a lesson in it:
When the gates were barred, the watercourse was a way of entering the city that the Jebusites overlooked. This is just as true as a picture. The fresh water supply pictures the living word of God. If we attack evil in the living power of God's word, evil cannot stand against us.
One writer does not excuse how David answered the taunt:
David was not only too sensitive to the taunt, but could not rise above it... Generous as David was, he was wounded and resented the insult on people who were innocent of it.
Another asks why the enemy held the city so long, and finds the cause in Israel itself:
What has kept the Jebusites ruling the place of Israel's throne and the Lord's? Only one answer is possible: sin alone could have done it — the sins of God's people themselves. Sin has proved so stubborn in their case that the Jebusite may seem justified in his taunt... Israel has been blind to all God's dealings with them. They have been lame in walking the paths God's voice has called them to for so many generations! Yet the very name of Zion is a lasting reminder of a promise that stands and will still be fulfilled in David's victory.
Older translations of this verse also record the reward David promised for the assault. Commentators read Joab's claim to it in two ways. One sees a king rewarding raw energy:
David is no longer the man of faith. He led Israel's armies in dependence on God and guided whatever Israel's circumstances asked of faith. Now he is a king who can promote whom he pleases. The man very soon appears — the energetic man, but not the man of God. "Whoever gets up to the gutter," the king said, would be rewarded: "he shall be chief and captain." Joab goes up, and he has natural claims on David.
Another sees God's hand in the appointment:
Here he is not the ambitious, vindictive man, but the man appointed, according to God's purposes, to conquer the fortress of Zion for the king.
The verse ends by shutting the blind and the lame out of the house. One writer points to the day that changed:
The great Son of David had now arrived in Zion, and He reverses David's action. The kind of people who were "hated of David's soul" were loved and blessed that day... In healing the needy, Jesus rightly represented the very heart of God, and the result was praise.
- Taunt. The Jebusites boasted that blind and lame men could hold their walls against God's anointed king. David felt that insult as a dishonour done to God.
- Tunnel. The "gutter" was a watercourse. It was the opening the defenders overlooked, and the way in when every gate was shut.
- Type. Sin kept the city in enemy hands: Israel blind to God's dealings, lame in God's paths. Yet the name Zion still holds a promise.
- Trophy. Joab claimed David's offer of the chief command. Commentators differ: one sees a king rewarding raw energy, another the man God appointed to take Zion for the king.
- Turnaround. The saying that shut the blind and lame out of the house was reversed when the Son of David came to that city, welcomed them, and healed them.