Siege of Jebus

The siege of Jebus is described in passages of the Hebrew Bible as having occurred when the Israelites, led by King David, besieged and conquered the Canaanite city of Jerusalem, then known as Jebus (Hebrew: יבוס, Yəḇūs, transl. 'threshing-floor'). The Israelites gained access to the city by conducting a surprise assault, and Jebus (or Jerusalem) was subsequently installed as the capital city of the United Kingdom of Israel under its initial name as the City of David.

Siege of Jebus
Jebusite walls in the City of David, 2006
Date c. 1010 BCE Location Jerusalem, Canaan 31°47′N 35°13′E Result Israelite victory Territorial changes Jebus (Jerusalem) is established as the capital city of Israel and Judah
Belligerents
United Kingdom of Israel	Jebusites
Commanders and leaders
David	Unknown
Strength
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
No reliable estimates	No reliable estimates

The identification of Jebus with Jerusalem has been challenged. Danish biblical scholar Niels Peter Lemche notes that every non-biblical mention of Jerusalem found in the ancient Near East refers to the city with the name of Jerusalem, offering as an example the Amarna letters, which are dated to the 14th century BCE and refer to Jerusalem as Úrusalim. He states that "There is no evidence of Jebus and the Jebusites outside of the Old Testament. Some scholars reckon Jebus to be a different place from Jerusalem; other scholars prefer to see the name of Jebus as a kind of pseudo-ethnic name without any historical background".[1]