Je·ru·sa·lem /ʤəˈrus(ə)ləm, ˈruz(ə)ləm/
 耶路撒冷


 Je·ru·sa·lem n.  The chief city of Palestine, intimately associated with the glory of the Jewish nation, and the life and death of Jesus Christ.
 Jerusalem artichoke [Perh. a corrupt. of It. girasole i.e., sunflower, or turnsole. See Gyre, Solar.] Bot. (a) An American plant, a perennial species of sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus), whose tubers are sometimes used as food. (b) One of the tubers themselves.
 Jerusalem cherry Bot., the popular name of either of two species of Solanum (Solanum Pseudo-capsicum and Solanum capsicastrum), cultivated as ornamental house plants. They bear bright red berries of about the size of cherries.
 Jerusalem oak Bot., an aromatic goosefoot (Chenopodium Botrys), common about houses and along roadsides.
 Jerusalem sage Bot., a perennial herb of the Mint family (Phlomis tuberosa).
 Jerusalem thorn Bot., a spiny, leguminous tree (Parkinsonia aculeata), widely dispersed in warm countries, and used for hedges.
 The New Jerusalem, Heaven; the Celestial City.

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 Jerusalem
      n : capital and largest city of the modern state of Israel; a
          holy city for Jews and Christians and Muslims; was the
          capital of an ancient kingdom [syn: capital of Israel]


 Jerusalem
    called also Salem, Ariel, Jebus, the "city of God," the "holy
    city;" by the modern Arabs el-Khuds, meaning "the holy;" once
    "the city of Judah" (2 Chr. 25:28). This name is in the original
    in the dual form, and means "possession of peace," or
    "foundation of peace." The dual form probably refers to the two
    mountains on which it was built, viz., Zion and Moriah; or, as
    some suppose, to the two parts of the city, the "upper" and the
    "lower city." Jerusalem is a "mountain city enthroned on a
    mountain fastness" (comp. Ps. 68:15, 16; 87:1; 125:2; 76:1, 2;
    122:3). It stands on the edge of one of the highest table-lands
    in Palestine, and is surrounded on the south-eastern, the
    southern, and the western sides by deep and precipitous ravines.

      It is first mentioned in Scripture under the name Salem (Gen.
    14:18; comp. Ps. 76:2). When first mentioned under the name
    Jerusalem, Adonizedek was its king (Josh. 10:1). It is
    afterwards named among the cities of Benjamin (Judg. 19:10; 1
    Chr. 11:4); but in the time of David it was divided between
    Benjamin and Judah. After the death of Joshua the city was taken
    and set on fire by the men of Judah (Judg. 1:1-8); but the
    Jebusites were not wholly driven out of it. The city is not
    again mentioned till we are told that David brought the head of
    Goliath thither (1 Sam. 17:54). David afterwards led his forces
    against the Jebusites still residing within its walls, and drove
    them out, fixing his own dwelling on Zion, which he called "the
    city of David" (2 Sam. 5:5-9; 1 Chr. 11:4-8). Here he built an
    altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite
    (2 Sam. 24:15-25), and thither he brought up the ark of the
    covenant and placed it in the new tabernacle which he had
    prepared for it. Jerusalem now became the capital of the
    kingdom.

      After the death of David, Solomon built the temple, a house
    for the name of the Lord, on Mount Moriah (B.C. 1010). He also
    greatly strengthened and adorned the city, and it became the
    great centre of all the civil and religious affairs of the
    nation (Deut. 12:5; comp. 12:14; 14:23; 16:11-16; Ps. 122).

      After the disruption of the kingdom on the accession to the
    throne of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, Jerusalem became the
    capital of the kingdom of the two tribes. It was subsequently
    often taken and retaken by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and by
    the kings of Israel (2 Kings 14:13, 14; 18:15, 16; 23:33-35;
    24:14; 2 Chr. 12:9; 26:9; 27:3, 4; 29:3; 32:30; 33:11), till
    finally, for the abounding iniquities of the nation, after a
    siege of three years, it was taken and utterly destroyed, its
    walls razed to the ground, and its temple and palaces consumed
    by fire, by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25; 2
    Chr. 36; Jer. 39), B.C. 588. The desolation of the city and the
    land was completed by the retreat of the principal Jews into
    Egypt (Jer. 40-44), and by the final carrying captive into
    Babylon of all that still remained in the land (52:3), so that
    it was left without an inhabitant (B.C. 582). Compare the
    predictions, Deut. 28; Lev. 26:14-39.

      But the streets and walls of Jerusalem were again to be built,
    in troublous times (Dan. 9:16, 19, 25), after a captivity of
    seventy years. This restoration was begun B.C. 536, "in the
    first year of Cyrus" (Ezra 1:2, 3, 5-11). The Books of Ezra and
    Nehemiah contain the history of the re-building of the city and
    temple, and the restoration of the kingdom of the Jews,
    consisting of a portion of all the tribes. The kingdom thus
    constituted was for two centuries under the dominion of Persia,
    till B.C. 331; and thereafter, for about a century and a half,
    under the rulers of the Greek empire in Asia, till B.C. 167. For
    a century the Jews maintained their independence under native
    rulers, the Asmonean princes. At the close of this period they
    fell under the rule of Herod and of members of his family, but
    practically under Rome, till the time of the destruction of
    Jerusalem, A.D. 70. The city was then laid in ruins.

      The modern Jerusalem by-and-by began to be built over the
    immense beds of rubbish resulting from the overthrow of the
    ancient city; and whilst it occupies certainly the same site,
    there are no evidences that even the lines of its streets are
    now what they were in the ancient city. Till A.D. 131 the Jews
    who still lingered about Jerusalem quietly submitted to the
    Roman sway. But in that year the emperor (Hadrian), in order to
    hold them in subjection, rebuilt and fortified the city. The
    Jews, however, took possession of it, having risen under the
    leadership of one Bar-Chohaba (i.e., "the son of the star") in
    revolt against the Romans. Some four years afterwards (A.D.
    135), however, they were driven out of it with great slaughter,
    and the city was again destroyed; and over its ruins was built a
    Roman city called Aelia Capitolina, a name which it retained
    till it fell under the dominion of the Mohammedans, when it was
    called el-Khuds, i.e., "the holy."

      In A.D. 326 Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, made a
    pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the view of discovering the places
    mentioned in the life of our Lord. She caused a church to be
    built on what was then supposed to be the place of the nativity
    at Bethlehem. Constantine, animated by her example, searched for
    the holy sepulchre, and built over the supposed site a
    magnificent church, which was completed and dedicated A.D. 335.
    He relaxed the laws against the Jews till this time in force,
    and permitted them once a year to visit the city and wail over
    the desolation of "the holy and beautiful house."

      In A.D. 614 the Persians, after defeating the Roman forces of
    the emperor Heraclius, took Jerusalem by storm, and retained it
    till A.D. 637, when it was taken by the Arabians under the
    Khalif Omar. It remained in their possession till it passed, in
    A.D. 960, under the dominion of the Fatimite khalifs of Egypt,
    and in A.D. 1073 under the Turcomans. In A.D. 1099 the crusader
    Godfrey of Bouillon took the city from the Moslems with great
    slaughter, and was elected king of Jerusalem. He converted the
    Mosque of Omar into a Christian cathedral. During the
    eighty-eight years which followed, many churches and convents
    were erected in the holy city. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
    was rebuilt during this period, and it alone remains to this
    day. In A.D. 1187 the sultan Saladin wrested the city from the
    Christians. From that time to the present day, with few
    intervals, Jerusalem has remained in the hands of the Moslems.
    It has, however, during that period been again and again taken
    and retaken, demolished in great part and rebuilt, no city in
    the world having passed through so many vicissitudes.

      In the year 1850 the Greek and Latin monks residing in
    Jerusalem had a fierce dispute about the guardianship of what
    are called the "holy places." In this dispute the emperor
    Nicholas of Russia sided with the Greeks, and Louis Napoleon,
    the emperor of the French, with the Latins. This led the Turkish
    authorities to settle the question in a way unsatisfactory to
    Russia. Out of this there sprang the Crimean War, which was
    protracted and sanguinary, but which had important consequences
    in the way of breaking down the barriers of Turkish
    exclusiveness.

      Modern Jerusalem "lies near the summit of a broad
    mountain-ridge, which extends without interruption from the
    plain of Esdraelon to a line drawn between the southern end of
    the Dead Sea and the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean."
    This high, uneven table-land is everywhere from 20 to 25
    geographical miles in breadth. It was anciently known as the
    mountains of Ephraim and Judah.

      "Jerusalem is a city of contrasts, and differs widely from
    Damascus, not merely because it is a stone town in mountains,
    whilst the latter is a mud city in a plain, but because while in
    Damascus Moslem religion and Oriental custom are unmixed with
    any foreign element, in Jerusalem every form of religion, every
    nationality of East and West, is represented at one time."

      Jerusalem is first mentioned under that name in the Book of
    Joshua, and the Tell-el-Amarna collection of tablets includes
    six letters from its Amorite king to Egypt, recording the attack
    of the Abiri about B.C. 1480. The name is there spelt Uru-Salim
    ("city of peace"). Another monumental record in which the Holy
    City is named is that of Sennacherib's attack in B.C. 702. The
    "camp of the Assyrians" was still shown about A.D. 70, on the
    flat ground to the north-west, included in the new quarter of
    the city.

      The city of David included both the upper city and Millo, and
    was surrounded by a wall built by David and Solomon, who appear
    to have restored the original Jebusite fortifications. The name
    Zion (or Sion) appears to have been, like Ariel ("the hearth of
    God"), a poetical term for Jerusalem, but in the Greek age was
    more specially used of the Temple hill. The priests' quarter
    grew up on Ophel, south of the Temple, where also was Solomon's
    Palace outside the original city of David. The walls of the city
    were extended by Jotham and Manasseh to include this suburb and
    the Temple (2 Chr. 27:3; 33:14).

      Jerusalem is now a town of some 50,000 inhabitants, with
    ancient mediaeval walls, partly on the old lines, but extending
    less far to the south. The traditional sites, as a rule, were
    first shown in the 4th and later centuries A.D., and have no
    authority. The results of excavation have, however, settled most
    of the disputed questions, the limits of the Temple area, and
    the course of the old walls having been traced.



 Jerusalem, vision of peace