How many times has
Jerusalem been ATTACKED?

How many times has
Jerusalem been ATTACKED?

The sieges or major attacks on Jerusalem have been twenty-seven (27) in number, or three times nine, and they are stamped with the number of Divine completeness which is three (3) and the number of judgment which is nine (9). Below is a complete list of all of the attacks on Jerusalem.

1. About 1425 B.C.  A siege by the children of Judah against the Jebusites (Judges 1:8) occurred about 1425 B.C. The words written about this first attack would set the tone for the city's long history:

   "Now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem, and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire."

   This first attack was about 670 years before Rome was founded. This siege was only partial, for in David's reign we still find the Jebusites occupying the citadel.

2. About 1046 B.C.  By David against the Jebusites (2Samuel 5:6-10; 1Chronicles 12:23-39).

3. About 971 B.C.  By Shishak, king of Egypt, against Rehoboam (2Chronicles 12:9; 1 Kings 14:25,26). To this there was only a feeble resistance, and the Temple was plundered.

4. About 887 B.C.  By the Philistines, Arabians, and Ethiopians against Jehoram (2Chronicles 21:16). In this siege the royal palace was sacked, and the Temple again plundered.

5. About 826 B.C.  By Jehoash, king of Israel, against Amaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 14:13,14). The wall was broken down and the city and Temple pillaged.

6. About 841 B.C.  Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, against Ahaz (2Chronicles 28). The city held out, but Ahaz sought the aid of Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, who stripped the Temple.

7. 701 B.C.  By Sennacherib, king of Assyria, against Hezekiah (2Chronicles 32). In this case the siege was raised by Divine intervention, as foretold by Isaiah the prophet.

8. About 606 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, against Jehoiakim (2Chronicles 36:7), when the Temple was partly pillaged.

9. About 599 B.C. By Nebuchadnezzar again, against Jehoiachin (2Chronicles 36:10), when the pillage of the Temple was completed and 10,000 people carried away.

10. About 590 - 585 B.C. By Nebuchadnezzar. Jerusalem's temple was burned, pillaged and destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2Kings 24:13; 2Chronicles 36), who carried all the temple's treasures with him to Babylon. The destruction of the temple began on the 9th of Ab (Hebrew month), the VERY SAME DAY the destruction of Jerusalem's second temple (known as Herod's Temple) would occur in 70 A.D. The 9th of Ab in 585 B.C., based on the Roman calendar, was Friday, August 1st.

11. 320 B.C. By Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, against the Jews. More than 100,000 captives were taken to Egypt.*

    * Where the Septuagint Version was afterwards made for Philadelphus, the successor of Ptolemy Soter.

12. About 203 B.C. By Antiochus the Great.

13. About 199 B.C. By Scopus, a general of Alexander, who left a garrison.

14. 168 B.C. By Antiochus again. The worst siege since Number ten above. The whole city was pillaged, 10,000 captives taken, the walls were destroyed, the altar was defiled, ancient manuscripts perished, the finest buildings were burned, and the Jews were forbidden to worship there. This was the Preteritist fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy (9 and 11), and a foreshadowing example of what the Futurist fulfillment will yet be.

15. 162 B.C. By Antiochus again, against Judas Maccabaeus (or Judah the Maccabee) . This time honorable terms were made, and certain privileges were secured.

16. About 135 B.C. By Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, against John Hyrcanus.

17. About 65 B.C. By Hyrcanus (son of Alex. Jannaeus) and the Priest Aristobulus. The siege was raised by Scaurus, one of Pompey's lieutenants.

18. 63 B.C. By Roman General Pompey, against Aristobulus, during the 179th olympiad. The machines were moved on the Sabbath, when the Jews made no resistance. Only thus was it then reduced; 12,000 Jews were slain.

19. 37 B.C. In Rome Herod is coronated as King (of Judea?) in 40 B.C. However, it took three years before he conquered (with a Roman army) Jerusalem and began to reign in the city in 37 B.C.

20. 70 A.D. Although Jerusalem's second temple was completed in 65 A.D. it was not long permitted to exist. The Roman legions took the city of Jerusalem by storm, and notwithstanding the strenuous efforts made by Roman General Titus to preserve the temple, his soldiers set fire to it in several places and it was utterly destroyed in 70 A.D.

    The destruction of the temple began on the 9th of Ab (Hebrew month), the VERY SAME DAY the destruction of Jerusalem's first temple began in 585 B.C. The temple's demise was completed on Ab 10 in Hebrew year (civil) 3831, which corresponds to Sunday, August 5th in 70 A.D.

21. 132 A.D. The Romans had again to besiege the city against the rebellion of the false Messiah, Bar-Cochebas (Bar Kochba), who had acquired possession of the ruins. Not much is known of this, perhaps the most awful of all the sieges. So great and severe was the struggle, that Hadrian, in announcing to the Roman Senate the conclusion of the war, refrained from using the usual congratulatory phrase. The city was now obliterated. Its very name was changed, and it was renamed Aelia Capitolinus. A Temple was erected to Jupiter, and a statue of Hadrian placed on the site of the Holy of Holies. For 200 years the city passed out of history, no Jews being permitted to approach it.*

    * So great was the relief which Rome experienced by this suppression of Jerusalem and the Jews, that the toast became common at Roman feasts, "Hierosolyma Est Perdita," "Jerusalem is destroyed," the guests immediately greeting it with the shout Hurrah. This is the origin of our "Hep! Hep! Hurrah," H, E, P, being the abbreviation of the three words, formed by their initial letters (on the principle known as Notarica, or Notricon). To this day Hep or Hip is said by only one person, the rest joining in the shout which greets it!

    This siege was foretold by our Lord in Luke 19:43, 44 and 21:20-24.

22. About 559 A.D. After 400 years of so-called Christian colonization, Chosroes the Persian swept through the country; thousands were massacred, and the church of the Holy Sepulchre was destroyed. The Emperor Heraclius afterwards defeated him, and restored the city and the church.

23. 636-637 A.D. The Caliph Omar besieged the city against Heraclius, and after a feeble resistance, followed by capitulation on favourable terms, the city passed into the hands of the Turks, thus marking one of the most important events connected with it and with chronology.*

    * See The Witness of the Stars by E.W. Bullinger.

24. 1098 A.D. Afdal, the Vizier of the Caliph of Egypt, besieged the two rival factions of Moslems, and pillaged the city.

25. 1099 A.D. The city was besieged by the army of the first Crusade.

26. 1187 A.D. The city was besieged by Saladin for seven weeks.

27. 1244 A.D. The wild Kharezmian hordes captured and plundered the city, slaughtering the monks and priests.