<P> According to the Bible , the Israelite history of the city began in c. 1000 BCE , with King David 's sack of Jerusalem , following which Jerusalem became the City of David and capital of the United Kingdom of Israel . According to the Books of Samuel , the Jebusites managed to resist attempts by the Israelites to capture the city , and by the time of King David were mocking such attempts , claiming that even the blind and lame could defeat the Israelite army . Nevertheless , the masoretic text for the Books of Samuel states that David managed to capture the city by stealth , sending his forces through a `` water shaft '' and attacking the city from the inside . Archaeologists now view this as implausible as the Gihon spring -- the only known location from which water shafts lead into the city -- is now known to have been heavily defended ( and hence an attack via this route would have been obvious rather than secretive ) . The older Septuagint text , however , suggests that rather than by a water shaft , David 's forces defeated the Jebusites by using daggers rather than through the water tunnels coming through the Gihon spring . There was another king in Jerusalem , Araunah , during , and possibly before , David 's control of the city , according to the biblical narrative , who was probably the Jebusite king of Jerusalem . The city , which at that point stood upon the Ophel , was , according to the biblical account , expanded to the south , and declared by David to be the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel . David also , according to the Books of Samuel , constructed an altar at the location of a threshing floor he had purchased from Araunah ; a portion of biblical scholars view this as an attempt by the narrative 's author to give an Israelite foundation to a pre-existing sanctuary . </P>
<P> According to the Bible , the Israelite history of the city began in c. 1000 BCE , with King David 's sack of Jerusalem , following which Jerusalem became the City of David and capital of the United Kingdom of Israel . According to the Books of Samuel , the Jebusites managed to resist attempts by the Israelites to capture the city , and by the time of King David were mocking such attempts , claiming that even the blind and lame could defeat the Israelite army . Nevertheless , the masoretic text for the Books of Samuel states that David managed to capture the city by stealth , sending his forces through a `` water shaft '' and attacking the city from the inside . Archaeologists now view this as implausible as the Gihon spring -- the only known location from which water shafts lead into the city -- is now known to have been heavily defended ( and hence an attack via this route would have been obvious rather than secretive ) . The older Septuagint text , however , suggests that rather than by a water shaft , David 's forces defeated the Jebusites by using daggers rather than through the water tunnels coming through the Gihon spring . There was another king in Jerusalem , Araunah , during , and possibly before , David 's control of the city , according to the biblical narrative , who was probably the Jebusite king of Jerusalem . The city , which at that point stood upon the Ophel , was , according to the biblical account , expanded to the south , and declared by David to be the capital city of the Kingdom of Israel . David also , according to the Books of Samuel , constructed an altar at the location of a threshing floor he had purchased from Araunah ; a portion of biblical scholars view this as an attempt by the narrative 's author to give an Israelite foundation to a pre-existing sanctuary . </P>
when did jerusalem become the capital city of the hebrews
when did jerusalem become the capital city of the hebrews
c. 1000 BCE
c. 1000 BCE