2 Samuel 5:9

So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) The fort.—The same word as strong hold in 2Samuel 5:7.

Millo.—A word always used in Hebrew with the definite article (except in Judges 9:6; Judges 9:20), the Millo. It is probably an old Canaanitish name for the fortification on the northern end of Mount Zion, “inward” from which the palace was situated. Subsequent kings, as Solomon (1Kings 11:27) and Hezekiah (2Chronicles 32:5), saw its importance and added to its strength. On all other sides Zion was protected by precipitous ravines. There is, however, some difference of opinion about the topography of ancient Jerusalem.

Benson Commentary

2 Samuel 5:9-10. From Millo — Which seems to have been the town-hall, or state-house, near the wall of the city of Zion; or, as some think, a tower or armory. The Lord God of hosts was with him — This was the cause of his great prosperity, that God, who commands all the armies of heaven and earth, directed and blessed him in all his enterprises.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:6-10 The enemies of God's people are often very confident of their own strength, and most secure when their day to fall draws nigh. But the pride and insolence of the Jebusites animated David, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. Thus in the day of God's power, Satan's strong-hold, the human heart, is changed into a habitation of God through the Spirit, and into a throne on which the Son of David rules, and brings every thought into obedience to himself. May He thus come, and claim, and cleanse, each of our hearts; and, destroying every idol, may he reign there for ever!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

David dwelt in the fort - or stronghold, (as in 2 Samuel 5:7) i. e. eventually, when the buildings were completed, which may not have been for two or three years. Millo appears to have been a fortress of some kind, the northern defense of the city of David, and to have been a part of the original Canaanite defenses of Zion, as appears probable also from there having been a fortress called the house of Millo in the Canaanite city of Shechem. (Judges 9:6 note, and 2 Samuel 9:1-13 :20.) Millo may be the native name. Some identify it with the great platform called the Haram es Sherif.

David built round about - Probably meaning built his own house and other houses and streets, all, in short, that caused it to be coiled the city of David. (Compare 1 Chronicles 11:8.) The buildings were within, on the south of Millo, so as to be protected by it on the north, as they were east, west. and south, by the precipitous ravines.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. David dwelt in the fort, &c.—Having taken it by storm, he changed its name to "the city of David," to signify the importance of the conquest, and to perpetuate the memory of the event.

David built round about from Millo and inward—probably a row of stone bastions placed on the northern side of Mount Zion, and built by David to secure himself on that side from the Jebusites, who still lived in the lower part of the city. The house of Millo was perhaps the principal corner tower of that fortified wall.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Millo seems to have been some large and well fortified building, Judges 9:6 2 Chronicles 32:5, adjoining or near to the wall of the city of Zion.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So David dwelt in the fort,.... The strong hold of Zion, which he took:

and called it the city of David; from his own name, to keep up the memory of his taking it, and of his habitation in it:

and David built round about, from Millo and inward; built a wall about it, and enlarged the place, increased the buildings both within and without. Millo is supposed to be a ditch round the fort, full of water, from whence it had its name; or was a large hollow place which divided the fort from the lower city, and which afterwards Solomon filled up, and made it a level, and therefore is called so here by anticipation; though Jarchi says it was done by David. According to Dr. Lightfoot (o), it was a part or Sion, or some hillock, east up against it on the west side; his first sense is best, Millo being no other than the fortress or citadel; which, as Josephus says (p), David joined to the lower city, and made them one body, and erecting walls about it made Joab superintendent of them; and this was the "round about", or circuit, which David made, reaching from Millo, or the citadel, to that again, which is meant by "inward", or "to the house" (q), as it should be rendered; that is, to the house of Millo, as in 2 Kings 12:20; and so it is said 1 Chronicles 11:8; that David built the city "from Millo round about"; that is, to the same place from whence he began (r).

(o) Works, vol. 2. Chorograph. Cent. c. 24. p. 25. (p) Antiqu. l. 7. c. 3. sect. 2.((q) "et ad domum". (r) See Dr. Kennicott, ut supra, (Dissert. 1.) p. 49, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from {e} Millo and inward.

(e) He built from the town house round about to his own house 1Ch 11:8.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. in the fort] In the strong hold, the same word as in 2 Samuel 5:7, and in 1 Chronicles 11:5 (E. V. castle).

Millo] The Millo. See Additional Note VI., p. 241.

and inward] Within or under the protection of the Millo, which was the outermost defence of the city.

Chron. adds “And Joab repaired the rest of the city.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - David dwelt in the fort. It was the stronghold or citadel of Zion which David took for his abode; but as he needed space for the dwellings of his mighty men, and for those who would soon flock for trade and security to the capital, David proceeded to fortify the whole of the summit. His works began from "the Millo," rendered "the citadel" by the LXX. Many, deriving the name from a Hebrew root signifying to fill, think that it was a mound, but Nature had herself supplied fit heights for defence, and it is evident that the place was called "the Millo" when David captured the city. We find "Beth-Millo" also in Judges 9:6, 20, where it signifies those who held the citadel of Shechem; and this Mills at Jerusalem was without doubt the old Jebusite keep, and the explanation of its name must be sought in the Jebusite language. As it formed one of the strongest defences of the city, it was rebuilt by Solomon (1 Kings 9:24; 1 Kings 11:27), and repaired by Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:5) in preparation for the Assyrian attack. Probably it stood at a corner, whence the phrase, "round about from the Millo and inward," or, as it is expressed in 1 Chronicles 11:8, "from the Millo inward," that is, starting from. the Millo, the walls enclosed the space behind it. In the parallel place (1 Chronicles 11:8) we find an interesting addition to the narrative, namely, that "Joab repaired the rest of the city." It appears from this that the Jebusites had occupied a good deal of the ground with their habitations, though probably the number of the tribe was not great; or possibly there remained old buildings which were the remains of the Hittite city, and which, being of massive construction, were easily made fit once again for human habitation. We see also proof of Joab's great ability in peace as well as in war. He it was who had captured the stronghold, and it was now his office to arrange the streets and plan of the city, and to assign dwellings to David's mighty men. This would be a work sure to cause jealousy and heart burnings, and no one but Joab, their old commander, could have satisfied them. We find that he assigned to one of them, Uriah the Hittite, a space of ground for a dwelling close to the royal palace. We may suppose, then, that David was now fully reconciled to the "hard sons of Zeruiah" (2 Samuel 3:39), and in the stern wars which followed David's election, he needed and had the full benefit of their vigour and ability. 2 Samuel 5:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"David dwelt in the fort," i.e., he selected the fort or citadel as his palace, "and called it David's city." David may have been induced to select the citadel of Zion as his palace, and by so doing to make Jerusalem the capital of the whole kingdom, partly by the natural strength of Zion, and partly by the situation of Jerusalem, viz., on the border of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah, and tolerably near to the centre of the land. "And David built, i.e., fortified (the city of Zion), round about from Millo and inwards." In the Chronicles we have ועד־הסּביב, "and to the environs or surroundings," i.e., to the encircling wall which was opposite to the Millo. The fortification "inwards" must have consisted in the enclosure of Mount Zion with a strong wall upon the north side, where Jerusalem joined it as a lower town, so as to defend the palace against the hostile attacks on the north or town side, which had hitherto been left without fortifications. The "Millo" was at any rate some kind of fortification, probably a large tower or castle at one particular part of the surrounding wall (comp. Judges 9:6 with Judges 9:46 and Judges 9:49, where Millo is used interchangeably with Migdal). The name ("the filling") probably originated in the fact that through this tower or castle the fortification of the city, or the surrounding wall, was filled or completed. The definite article before Millo indicates that it was a well-known fortress, probably one that had been erected by the Jebusites. With regard to the situation of Millo, we may infer from this passage, and 1 Chronicles 11:8, that the tower in question stood at one corner of the wall, either on the north-east or north-west, "where the hill of Zion has the least elevation and therefore needed the greatest strengthening from without" (Thenius on 1 Kings 9:15). This is fully sustained both by 1 Kings 11:27, where Solomon is said to have closed the breach of the city of David by building (fortifying) Millo, and by 2 Chronicles 32:5, where Hezekiah is said to have built up all the wall of Jerusalem, and made Millo strong, i.e., to have fortified it still further (vid., 1 Kings 9:15 and 1 Kings 9:24).