Solomon’s Jerusalem Temple

Solomon’s Jerusalem Temple

Solomon's Jerusalem Temple sits on what is known as the Temple Mount at the rocky top of the ridge on which Jews built their Jerusalem Temple. King David lived down the hill in the City of David, a walled city below the top of the ridge. His son and successor, Solomon, expanded the city north, to the Temple Mount, where he built the first Jewish Temple. Solomon's extension of Jerusalem to the hill north of the City of David produced a walled city about 1 kilometer north to south (three-fourths of a mile). Ophel hill sat on the elbow of the ridge between the City of David below and the king's palace and the sprawling Temple above. Babylonian invaders destroyed the Temple and the entire city about 400 years later, in 586 BC. They exiled the surviving Jews. Persians conquered the Babylonians 50 years later and freed the Jews to go home. They rebuilt the Temple in 516 BC. So, they had lived without a Jerusalem worship center for 70 years. Then, 70 years after they built the second Temple, Nehemiah, a Jewish winetaster for the Persian king, got permission to go to Jerusalem and repair the walls. He served there as governor for about 13 years.