sword over jerusalem

8/2/2019 Sword Over Jerusalem

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Sword over Jerusalem!

Sources from Tanach (The Bible) relate the difficulty King David had in deciphering his thoughts

and Gods signs in selecting the place at which to build the altar thus to mark the location at

which Israels temple could eventually be built. Without this information no temple could ever be

built and King David would be unable to fulfil his life mission. The King had to locate the altaron which Isaac was offered and he had to do it with prophetic support. However, his search for

Isaacs altar was futile, instead he turned to the advice of Doeg and the Prophet Gad.

Doeg was a convert and a very serious Torah scholar. He is known to have ruthlessly

consumed the intellects of his fellow students and teachers with his sharp commentary.

His rivalry with the knowledge of Torah law that King David possessed revealed his jealous

disposition. Paradoxically Doeg tried to disqualify David from being King because David was

the son through the lineage of Ruth, a Moabite convert allegedly forbidden by Torah law.

However, the prevailing legal opinion, in Davids favor, ruled that Torah limits its prohibition to

descendancy rooted in male Moabite converts.

Doeg also challenged David who was struggling to determine the site of the future temple,

preferring it to be located in the high mountains south-west of ancient Jerusalem. David

preferred it be built in close proximity amongst the people of the city. King David ordered his

generals and after 9 months and 20 days he received their census of males over 20 in Israel.

The census was ordered by the Kings own will , it was not requested of him by God, as was the

law, when David contemplated his actions, he became remorseful. Retribution followed swiftly

and Prophet Gad told him he had three choices by which to repent; seven years of famine, flee

three months whilst his enemies pursue him or endure 3 days of plague in the land. King David

chose the plague. Immediately 70,000 men from the outlying tribal lands received their fate.

As the nation was suffering, The King saw the angel of death standing on the threshing floorof Arunah - King of the Jebusites, stretching out its sword over Jerusalem1 (The ancient City of

David) and David immediately and deeply repented for his sins asking Gods forgiveness for the

people. With Davids confession, Gads prophetically suggested David purchase the threshing

floor on which to build an altar to God and through which he and the nation would be forgiven.

David purchased the threshing floor from the Jebsuite King, built the altar and made holy

sacrifices and this became the place by which the future site of the first and second temples in

Jerusalem would be determined. Here we have a declaration in Tanach that the site was the

threshing floor identified with the angel of death and the prophecy to build it there was Gads.

Are we to rely on chance or hidden meaning that this prerequisite site of the altar is in fact the

site at which Isaac was offered by Abraham? No scholarly source exists directly stating King

Davids selection of this location to be one and the same, as such for the past 2840 years from

the time King Solomon built the first temple and its altar, people have simply believed the site to

be true. The simplistic illustration below describes the scene David is likely to have witnessed.

11 Chronicles 21:16And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the

earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and

the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.


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How is it that the most holy site for Jews is identified with the feet of the angel of death and why

is the sword pointed over Jerusalem? The 70,000 men were killed by the plague in the tribal

regions of Israel, not in Jerusalem!

David struggled to find the site of the temple, for years he contended with Doeg over its location.

Did he not have a sign, an archaeological fingerprint, something to go on that was better than

the angel of death and a prophecy of Gad to annul the plague? Did David know that the altar of

Isaac was a prerequisite for the building of the Temple? Davids son Solomon built Jerusalems

first temple based on the plans of his father, we dont have those plans and we dont have a

prophecy that precedes the building of the temple including instructions for its building. What we

have is a declaration in 1 Kings Chapter 6 that details how it was built by Solomon.

The missing ingredient in all this is the location of the altar of Isaac which is the essential

item according to Halacha (Torah Law) for building a temple in Jerusalem. So where is it?

In numerous articles I have argued that the newly excavated site above the Gihon, on the

neck mountains neck, where sacrificial worship and ceremony is now known to have taken

place, is in fact the site of Isaacs altar. Notwithstanding popular opinion, this site is likely to

be the original site of Salem, Luz, Beit-El and Jerusalem as such it ought to be more seriously

considered as the site King David did not identify. (To learn more read the papers I have


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published on the subject at www.gihonmystery.com). To understand the reasons why the King

did not identify the site, we must be sensitive to a chronological series of events that presented

him a great difficulty.

When King Davids general and a small band of men first attacked and conquered the Jebusite

city, now known as the City of David, its walls had been heavily fortified and constructed toprevent and protect its residents from attack whilst they would draw water from the perennial

Gihon Spring. Within and adjacent to the inner sections of the city walls, many homes had

been built. The walls and the homes were built over the site of Isaacs altar, using its carved

bedrock as foundation for the city above. After the Jebusites first began occupying the area,

they extended the existing small rectangular section that once walled the important site of

Isaacs Altar. It is probable this small protective wall was built by Jacob and his sons when they

returned from Shchem to Hevron via the place of the altar. This is also the place Jacob anointed

a monument to God and where he experienced his famous dream in which the angels walked

up and down the ladder between heaven and earth and where he accepted the name Israel

upon himself.

Whether or not King David knew of this sites existence is unknown, regardless its emergence

for the first time in more than 3000 years and its identity today is remarkable. The question

remains whether we will be open minded enough to seriously question whether or not the site

we presently identify for the third temple is in fact its true location?
http://www.gihonmystery.com/

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