23 BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL JERUSALEM biblical descriptions’ potential for reconstructing the history of Jerusalem in the tenth and fifth-fourth centuries BCE. I. Jerusalem at the Time of the United Monarchy (David) Before commencing the discussion, let me state my conviction that the late authors who described the building projects in Jerusalem had actually seen the walls and buildings whose construction they attributed to the early kings of Judah. Moreover, in view of the con- tinuous settlement of Jerusalem from the tenth century BCE until the destruction of the First Temple, and after a short gap throughout the Persian and Hellenistic periods, local oral traditions might have passed verbally from generation to generation and reached the au- thors of the biblical narratives. Such local traditions might have been trustworthy or invented, but ― unlike Greek historians ― biblical authors did not investigate their sources and evaluate their historical reliability. Rather, they elaborated and expanded the oral traditions and incorporated them in their compositions. These potential local traditions must be taken into account when dealing with the sources written in Jerusalem during the First Temple and Persian periods. According to the story cycle of David, following the conquest of the Jebusite stronghold of Zion, “David dwelt in the stronghold, and called it the City of David, and fortified ‘the city’ round about from the Millo inwards” (2 Sam 5,9). The MT reads “and David fortified (wayyiben) round about”, so that the verb lacks an object. 4QSama and LXXAB read wayyibneh ‛îr and 1 Chr 11,8 reads way- yiben hā‛īr, and these versions should be preferred over the MT6. The key for the correct translation of the verb bnh (usually “to build”) is the adverb sābîb (“round about”). The verb’s nuanced meaning of “fortify” appears in reference to the surrounding of cities by walls (1 Kgs 3,1; 2 Kgs 25,10; Jer 52,14; Ezek 4,2), and in de- scriptions of other building works (e.g., 1 Kgs 12,25; 15,17.22; 16,24; Isa 60,10; Ps 51,20; 2 Chr 11,5; 14,5; 32,5; 33,14) 7. Thus, the “build- ing” of the city “round about” clearly refers to its fortification. 6 F.M. CROSS – D.W. PARRY – R.J. SALEY – E. ULRICH, Qumran Cave 4. XII: 1-2 Samuel (DJD XVII; Oxford 2005) 121; see P.K. MCCARTER, II Sa- muel (AB 9; Garden City, NY 1984) 136. 7 F. GARCÍA LÓPEZ, “sbb; sābîb; mûsab; mēsab; nesibbâ; sibâ”, TDOT (Grand Rapids, MI – Cambridge, UK 1999) X, 131; cf. NJPS, 477.