How did David get his army into Jerusalem?

Answer 1

A:According to 2 Samuel 5:8, King David sent one of his officers up a water tunnel underneath Jerusalem: "And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house. "

Naturally, the city of Jerusalem did at various times have tunnels for the supply of water, and at least three different tunnels have been suggested as the tunnel supposedly used by David. The vertical shaft near the Gihon Spring is now considered not to have been accessible at the time of David. Hezekiah's Tunnel is much too late to have been used by David. Finally, a tunnel was discovered in 2008 by Eilat Mazar, and tentatively dated to the tenth century BCE. Mazar believes "with high probability" that this is the shaft used by David's men to conquer Jerusalem. Of course, even a date during the tenth century BCE is probably still too late to be the tunnel in question and, although its entire passage can not yet be explored, its probable path seems to make its use as an entry into the city seem doubtful.

Whether David really did use a tunnel to enter Jerusalem is yet to be established. The sources used by the author of the Deuteronomic History knew of the tunnels under Jerusalem and, no longer knowing their history, could have seen them as potential entry points and from that developed a legend of the conquest of Jerusalem. It is possible that further excavation of the Mazar tunnel will help establish the truth of this.