It is difficult to fix the period when it acquired the name of Jerusalem (_Yerush-shalom_, Inheritance of Peace,) for the use of the word in Joshua x. 1, xii. 10, Judges i. 21, does not prove that it was older than the period of the conquest. The Emperor Hadrian called it _Ælia Capitolina_. The City is named _El Kuds_, or _Beit el Makdus_ (the Holy House), by the Arabic writers of the middle ages. It is possible that it may have borne this name at a much earlier period, as Cadytis[7], a great city of Syria, taken by Necho, king of Egypt, may be Jerusalem; Cadytis being only a corruption of the Aramaic _Kadishtha_ (the Holy). Some suppose that _Jerusalem_ has been formed by the union of _Jebus_ and _Salem_, the _b_ being changed into _r_, but the Hebrew form of the word does not admit of this transformation. The derivation given by Lysimachus[8] is amusing from its absurdity. He asserts that in the time of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, the Jews were expelled from that country by the order of the Sun-god, who was disgusted at the diseased and leprous condition of the race, and visited the land with a famine; that being led by Moses, they travelled over the desert; and "the difficulties of the journey being over, they came to a country inhabited; and there they abused the men, and plundered and burnt their temples; and then came into that land which is called Judea, and there they built a city and dwelt therein; and that their city was named _Hierosyla_, from this robbing of the temples; but that still, upon the success they had afterwards, they in time changed its denomination, that it might not be a reproach to them, and called the city _Hierosolyma_, and themselves _Hierosolymites_."
Adonizedek was king of Jerusalem at the time of the conquest under Joshua[9]. He fell in battle against the Jews, near Gibeon, and some time after the lower town was taken by them. The Jebusites[10], however, still remained in it, among the descendants of Judah and Benjamin, and were not driven from the upper town till the eighth year of David's reign, when their stronghold was taken by storm[11], and the place became the capital of his kingdom. Jerusalem attained to its highest pitch of grandeur under the government of Solomon, being the centre of commerce, civilization, and religion. After the division of the Tribes, it continued to be the capital of the kingdom of Judah. In the fifth year of Rehoboam it was taken and sacked by Shishak[12], king of Egypt. In the reign of Jehoram[13] bands of Philistines and Arabs entered the city, plundered the king's palace, and carried his wives and sons into captivity. In the reign of Amaziah[14] it was sacked by Joash king of Israel. It was unsuccessfully threatened by the Assyrians in the days of Hezekiah[15]. Manasseh[16] fortified the western side of the city and Ophel, but it was laid waste by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar[17].