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Abstract
When the term 'îr dāwād appears in the Books of Samuel and Kings, most commentators and translators interpret it as referring to Jerusalem or a part of it, i.e., the southeastern hill (cf. the common translation, 'City of David'). A few scholars (Yeivin 1948: 40–43; Knauf 2000: 79; Barkay 2006: 8; 2008: 54; Keel 2007: 63; Zevit 2008: 207), however, note parenthetically that the term in Samuel and Kings sometimes or always (Keel) relates to a 'fortress', a 'citadel' or 'inner citadel'. This paper systematically re-examines the occurrences of the term 'îr dāwād in Samuel and Kings and ends in agreement with the minority scholarly position. Since 2 Sam 5:7–9; 6:16; 1 Kings 3:1; 9:24 indicate that 'îr dāwād served as a residence of David, Michal and the egyptian wife of Solomon, it may be argued that the burial formulae for the Judahite kings that mention 'îr dāwād may refer to a royal palace that also functioned as a place of burial. The paper then presents several instances in Samuel and Kings where the noun 'îr (unspecified) probably designates a stronghold or a tower rather than a town or a section of a town and thus is consistent with the semantic meaning 'fortress' of the lexeme 'îr in Old South Arabic.