Jerusalem: The Biography

* Two new suburbs developed outside the walled City of David and the Temple Mount: the Makhtesh in the Tyropaean Valley that ran between Mount Moriah and the western hill, and another, the Mishneh, on the western hill itself, today’s Jewish Quarter. High officials were buried in the tombs around the city: ‘This is [the tomb] of [ … ]yahu, the Royal Steward,’ reads a tomb in Silwan village. ‘There is no gold or silver here, only his bones and the bones of his slavewife – cursed be anyone who opens this tomb.’ The curse did not work: the tomb was plundered and is today a chicken coop. But this royal steward may actually have been Hezekiah’s courtier criticized by Isaiah for building a grandiose tomb: the name could, read ‘Shebnayahu’.