City

A fenced city was a city surrounded by fortifications and high walls, with watch-towers upon them (2 Chronicles 11:11; Deuteronomy 3:5 ). There was also within the city generally a tower to which the citizens might flee when danger threatened them (Judges 9:46-52 ).

A city with suburbs was a city surrounded with open pasture-grounds, such as the forty-eight cities which were given to the Levites (Numbers 35:2-7 ). There were six cities of refuge, three on each side of Jordan, namely, Kadesh, Shechem, Hebron, on the west of Jordan; and on the east, Bezer, Ramoth-gilead, and Golan. The cities on each side of the river were nearly opposite each other. The regulations concerning these cities are given in Numbers 35:9-34; Deuteronomy 19:1-13; Exodus 21:12-14 .

When David reduced the fortress of the Jebusites which stood on Mount Zion, he built on the site of it a palace and a city, which he called by his own name (1 Chronicles 11:5 ), the city of David. Bethlehem is also so called as being David's native town (Luke 2:4 ).

Jerusalem is called the Holy City, the holiness of the temple being regarded as extending in some measure over the whole city (Nehemiah 11:1 ).

Pithom and Raamses, built by the Israelites as "treasure cities," were not places where royal treasures were kept, but were fortified towns where merchants might store their goods and transact their business in safety, or cities in which munitions of war were stored. (See PITHOM .)