On the ground floor of the same building that houses the Cenacle (the Room of the Last Supper) on the floor above, a stone cenotaph draped in blue velvet is venerated as the Tomb of King David. The identification is almost certainly legendary. David was most likely buried in the City of David, as the Bible states: “David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David” (1 Kings 2:10). But the tradition associating this site with David goes back at least to the Crusader period, and for centuries it has been a place of intense Jewish prayer and devotion.
The Site
The tomb room is small, divided into a men’s section and a women’s section, and the atmosphere is one of fervent prayer. The cenotaph is covered with a velvet cloth embroidered with the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel, and silver crowns and Torah scrolls surround it. Worshippers press against the stone, reciting psalms attributed to David. The emotional intensity of the room, especially on Jewish holidays and on the anniversary of David’s death (Shavuot), is remarkable.
History
During the period of Jordanian rule (1948-1967), when Jews were barred from the Western Wall, the Tomb of David on Mount Zion became the closest accessible holy site for Jewish prayer. Thousands of Jews came here to pray during those 19 years, and the site took on an emotional significance that it had not carried before. Even after the Western Wall was recovered in 1967, the Tomb of David retained its special status for many worshippers.
David in the Bible
David is the most fully drawn character in the Hebrew Bible: shepherd, warrior, poet, king, lover, sinner, and penitent. He killed Goliath as a boy (1 Samuel 17), was anointed king by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13), conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital (2 Samuel 5:6-9), brought the Ark of the Covenant to the city (2 Samuel 6), and was promised by God that his dynasty would reign forever (2 Samuel 7:16). He was also the man who sent Uriah the Hittite to his death to take his wife Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), and who was confronted by the prophet Nathan with the devastating parable of the poor man’s lamb (2 Samuel 12:1-7). The Psalms, many of which are attributed to David, express a range of human emotion, from joy to despair to repentance, that has made them the most widely read poetry in human history.
Visit with Hoshen Tours
The Tomb of David is a brief but significant stop on Mount Zion. Hoshen Tours connects it to the Cenacle above and the story of how a single building came to be sacred to three faiths.