In First Chronicles, chapter eleven, verse five, Zion was one of the hills on which Jerusalem stood: formerly, this hilltop was the site of a Jebusite fortress that David had captured, as in Second Samuel five, verses six through nine. The hill became sacred when David brought the ark of the covenant to Zion. Later, the name Zion was the identity of the city of Jerusalem, as in Second Kings nineteen, verse twenty-one, Psalms forty-eight, Isaiah one, verse eight. Zion represents the congregation of Israel, as in Isaiah thirty-three, verse fourteen, chapter thirty-four, verse eight, and heaven itself in Hebrews twelve, verse twenty-two, and Revelation fourteen, verse one, respectively.
The inhabitants of Jebus added something besides in Second Samuel five, verse six. They had said, “Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither: thinking, David cannot come in hither.” The Castle of Zion is the fort that became the site of the temple. Zion was the eastern hill in the city. However, the second highest elevation in the large town, and to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, was uniformly named Zion. Although from the time of Constantine, it was for the name of the western hill, the site of Jerusalem. There is little doubt of the identity of the mountain of Moriah with that of Zion, though no individual passage of Scripture asserts it. The passage before us, however, with its parallel, tells us enough that the city of David and that which became the sacred hill of Zion are one. Many passages in the Psalms and the prophets confirm this and point out the difference between Zion and Jerusalem, as in First Chronicles eleven, verse five. Still, the capture of the citadel of Zion and Jerusalem is the choice to be the royal residence under the name of the City of David.