What is Zion?

The stronghold of Zion

The Bible first mentions Zion when David conquers Jerusalem: “David took the stronghold of Zion; it is the city of David” (2 Samuel 5:7). The name soon widened to the Temple Mount and to Jerusalem as a whole – “for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3) – and, in the prophets and psalms, to the people of Israel themselves.

Zion in exile

After the destruction of the First Temple, the exiles sang: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). Since then Zion has been the focus of Jewish longing. The Amidah, said three times a day, asks: “May our eyes see Your return to Zion in mercy”; the grace after meals asks for the rebuilding of Jerusalem; and Jews everywhere pray facing it. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi, in Spain, wrote the famous poems called the Songs of Zion.

Zionism

In the late 19th century the word gave its name to the national movement (Theodor Herzl’s First Zionist Congress, 1897) that sought to re-establish a Jewish home in the Land of Israel. The State of Israel was founded in 1948. Today “Zionism” describes support for the Jewish state; Jews hold a wide range of political views about its policies, as citizens of any country do.

Mount Zion today

The hill that today bears the name Mount Zion, just outside the walls of the Old City, is a later identification; the biblical Zion lay on the ridge south of the Temple Mount, in the area of the City of David.