It is 1000 b.c. in the Judean highlands. Men carry iron axes and bronze spears across steep limestone ridges. Philistine garrisons control the surrounding valleys. Soldiers breach a walled city by scaling a slick stone water shaft. They secure the fortress and establish a new military foothold.
Israelite elders travel to Hebron and crown David as a solitary king. The fractured tribes require a neutral capital to consolidate power. David targets the Jebusite city of Jerusalem on a high ridge between the northern and southern territories. His soldiers bypass massive stone walls by climbing a vertical water supply tunnel. King Hiram of Tyre sends Gentile carpenters to the newly captured city. Tyrian masons exchange their skilled labor and cedar timber for heavy agricultural shipments. David builds a palace to project political stability. Philistine forces attack two times in the Rephaim Valley. Ancient records state David asks the Lord of Hosts for battle instructions. The deity tells him to circle behind the balsam trees. David obeys his command and drives the opposing forces into the dirt.
Driving an enemy into the dirt secures the surrounding fields, but the underground water shaft represents the hard reality of urban warfare. Men build massive stone walls to keep rival armies out. They cut a narrow tunnel through the bedrock to access drinking water. Thirst demands a permanent compromise in the stone. An attacking force locates the place where daily survival creates a physical breach in security. A heavy defensive wall falls through its most basic utility.
A man builds a heavy door to block out his enemies, but he always leaves a hole to bring in his water.
That exact hole allowed a newly unified kingdom to carve a permanent capital into a ridge of solid rock. The imported cedar timber rotted away centuries ago, but the deep limestone tunnel still holds the cold dampness of the ancient spring.