1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Zion

ZION, or Sion (Heb. צִיוֹן, perhaps from צהה “to be dry,” צוָּה “to set up,” or צין “to protect”; Arabic analogies favour the meaning “hump,” “summit of a ridge,” and so “citadel”), the name of the Jebusite stronghold at Jerusalem captured by David (2 Sam. v.). Zion (which is synonymous with the Ophel) is properly the southern part of the eastern hill^[1] on the top of which was built the temple, so that the name came to be given to the whole hill (2 Kings xix. 31, Isaiah xxiv. 23 and throughout 1 Maccabees), to all Jerusalem (Isaiah i. 27, cf. iv. 3), and even to the nation or its spiritual nucleus. Thus the people of Jerusalem are spoken of as “the daughter of Zion” (Isaiah i. 8), the name being often personified and idealized, especially in Isaiah ii., and in the Psalter, e.g. Ps. lxxxvii. 5, “Every one calls Zion his mother.”

See G. A. Smith, Jerusalem (London, 1908).

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1. Christians of the 4th century removed the name to the S.W. hill, and this tradition has persisted until modern times, when archaeological and topographical evidence has re-identified Sion with the E. hill.