Zion

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Origin

Middle English Sion, from Old English, citadel in Palestine which was the nucleus of Jerusalem, from Late Latin, from Greek Seiōn, from Hebrew Ṣīyōn

The name Tzion appears 108 times in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), and once as HaTzion.] It is spelled with a Tzadi and not Zayin. The commonly used form is an adopted mis-transliteration in English based on the Protestant German orthography use, where z is always pronounced [t͡s] (e.g. "zog" [t͡soːk]), hence Tsion in German literature. A tz would only be used if the preceding vowel is short, and hence use of Zion in 19th century German Biblical criticism works. This orthography was adopted because in German the correct transliteration can only be rendered from the one instance of HaTzion in Kings II 23:17, where the a vowel is followed by a double consonant tz.

Definitions

Description

Zion (Hebrew: ציון‎; Tiberian vocalization: Ṣiyyôn; transliterated Tzion or Tsion) is an erroneously transliterated term that most often refers to Jerusalem and, by extension, sometimes to the Biblical land of Israel. The word is first found in Samuel II, 5:7 dating back over two and a half millennia. In Kabbalah the more esoteric reference is made to Tzion being the spiritual point from which reality emerges, located in the Holy of Holies of the First, Second and Third Temple. It commonly referred to a specific mountain near Jerusalem (Mount Zion), on which stood a Jebusite fortress of the same name that was conquered by David and was named the City of David.

The term Tzion came to designate the area of Jerusalem where the fortress stood, and later became a metonym for Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem and generally, the Promised Land to come. According to the Hebrew Bible, God dwells among his people in Israel.[1]