Biblical Geography

The Pilgrimage Roads

Roads · Old and New Testament

Scripture first

Psalm 122:1-2 · WEBU

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I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the : our feet have stood within your gates, O Jerusalem.

, Weeks and Tabernacles drew Israel up to Jerusalem along the ridge roads and the Jordan valley. The fifteen songs of ascents, -134, are the hymnbook of those roads. Jesus' family walked them every year, and the lost twelve-year-old of belongs to the pilgrimage caravan.

The roads the tribes climbed three times a year to the feasts, singing the psalms of ascent.

Biblical names
the highways to Zion, the roads of the feasts

Identification note. The pilgrim routes followed the watershed ridge and the Jordan valley; their lines are known from the terrain and the biblical itineraries.

Everyone in the land said up to Jerusalem because every road there climbs. The psalms of ascent are geography set to music.

  • I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord: our feet have stood within your gates, O Jerusalem.
  • Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord
  • Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion
  • Jesus' family goes up to Jerusalem for the Passover

What we know

Certain

  • The three pilgrimage feasts and the custom of going up to Jerusalem are commanded in the law and described in the Gospels.