2 Samuel 5:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

David built round about from Millo— David, having possessed himself of the castle of Zion, joined the castle to the town beneath it, by building houses from one to the other, and made thereby one regular city. Millo is a word that has greatly perplexed the commentators: but it seems to have been the name of the castle of Zion, or the fortress of the city of David. The LXX generally render it, as in the text, by ακρα, a citadel. And in 2 Chronicles 32:5 we read, he fortified Millo in the city of David; or rather, "he fortified the castle or citadel of the city of David." Thus Dr. Lightfoot tells us, Millo was a part of Zion, vol. 2: p. 25 and Josephus uses the word ακρα, for Millo, when he speaks of this very circumstance. Antiq. lib. 7: cap. 3: What we render and inward, the LXX render and his house. See 1 Chronicles 11:8. 2 Kings 12:20. According to Dr. Kennicott, this passage should be translated, and David built a circuit from Millo, and round to the house; i.e. even to the house of the citadel, or to Millo, from which the works were first begun. What puts this interpretation (says he) out of all doubt, is the use of this word at the end of the preceding verse; and as it there most certainly means the house of Millo, or the citadel, from the walls of which the blind and lame shouted, David shall not come into this house; so it must mean the same house of Millo here. See Kenn. diss. 1: p. 50.