Millo

Millo shows up wherever Jerusalem is being built. After David takes the fort and calls it the city of David, he builds round about from Millo and inward. Solomon raises a levy of workers for the house of the LORD, his own house, Millo and the wall, and he builds Millo again after Pharaoh’s daughter moves into her own house. The last mention is darker: in 2 Kings 12, conspirators kill king Joash in the house of Millo. The verses never describe it, but it plainly stands near the heart of the city.

4 verses

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 5:9

So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.

1 Kings

1 Kings 9:15

And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

1 Kings 9:24

But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

2 Kings

2 Kings 12:20

And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

(Heb. always with the article, “the” Millo). (1.) Probably the Canaanite name of some fortification, consisting of walls filled in with earth and stones, which protected Jerusalem on the north as its outermost defence. It is always rendered Akra i.e., “the citadel”, in the LXX. It was already existing when David conquered Jerusalem (2 Sam. 5:9). He extended it to the right and left, thus completing the defence of the city. It was rebuilt by Solomon (1 Kings 9:15, 24; 11:27) and repaired by Hezekiah (2 Chr. 32:5).

(2.) In Judg. 9:6, 20 it is the name of a rampart in Shechem, probably the “tower of Shechem” (9:46, 49).

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(a rampart, mound) a place in ancient Jerusalem. Both name and place seem to have been already in existence when the city was taken from the Jebusites by David. (2 Samuel 5:9; 1 Chronicles 11:8) Its repair or restoration was one of the great works for which Solomon raised his "levy," (1 Kings 9:15,24; 11:27) and it formed a prominent part of the fortifications by which Hezekiah prepared for the approach of the Assyrians. (2 Chronicles 32:5) The last passage seems to show that "the Milo" was part of the "city of David," that is, of Zion. Comp. (2 Kings 12:20)