The Gates

The Gates.

The walls and gates as rebuilt under Nehemiah's directions are succinctly noticed in Neh. iii.; and their order is partially assured by the reverse enumeration, ib. xii. 38 et seq. The Sheep Gate is naturally to be sought for north of the Temple area. It is identified by some with the "gate of Benjamin" (Jer. xxxvii. 13, xxxviii. 7). The Fish Gate was so named after Tyrians who brought fish to Jerusalem (Neh. xiii. 16), and was situated on the northwestern side near the present Damascus Gate (II Chron. xxxiii. 14; Zeph. i. 10). The latter, which was strengthened by Manasseh, is sometimes called the "middle gate" (Jer. xxxix. 3). The "old gate" or "gate of the old pool"—referring perhaps to the Patriarch's Pool northwest of the city—is called also "Sha'ar ha-Rishon" (Zech. xiv. 10) and "Sha'ar ha-Pinnah" (II Kings xiv. 13; Jer. xxxi. 38; "ha-Poneh," IIChron. xxv. 23; "ha-Pinnim," Zech. xiv. 10). The Ephraim Gate led to the chief road to the north, where the throne of the Persian governor was placed; which throne can not have been in another place, Mizpah, the residence of the governor, as Ryle and Mitchell suggest. Where the "broad wall" was can not now be determined. In connection with it, reference is made to the "tower of the furnaces" (Neh. iii. 11), mentioned before the Valley Gate, and which was probably somewhere along the Tyropœon Valley. Schick, however ("Z. D. P. V." xiv. 51), places it near the Tower of David; Stade, about the middle of the western wall; and Mitchell (ib. p. 128), at the southwestern corner of the ancient city, where the remains of a tower whose base was hewn out of the native rock have been found ("P. E. F. S." 1875, p. 83). Then came the Dung Gate and the Fountain Gate mentioned above, a wall or a dam enclosing the Siloam Spring (i.e., the "lower pool," Birkat al-Hamra), in the neighborhood of which were the king's gardens (II Kings xxv. 4), the king's wine-presses (Zech. xiv. 10), and the steps leading down from the city of David on the eastern side of the hill ("Z. D. P. V." xi. 12), an artificial pool (Neh. iii. 16), and the "house of the warriors," either a tower or a species of barracks. The line of wall then turned ("angle," ib. verse 19) apparently to the northeast. Here two corners were found by Guthe ("Z. D. P. V." v. 298), between which turning and Ophel were the houses of the high priest and the dwelling-places of the Nethinim (Neh. iii. 21-23). Then came the upper royal palace, a projecting tower the ruins of which have been found, the "court of the guard" (ib. 25, 26), and the Water Gate (ib. iii. 26, xii. 37), near which there must have been an open space (ib. viii. 1, 3, 16); it was probably so called because a road led from it to the Virgin's Spring. The Horse Gate (ib. iii. 28) was probably toward the southeastern corner of the Temple. In former times it was directly connected with the palace (II Kings xi. 16; II Chron. xxiii. 15; comp. Jer. xxxi. 40). The other gates of the Temple wall on the east were the "gate of Benjamin" (Jer. xx. 2; R. V. "upper gate of Benjamin"; Zech. xiv. 10); the "gate of the Guard," generally located at the northeastern corner of the Temple area, though Schick and Mitchell are inclined to place it south of the Temple; and the "gate Miphkad" (Neh. iii. 31). The Sheep Gate on the north ended the work.

In addition to the walls, Nehemiah did much for the rebuilding of the city itself. A house for the high priest is mentioned (Neh. iii. 20), as are also dwellings for the other priests near the Horse Gate (ib. iii. 28); while, as stated above, the Nethinim had residences on Ophel, west of the Water Gate (ib. iii. 26), where there was also an outlying tower. The king's palace seems still to have been standing, or to have been rebuilt (ib. iii. 25), and was also flanked by a tower. It has been computed that the whole city thus included within the walls (Temple mount, the old city, and its southern additions) occupied about 200 acres, and covered both the eastern and the western hills. It is said to have been "large and great" (ib. vii. 4); but there were few houses built for the common people.

Jerusalem