In chapter ii. 13, we read, “I went out by night by the Valley Gate,
even towards the dragon’s well, and to the Dung Gate.” This Valley
Gate was at or near the Gennath Gate, at the head of the Tyropœon
Valley, and at the same time close to the Valley of Hinnom. It could
not be far from the present Jaffa Gate. The Dung Gate--Josephus’s
“Bethso”--comes between the Jaffa Gate and the south-west corner of the
city; a position also required by chap. iii. 13. “Then I went on to
the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool.” The Fountain Gate would be
a convenient exit from the city to a path leading down to Siloam Pool;
The King’s Pool (_el-Berekath_) was probably Solomon’s Pool, mentioned
by Josephus as being by the east face of the old wall. In after
times it would be called in Scripture the King’s Pool, because it was
appropriated and used by Solomon’s successors, just as Solomon’s Palace
is called the king’s house in Neh. iii. 25. This pool would be within
the protected suburb. Nehemiah continues, “But there was no place for
the beast that was under me to pass.” Why? Because here we have two
walls in a narrow space, and the destruction of both of them had filled
the valley with _debris_. “Then I went up by the brook (_nachal_, the
Kedron) and viewed the wall: and I turned back and entered by the
Valley Gate, and so returned.”
_The Rebuilding of the Walls and Gates._--Nehemiah decides that the
walls can be and shall be rebuilt; and he parcels out the work among
forty-six of the principal people, who each have their retainers.
The work is sacred, and is appropriately begun by the high priest,
who naturally selects a spot near the Temple--the Sheep Gate of the
city wall, which would seem to have been about midway between the
north-eastern and north-western corners of the temple area of that
time. The description of the repairs takes us westward, or to the
left, and carries us all round the city to the same point again. “Then
Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and
they builded the Sheep Gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors
of it; even unto the tower of Hammeah[29] they sanctified it, unto the
tower of Hananel.” These two towers, we may suppose, with Mr Lewin and
Herr Schick, already occupied the site of the future Antonia. In fact
they were parts of the Baris or Castle where Nehemiah himself intends
to reside (Neh. ii. 8, where the Hebrew word is the _Birah_).
After these towers of the Baris the various gates and places come
before us in the following order:--
The Fish Gate, placed in Herr Schick’s plan where the first main line
of street ran out into the country.
The Old Gate, where the next main line of street ran out. It is where
these two roads cross one another that we get, at a later period, the
Damascus Gate set up. Streets running direct towards a city wall seem
to demand a gate in that wall to complete their usefulness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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