Verse 24. The sixth worker down this side comes to “the turning” of
the wall and “unto the corner.” The turning is not the same as the
corner; the Hebrew language uses different words for a re-entering and
a salient angle. Each of the two turnings at the causeway (vv. 19, 20)
is called a _miqtzoa_ (= a re-entering angle); but now, in v. 24, they
come to a _miqtzoa_ and to a _pinneh_ (= a projecting angle). It is to
be observed that we should not have such angles at this part but for
the vacant square which Warren’s examination of the masonry compelled
him to leave--the wall for 300 feet each way from the south-west
corner of the Haram being more recent than the rest.
The first salient angle is passed over because the worker who begins
north of it continues his labours till he comes south of it, and so its
mention is not necessary in defining the work done. (In like manner, in
vv. 6-8, the Gate of Ephraim is passed by without mention, although,
according to xii. 38, 39, it existed between the Broad Wall and the Old
Gate; and the Corner Gate, which we know existed, is passed over by
Nehemiah.)
Verse 25. The mention now of another re-entering angle might perplex
us, only that the same verse speaks of a “tower standing out from the
king’s upper house,” and this may easily afford the angle.
Verse 26. We are now fairly on the Hill of Ophel, and accordingly the
workers who have been set to labour here are “the Nethinim dwelling
in Ophel.” There is also mention in v. 31 of a house of the Nethinim
near the northern end of the east wall--still outside the Temple
precincts.[31]
As soon as the Nethinim of Ophel get far enough south to look beyond
the projecting tower and see the Triple Gate, they are stated to be
over against the Water Gate. Lewin says that “the Water Gate proper was
that of the inner Temple, to the south of the altar, and led down to
the great southern gate of the outer Temple, which was probably also
called the Water Gate.” The Nethinim find themselves at the same time
looking eastward, or their wall facing toward the sun-rising. They are
also over against the tower that standeth out. This is not the tower
mentioned in the previous verse as projecting from the king’s house,
but may perhaps be the one at the bend of the Ophel wall, discovered by
Warren.
Verse 27. Where the Nethinim cease their work it is taken up by the
Tekoites, who presently come “over against the great tower that
standeth out,” namely, the large tower which Warren found. This
identification struck Warren himself, and he mentions it in the
“Recovery of Jerusalem,” p. 295. It now wanted but a little extension
of the work to complete the junction with the Wall of Ophel, at the
point where Warren found that wall to end abruptly, and the narrative
tells us that the Tekoites effected the junction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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