Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

Verse 16, “After him repaired Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, unto the place over against (neged = in front of) the sepulchres of David.” The wall of the Pool of Shelah was an offshoot from the wall of the High Town, so the writer returns and continues his description of the wall of the High Town. Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, takes up the repairs at the Fountain Gate and works northward. He comes over against the royal sepulchres, which are therefore on the Ophel side of the Tyropœon, a little north of the Stairs. The entrance would have to be low down in the valley bed to be outside the wall which protects Ophel on the west; but there is no reason why it should not be low down. The only doubt we need have is whether the spot marked in the plan is quite far enough north. In either case the excavations for royal tombs were so extensive as at length to approach the south wall of the Temple, perhaps even to touch the wall (at a point now under the mosque El Aksa). This is complained of by the prophet Ezekiel as a desecration. “The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, and by the carcases of their kings in their death; in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door-post beside my door-post, and there was but the wall between me and them” (Ezek. xliii. 7, 8).

Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, continues working northward “unto the pool that was made” (berekah, probably the “king’s pool” of ii. 14, and the “reservoir between two walls” of Isaiah xxii.). He goes on “unto the house of the mighty men.” If this is the house of the king’s bodyguard, the men of war mentioned in 2 Kings xxv. 4, we shall find that they are conveniently placed about midway between the armoury and the king’s house.

In the remaining short space on the west side of the Tyropœon we have no less than four bands of workers, indicating that the destruction had been very great, as indeed Nehemiah found it to be when there was no possibility of his beast getting along; and the next indication of locality is in

Verse 19, “the turning” of the wall, “over against the ascent to the armoury.” The armoury, therefore, was in or near the north-eastern angle of the suburb.

Verse 20. We are now carried from “the turning” of the wall by the armoury, southward, “unto the door of the house of Eliashib, the high priest;” and we are not surprised to find his house here, for we are close alongside the Temple courts. The workers come unto the door of Eliashib’s house, which thus seems to project westward, so as to be quite near to the line of wall; but they only come over against the less important houses which follow.

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]