Buried Cities and Bible Countries

by George St. Clair

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.

Verse 28. The Ophel Wall being in good repair, is no more referred to; but the next thing mentioned is the Horse Gate. As Warren could not find any gate in the Ophel Wall, the Horse Gate must have been north of it; and here it would be at a point convenient for entrance to Solomon’s Stables, which would be under the palace, and perhaps under the present vaults known as Solomon’s Stables. There is a depth of about 100 feet of unexplored rubbish between the floor of Solomon’s Stables and the rock at the south-eastern angle. The true stables may lie buried in this rubbish.

“Above the Horse Gate repaired the priests, every one over against his own house.” These houses of priests are in a position exactly corresponding with the house of Eliashib and others on the west side. The expression “over against,” implies that the city wall which is being repaired stands removed from the priests’ houses, which border the Temple courts, and it would be eastward of the present Haram wall. Herr Schick draws it so.

Verse 29. An East Gate is referred to (Mizrach), not to be confounded with the Gate Harsith, the so-called East Gate of Jeremiah xix. 2 in the Authorised Version. It may be the Shushan Gate, which, according to the Talmud, stood over against the east front of the Temple.

When we come over against the Golden Gate—which Nehemiah calls the Gate Miphkad—we are just where Warren’s tunnelling work was arrested by a massive masonry barrier—probably a part of the ancient city wall—50 feet east of the Haram wall. The wall was built of large quarry-dressed stones, and was so thick that a hole made into it for 5 feet 6 inches did not go right through. A few feet north of the Golden Gate the wall began bending north-west, as though following the contour of the hill; and Warren was also led to suspect that the wall is a high one, extending upward through the debris to near the surface, since immediately above it, in the road, there are some large roughly-bevelled stones lying in the same line.[32]

In Nehemiah’s description we are now immediately at “the ascent of the corner” (pinneh, a projecting angle). There is no corner now visible at the surface immediately north of the Golden Gate, and no ascent from a depth. But we have seen already that the northern cloister of the Temple would strike the east wall of the Haram a little north of the Golden Gate, and consequently here would be the corner of the Temple courts. We have also seen that the rock now shelves down to the north, for the valley from Herod’s Gate came out here, and at 300 feet north of Golden Gate the rubbish is 125 feet in depth, so that from this low ground there would be an ascent in turning west. The wall itself would go up, ascending toward the ridge of the hill. There is no more likely spot for the elbow of the wall than that marked by the little building called the Throne of Solomon. The great depth of the valley here gave fearful height to the corner tower; and eastern imagination would be not unlikely to suggest that only Solomon or the demons could have built it.

Having reached “the ascent of the corner,” one more band of workers brings us to the Sheep Gate, where the description began.

The Route of the Processionists.—Chapter xii. affords striking confirmation of the foregoing positions. At the dedication of the walls two companies start from the Valley Gate and go opposite ways to meet in the Temple. Presumably the Valley Gate was chosen to afford journeys of about equal length; and this is another indication that the wall did not go down to Siloam. The party going south pass the Dung Gate, and reach the Fountain Gate. And now which way will they go? The wall has been repaired right ahead of them, and also the wall turning north, and they will have to choose between two routes. The Revised Version says they went “by (ad) the Fountain Gate and straight before them,” and ascended by the Stairs of the City of David at the going up of the wall (not by this time, nor really “at,” but “in”—ba-maaleth le-chomah, i.e., in the stairway of the wall by the Stairs of David—a different stairway from the Stairs of the City of David, which descended into the valley bed).

Their way up these stairs and beyond carried them “above the house of David, even unto the Water Gate.” The house of David here is close by the king’s garden of iii. 15; and its position on the slope of the hill suggests a reason for calling Solomon’s palace the king’s upper house (or high house, iii. 25). Some say “the house of David” means David’s tomb; but if that be so, it only confirms the position which I am led to assign to the tomb. Observe also that the position required for the Water Gate here is again that of the present Triple Gate, the same as in iii. 26.