Fish Gate
The fish gate was built by the sons of Hassenaah, who also laid the beams and set up the doors, the locks, and the bars. Next the repairs was made by Meremoth, the son of Urijah, the son of Koz. (Meremoth a priest, son of Uriah of the family of Koz active in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and in the 7th course of temple service in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.) (Strong. 2001. #04822). Next to them repaired Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel. And next unto them repaired Zadok the son of Baana. And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord. (Nehemiah 3:3-5).
The Fish Gate which led out of the city toward the northwest. This would be one of the routes one would take to the coastal plain. The fish gate is on the north side of the city. It is through this Fish Gate fish were brought to the city from the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee. Near the Fish Gate were the fish markets. Many merchants would locate closer to the northern gates than any other gates because they would get most of their business from the northern gates. The reason for this is that the north side was the best way to enter Jerusalem. The northern side was mostly on a plain while the other sides of the city overlooked steep ravines. (Butler. 1998).
The Fish Gate is mentioned four times in the Bible two times in Nehemiah; Nehemiah 3:3 mentions that the sons of Hassenaah built/rebuilt the gate during Nehemiah’s reconstruction of Jerusalem’s wall. Nehemiah 12:39 notes that the gate was one of several locations passed by the choral procession singing songs of thanksgiving at the wall’s dedication. The Fish Gate was mentioned once in 2 Chronicles “Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.” (2 Chronicles 33:14). The last time the Fish Gate was mention is in Zephaniah. “And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD’S sacrifice that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD.” (Zephaniah 1:8-10) is related with judgment upon Israel because of their sin. (Butler. 1998).
The structure of the Fish Gate has four parts to the gate the doors, the beams, the bolts and the bar. (Nehemiah 3:3). Two gate doors were generally set into stone sockets buried just under the ground. The beams flanked the gate on either side. They were made of wood and joined to the wall. The bars slid across the gates and the end fit into holes or brackets in the beam. These bars could be locked in place by a series of small wooden dowels that slipped into holes on a block mounted on the gate. One could therefore not exit the city without a key once the gate was locked. (Matthews. 2000).
References:
Butler, John G. (1998). vol. Number Sixteen, Nehemiah: The Wall Builder, Bible Biography Series. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications. 84-85.
Matthews, Victor Harold; Mark W. Chavalas and John H. Walton. (2000). The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, electronic ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Strong, James. (2001).The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “Fish Gate of Jerusalem: .” Becker Bible Studies Library May 2015.<https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2859,>.
APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015, May) “Fish Gate of Jerusalem: .” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2859,.
Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2015) “Fish Gate of Jerusalem: .” Becker Bible Studies Library (May), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2859, (accessed).
