With the course of the walls thus definitely marked out, it becomes possible to follow the descriptions in the Book of Nehemiah, and to identify the towers and gates and places there mentioned.
_Nehemiah’s Night Ride to Survey the Ruins._--Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar’s general, and although the Chaldeans entered by a breach on the north side, they afterwards burnt the palace and every great house, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about (2 Kings xxv. 4). Nehemiah returned from the captivity to rebuild the city of his fathers, and prudently decided to make first a quiet survey of the extent of the destruction.
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_).