Smith's Bible Dictionary

(Frankie) #1

•Gate between the two walls. (2 Kings 25:4; Jeremiah 39:4)
•Horse gate. (Nehemiah 3:28; 2 Chronicles 23:15; Jeremiah 31:40)
•Ravine gate (i.e. opening on ravine of Hinnom). (2 Chronicles 26:9; Nehemiah 2:13,15; 3:13)
•Fish gate. (2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 3:13; Zephaniah 1:10)
•Dung gate. (Nehemiah 2:13; 3:13)
•Sheep gate. (Nehemiah 3:1,32; 12:39)
•East gate. (Nehemiah 3:29)
•Miphkad. (Nehemiah 3:31)
•Fountain gate (Siloam?). (Nehemiah 12:37)
•Water gate. (Nehemiah 12:37)
•Old Gate. (Nehemiah 12:39)
•Prison gate. (Nehemiah 12:39)
•Gate Harsith (perhaps the Sun; Authorized Version East gate). (Jeremiah 19:2)
•First gate. (Zechariah 14:10)
•Gate Gennath (gardens). Jos B.J. v. 4, - 4.
•Essenes’ gate. Jos. B.J. 4, - 2. To these should be added the following gates to the temple:—Gate
Sur, (2 Kings 11:6) called also gate of foundation. (2 Chronicles 23:5) Gate of the guard, or behind
the guard, (2 Kings 11:6,19); called the high gate. (2 Kings 15:35; 2 Chronicles 23:20; 27:3) Gate
Shallecheth. (1 Chronicles 26:16) At present the chief gates are—
•The Zion’s gate and the dung gate, in the south wall;
•St. Stephen’s gate and the golden gate (now walled up), in the east wall;
•The Damascus gate and
•Herod’s gate, in the north wall; and
•The Jaffa gate, in the west wall. Population.—Taking the area of the city enclosed by the two old
walls at 750,000 yards, and that enclosed by the wall of Agrippa at 1,500,000 yards, we have
2,250,000 yards for the whole. Taking the population of the old city at the probable number of
the one person to 50 yards, we have 15,000 and at the extreme limit of 30 yards we should have
25,000 inhabitants for the old city, and at 100 yards to each individual in the new city about 15,000
more; so that the population of Jerusalem, in its days of greatest prosperity, may have amounted
to from 30,000 to 45,000 souls, but could hardly ever have reached 50,000; and assuming that in
times of festival one-half was added to this amount, which is an extreme estimate, there may have
been 60,000 or 70,000 in the city when Titus came up against it. (Josephus says that at the siege
of Jerusalem the population was 3,000,000; but Tacitus’ statement that it was 600,000 is nearer
the truth. This last is certainly within the limits of possibility. Streets, houses, etc.—Of the nature
of these in the ancient city we have only the most scattered notices. The “east street,” (2 Chronicles
29:4) the “street of the city,” i.e. the city of David, (2 Chronicles 32:6) the “street facing the water
gate,” (Nehemiah 8:1,3) or, according to the parallel account in 1 Esdr. 9:38, the “broad place of
the temple towards the east;” the “street of the house of God,” (Ezra 10:9) the “street of the gate
of Ephraim,” (Nehemiah 8:16) and the “open place of the first gate toward the east,” must have
been not “streets,” in our sense of the word, so much as the open spaces found in easter towns
round the inside of the gates. Streets, properly so called, there were, (Jeremiah 5:1; 11:13) etc.;
but the name of only one, “the bakers’ street,” (Jeremiah 37:21) is preserved to us. The Via
Dolorosa, or street of sorrows, is a part of the street thorough which Christ is supposed to have
been led on his way to his crucifixion. To the houses we have even less clue; but there is no reason

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