Nehemiah 3 Study Notes
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3:16 The text continues to describe construction from south to north along the eastern side of the city. The fact that the descriptions are not of gates and prominent places along the wall but locations within the city may be indirect evidence that Nehemiah abandoned the eighth-century wall lower down the valley and established a new wall closer to the summit (2:14).
3:19 The Angle (Hb miqtso‘a) may refer to a prominent place where the wall changed direction. However, the term appears again (vv. 24-25) in what would seem to be another location. Possibly the “Angle” was a natural feature such as a hillside or escarpment.
3:26-27 The term Ophel means “swelling” and is used here to describe a hill. It can refer to the entire southeastern hill of the ancient City of David or, as in this verse, to the area where the palace and the temple were situated. The Water Gate presumably provided access to the spring of Gihon. It was by the “Water Gate” that Nehemiah later gathered the people for a public reading of the Torah (8:1).
3:28 The prophet Jeremiah’s reference to the Horse Gate (Jr 31:40) might suggest it was a gate on the eastern wall of the city, but the “Horse Gate” mentioned in 2Ch 23:15 was the gate at the entrance to the palace/temple complex within the city.
3:29 The East Gate was not in the outer city wall but led into the temple complex (Ezk 40:6). Shemaiah repaired the section of the wall near where he served.
3:31 The Inspection Gate (or the “Muster Gate” or the “Parade Gate”) was probably on the northeast corner of the city wall. It may be identical to the Benjamin Gate where the prophet Jeremiah was arrested (Jr 37:13).
3:32 The goldsmiths and merchants “closed the loop” as they worked on repairing the walls up to where the work began at the Sheep Gate (v. 1) at the northeastern end of the city. D. J. Clines estimates the length of the wall around its perimeter to be about a mile and a half. If Nehemiah’s wall also included the western hill area of Jerusalem (v. 8), the distance was considerably greater.