2 Tawarikh 25:23

25:23 King Joash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Joash son of Jehoahaz, in Beth Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem. He broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate – a distance of about six hundred feet. ¹ 

Nehemia 3:1

The Names of the Builders

3:1 Then Eliashib the high priest and his priestly colleagues ²  arose and built the Sheep Gate. They dedicated ³  it and erected its doors, working as far as the Tower of the Hundred ⁴  and ⁵  the Tower of Hananel.

Nehemia 12:39

12:39 over the Ephraim Gate, the Jeshanah Gate, ⁶  the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, and the Tower of the Hundred, to the Sheep Gate. They stopped ⁷  at the Gate of the Guard.

Yeremia 31:38-40

Jerusalem Will Be Enlarged

31:38 “Indeed a time is coming,” ⁸  says the Lord, ⁹  “when the city of Jerusalem ¹⁰  will be rebuilt as my special city. ¹¹  It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate. ¹²  31:39 The boundary line will extend beyond that, straight west from there to the Hill of Gareb and then turn southward to Goah. ¹³  31:40 The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown ¹⁴  and all the terraced fields ¹⁵  out to the Kidron Valley ¹⁶  on the east as far north ¹⁷  as the Horse Gate ¹⁸  will be included within this city that is sacred to the Lord. ¹⁹  The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

Yeremia 37:13

37:13 But he only got as far as the Benjamin Gate. ²⁰  There an officer in charge of the guards named Irijah, ²¹  who was the son of Shelemiah and the grandson of Hananiah, stopped him. He seized Jeremiah and said, ²²  “You are deserting to the Babylonians!” ²³ 

Yeremia 38:7

An Ethiopian Official Rescues Jeremiah from the Cistern

38:7 An Ethiopian, Ebed Melech, ²⁴  a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put ²⁵  in the cistern. While the king was holding court ²⁶  at the Benjamin Gate,

[25:23]  ¹ tn Heb “400 cubits.” Assuming a cubit of 18 inches (45 cm), the distance would have been about 600 feet (180 m).

[3:1]  ² tn Heb “his brothers the priests.”

[3:1]  ³ tn Or “consecrated” (so NASB, NRSV); KJV, ASV “sanctified”; NCV “gave it to the Lord’s service.”

[3:1]  ⁴ tc The MT adds קִדְּשׁוּהוּ (qidshuhu, “they sanctified it”). This term is repeated from the first part of the verse, probably as an intentional scribal addition to harmonize this statement with the preceding parallel statement.

[3:1]  ⁵ tc The translation reads וְעַד (vÿ’ad, “and unto”) rather than the MT reading עַד (ad, “unto”). The original vav (ו) was probably dropped accidentally due to haplography with the final vav on the immediately preceding word in the MT.

[12:39]  ⁶ tn Or “the Old Gate” (so KJV, NASB, NCV, NRSV).

[12:39]  ⁷ tn Heb “they stood.”

[31:38]  ⁸ tc The words “is coming” (בָּאִים, ba’im) are not in the written text (Kethib) but are supplied in the margin (Qere), in several Hebrew mss and in the versions. It is part of the idiom that also occurs in vv. 27, 31.

[31:38]  sn On this idiom compare vv. 27, 31.

[31:38]  ⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:38]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:38]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the city will be built to [or for] the Lord.” The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity. However, the word occurs in a first person speech so the translation has accommodated the switch in person as it has in a number of other places (compare also NIV, TEV, ICV).

[31:38]  ¹² tn The word “westward” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[31:38]  sn The Tower of Hananel is referred to in Neh 3:1; 12:39; Zech 14:10. According to the directions given in Neh 3 it was in the northern wall, perhaps in the northeast corner, north of the temple mount. The Corner Gate is mentioned again in 2 Kgs 14:13; 2 Chr 25:23; 26:9; Zech 14:10. It is generally agreed that it was located in the northwest corner of the city.

[31:39]  ¹³ tn The words “west” and “southward” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[31:39]  sn The location of the Hill of Gareb and the place called Goah are not precisely known. However, it has been plausibly suggested from the other localities mentioned that the reference is to the hill west of the Hinnom valley mentioned in Josh 15:8. The location of Goah is generally placed south of that near the southwest corner of the Hinnom Valley which is referred to in the next verse.

[31:40]  ¹⁴ sn It is generally agreed that this refers to the Hinnom Valley which was on the southwestern and southern side of the city. It was here where the people of Jerusalem had burned their children as sacrifices and where the Lord had said that there would be so many dead bodies when he punished them that they would be unable to bury all of them (cf. Jer 7:31-32). Reference here may be to those dead bodies and to the ashes of the cremated victims. This defiled place would be included within the holy city.

[31:40]  ¹⁵ tc The translation here follows the Qere and a number of Hebrew mss in reading שְׁדֵמוֹת (shÿdemot) for the otherwise unknown word שְׁרֵמוֹת (shÿremot) exhibiting the common confusion of ר (resh) and ד (dalet). The fields of Kidron are mentioned also in 2 Kgs 23:4 as the place where Josiah burned the cult objects of Baal.

[31:40]  ¹⁶ sn The Kidron Valley is the valley that joins the Hinnom Valley in the southeastern corner of the city and runs northward on the east side of the city.

[31:40]  ¹⁷ tn The words “on the east” and “north” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give orientation.

[31:40]  ¹⁸ sn The Horse Gate is mentioned in Neh 3:28 and is generally considered to have been located midway along the eastern wall just south of the temple area.

[31:40]  ¹⁹ tn The words “will be included within this city that is” are not in the text. The text merely says that “The whole valley…will be sacred to the Lord.” These words have been supplied in the translation because they are really implicit in the description of the whole area as being included within the new city plan, not just the Hinnom and terraced fields as far as the Kidron Valley.

[31:40]  sn The area that is here delimited is larger than any of the known boundaries of Jerusalem during the OT period. Again, this refers to the increase in population of the restored community (cf. 31:27).

[37:13]  ²⁰ sn The Benjamin Gate would have been a gate in the northern wall leading out toward the territory of Benjamin. It is mentioned only here and in Jer 38:7 and Zech 14:10.

[37:13]  ²¹ sn Nothing further is known about Irijah. It is generally agreed that the Hananiah mentioned here is not the same as the false prophet of the same name whom Jeremiah confronted approximately six years earlier (28:1, 5, 10, 15).

[37:13]  ²² tn Heb “And he was in the gate of Benjamin and there was an officer of the guard whose name [more literally, and his name] was Irijah…and he seized the prophet Jeremiah, saying.” The sentence has been broken down and simplified to better conform with contemporary English style.

[37:13]  ²³ tn Heb “the Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for explanation.

[37:13]  sn Irijah’s charge was based on the suspicion that Jeremiah was following his own counsel to the people to surrender to the Babylonians if they wanted to save their lives (Jer 21:9).

[38:7]  ²⁴ sn This individual, Ebed Melech, is mentioned only here. Later he will be promised deliverance from destruction when the city falls because he had shown trust in God (see Jer 39:16-18).

[38:7]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Ebed Melech, the Cushite, a man, an eunuch/official, and he was [= who was; a circumstantial clause] in the house of the king, heard that they had put Jeremiah…” The passive construction “Jeremiah had been put” has been used to avoid the indefinite subject “they” or the addition of “the officials.” For the translation of סָרִיס (saris) as “official” here rather than “eunuch” see the translator’s note on 29:2 and see also the usage in 34:19. For the translation of “Cushite” as Ethiopian see the study note on 13:23.

[38:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate.” This clause is circumstantial to the following clause; thus “while the king was…” Most commentators agree that the reference to sitting in the gate here likely refers to the same kind of judicial context that has been posited for 26:10 (see the translator’s note there for further references). Hence the translation uses “sitting” with the more technical “holding court” to better reflect the probable situation.