(G.) On the southern side of this wall we next come (omitting " Bethso" for the present) to .Josephus's "Gate of the Ksxenes." Tliis we should naturally expect to find opposite the modern Zion Gate; but as the ancient city took in more of this hill than the modem (for the Tomb of David is now outside), we must look for it j along the brow of Zion at the south-west corner. Here, accordingly, the Dunrj-riate is mentioned in Neh. ii, 13, and iii, 13, as lying next to the Valley-gate; and in this latter passage it is placed at 1000 cubits (1820 feet) from it — the accordance of the modem distance with which may be considered as a strong verification of the cor- rectness of the position of both these gates. The Dung- gate is also referred to in Neh.xii, 31, as the first (after
the Valley-gate, out of which the company appear to have emergcil) toward the right (i. e. south) from the north-west corner of the city (i. e. facing the wall on the outside).
From this point, the escarpments still found in the rock indicate the line of the wall as passing along the southern brow of Zion, as Josephus evidently means. Beyond this, he says it passed above the fountain Si- loam, as indeed the turn in the edge of Zion here re- quires.
(7.) At this soutli-east corner of Zion probably stood the Votlery-iiate, mentioned (Jer. xix, 2, where it is mis- translated " east-gate") as leading into the Valley of Hinnom ; and it apparently derived its name from the " Potter's Field," lying opposite. See Potteu's Field.
Beyond this, it becomes more difficult to trace the line indicated by Josephus. His language plainly im- plies that in skirting the southern brow of Zion it curved sufficiently to exclude the Pool of Siloam, although it has been strongly contended by some that this fountain must have been within the city.
(8.) At the mouth of the TjTopceon we should natu- rally look for a gate, and accordingly we find mention of a Fonntain-(/(tte along the Valley of Hinnom beyond the Dung-gate (Neh. ii, 14; xii, 37), and adjoining the Pool of Siloah (Neh. iii, 15), which seems to fix its position with great certainty. The next bend beyond Siloam would naturally be at the termination of the ridge com- ing do\vn from the Temple. From this point, according to Josephus. it curved so as to face the east, and extend- ed to the Fountain of the Virgin (Solomon's Pool), thus passing along the verge of Ophel. If this fountain re- ally be the Pool of Bethesda, we must locate here
(9.) The Sheeji-gate, which, on the whole, we are in- clined to fix in this vicinity (Neh. xii, 39; iii, 1,32; John V, 2).
The line of the wall, after this, according to Josephus, ran more definitely upon the edge of Ophel (thus imply- ing a slight bend to the east), and continued along it till it reached the Temple. We are not compelled, by his language, to carry it out to the extreme south-east- ern corner of the Temple area, because of the deep prec- ipice which lay there (.4J^^ xv, 11, 4). Just so, the modern wall comes up nearly in the middle of the south side of this area. Tlie ancient point of intersection has been discovered by the recent excavations of the Eng- lish engineers. (See the sketch of Ophel above.)
From this account of the first wall, we should natu- rally conclude that Josephus's Upper City included the Tyropoeon as well as Ophel ; but from other passages it is certain that Zion had a separate wall of its own on its eastern brow, and that Josephus here only means to speak of the outer wall around tlie west, south, and east. Thus he states ( War, vi, 7, 2) that, after the de- struction of the Temple, the Komans, having seized and burned the whole Lower City as far as Siloam, were still compelled to make special efforts to dislodge the Jews from the Upper City; and from his account of the banks raised for this purpose between the Xystus and the bridge (ibid. 8, 1), it is even clear that this wall extend- ed around the north-eastern brow of Zion quite to the north part of the old wall, leaving a space between the Upper City and the Temple. He also speaks {ibid. 0, 2) of the bridge as parting the tyrants in the Upper City from Titus in the western cloister of the Temjile. This part of the Tyropoeon was therefore inclosed i^iy barriers on all its four sides, namely, by the wall on the west and north, by the Temple on the east, and by the bridge on the south. The same conclusion of a branch from the outer wall, running up the western side of the Tyro- poeon, results from a careful inspection of the account of the repairs in Neh. iii. The historian there states that adjoining ("after him") the part repaired around the Fountain-gate at Siloah (verse 15) laj' a portion ex- tending opposite the "sepulchres of David" (verse 16). By these can only be meant the tomb of David, still ex- tant on the crown of Zion, to which Peter alludes (Acts
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ii, 29) as existing in his daj^ within the city. But we cannot suppose Nehemiah to be here returning along the wall in a westerly direction, and describing repairs which lie had just attributed to others (verses 14 and 15) ; nor can he be speaking of the wall eastward of Si- loam, which would in no sense be opposite David's tomb, but actually intercepted from it by the termination of Ophel : the only conclusion therefore is, that he is now proceeding along this branch wall northward, lying op- posite Da\id's tomb on the east. By " the pool that was made," mentioned as situated here (verse IC), can- not tlierefore be meant either Siloam, or the Lower Pool, or even the Virgin's Fountain, but some tank in the val- ley, since filled up, probably the same with the " ditch made between the two walls for the water of the old pool" (Isa. xxii, 11), which might easily be conducted (from either of the pools of Glhon) to this spot, along the line of the present aqueduct from Bethlehem. More- over, it was evidently along this branch wall (" the go- ing up of the wall") that one party of the priests in Neh. xii, 37 ascended to meet the other. This double line of wall is also conHrmed, not only by this passage, but likewise by the escape of Zedekiah " by the way of the [Fountain-] Gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden" (i. e. around Siloam), in the direc- tion of the plain leading to Jericho (2 Kings xxv, 4, 5 ; Jer. xxix, 4 ; lii, 7). From 2 Chron. xxvii, 3 ; and xxiii, 14, it is also evident that Ophel was inclosed by a sep- arate wall. "We will now endeavor to trace this branch wall around to the Temple and to the gate Gennath as definitely as the intricate account in Nehemiah, togeth- er with other scattered notices, will allow.