Nehemiah 2:13

2:13 I proceeded through the Valley Gate by night, in the direction of the Well of the Dragons ¹  and the Dung Gate, ²  inspecting ³  the walls of Jerusalem that had been breached and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.

Nehemiah 3:1

The Names of the Builders

3:1 Then Eliashib the high priest and his priestly colleagues ⁴  arose and built the Sheep Gate. They dedicated ⁵  it and erected its doors, working as far as the Tower of the Hundred ⁶  and ⁷  the Tower of Hananel.

Nehemiah 3:15

3:15 Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, worked on the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it, put on its roof, and positioned its doors, its bolts, and its bars. In addition, he rebuilt the wall of the Pool of Siloam, ⁸  by the royal garden, as far as the steps that go down from the City of David.

Nehemiah 8:1

8:1 all the people gathered together ⁹  in the plaza which was in front of the Water Gate. They asked ¹⁰  Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses which the LORD had commanded Israel.

Nehemiah 8:3

8:3 So he read it before the plaza in front of the Water Gate from dawn till noon ¹¹  before the men and women and those children who could understand. ¹²  All the people were eager to hear ¹³  the book of the law.

¹ tn Or “Well of the Serpents”; or “Well of the Jackals” (cf. ASV, NIV, NLT).

² tn Or “Rubbish Gate” (so TEV); NASB “Refuse Gate”; NCV “Trash Gate”; CEV “Garbage Gate.”

³ tc For the MT reading שֹׂבֵר (sover, “inspecting”) the LXX erroneously has שֹׁבֵר (shover, “breaking”). However, further destruction of Jerusalem’s walls was obviously not a part of Nehemiah’s purpose.

⁴ tn Heb “his brothers the priests.”

⁵ tn Or “consecrated” (so NASB, NRSV); KJV, ASV “sanctified”; NCV “gave it to the Lord’s service.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ 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.

⁷ tn The Hebrew word translated “Siloam” is הַשֶּׁלַח (hashelakh, “water-channel”; cf. ASV, NASB, NRSV, TEV, CEV “Shelah”). It apparently refers to the Pool of Siloam whose water supply came from the Gihon Spring via Hezekiah’s Tunnel built in 701 B.C. (cf. Isa 8:6). See BDB 1019 s.v. שִׁלֹחַ; W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 372. On the etymology of the word, which is a disputed matter, see HALOT 1517 s.v. III שֶׁלַח.

¹⁰ tn Heb “like one man.”

¹¹ tn Heb “said [to].”

¹³ tn Heb “from the light till the noon of the day.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “all who could hear with understanding.” The word “children” is understood to be implied here by a number of English versions (e.g., NAB, TEV, NLT).

¹⁵ tn Heb “the ears of all the people were toward.”