13. by the gate of the valley] R.V. by the valley gate. The R.V. rendering is preferable, showing that Nehemiah is not merely defining the position of the gate but is referring to it by its recognised name.

The valley-gate is mentioned again in Nehemiah 3:13. The king Uzziah according to 2 Chronicles 26:9 had fortified this gate with towers. We may safely identify this gate as the chief gate in the western wall of Jerusalem, and as thus corresponding to the modern Jaffa Gate, although very possibly not standing at precisely the same spot. There were two well-known valleys outside the walls of Jerusalem, (1) the ‘valley’ or ‘ravine’ (gai) of Hinnom or ‘the son of Hinnom,’ i.e. Gehenna, cf. Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16; 2 Kings 23:10; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 2 Chronicles 33:6; Nehemiah 11:30; Jeremiah 7:31-32; Jeremiah 19:6; (2) the ‘valley’ or ‘brook’ or ‘watercourse’ (nakhal) of Kedron. In the present verse the word for ‘valley’ is ‘gai,’ and this fact coupled with the general topographical description here and in Nehemiah 3:13, shows that ‘the valley-gate’ was the western gate leading out into the ravine of Hinnom.

Recent investigations, however, have given rise to the supposition that pre-exilic Jerusalem was much smaller in circuit and that the western wall passed down the valley of the Tyropoeon. If so, ‘the valley-gate’ would be the gate opening into the Tyropoeon, which in those days was a considerable ravine but has since become almost completely choked with accumulations of ruin. According to this view the Tyropoeon is to be identified with the Valley of the Son of Hinnom.

even before the dragon well] R.V. even towards the dragon’s well. The LXX. misreading the less common word in the Hebrew for ‘dragon,’ renders καὶ πρὸς στὸμα πηγῆς τῶν συκῶν. The name is doubtless connected with some sanctuary at this fountain in prehistoric times, when ‘living water’ was associated with the worship of a deity often represented by a ‘dragon.’ Prof. Robertson Smith (Religion of the Semites, pp. 156, 157) calls attention to ‘the connection of jinns in the form of dragons or serpents with sacred or healing springs’ … ‘The river of Coele-Syria, the Orontes, was carved out, according to local tradition, by a great dragon, which disappeared in the earth at its source.’ The explanation that the well was so called ‘because some curious large watersnake or crocodile was kept in it in Nehemiah’s time’ may be disregarded as fanciful and improbable.

The identification of the well is uncertain. By some it has been identified with ‘En-Rogel,’ near ‘the serpent’s stone,’ the stone of Zoheleth (1 Kings 1:9). But see Nehemiah 2:15. By others it has been identified with ‘the fountain of Gihon’ (1 Kings 1:33). Neither of these suggestions suits the present verse, from which we gather that ‘the dragon fountain stood on the W. or S.W. wall of the city.’ If it was a spring in the Tyropoeon Valley, it has long since been choked up. ‘The rock-hewn conduit which has been found running along the bed of the Tyropoeon Valley’ (Sir Chas. Wilson’s Jerusalem, p. 113, 1889) may very well have conducted the water from such a spring. The ‘serpent,’ or Mamilla Pool, lay at the N. end of the modern Hinnom Valley (Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 3. 2).

dung port] R.V. dung gate. The A.V. probably introduced the rendering ‘port’ as an intentional variation. For ‘port’ as the old English word for ‘gate,’ compare in the Prayer-book Version Psalm 9:14, ‘within the ports of the daughter of Sion.’ Shakespeare, Coriolanus, i. 7, ‘So let the ports be guarded’ (see The Bible Word-Book, by W. Aldis Wright).

The dung-gate was probably so called because the refuse of the town was carried out through this gate. Some scholars suppose this to be the same as ‘the gate Harsith’ or ‘gate of potsherds’ mentioned in Jeremiah 19:2. It is mentioned also in Nehemiah 3:13-14; Nehemiah 12:31. The proposal to identify it with the modern ‘dung-gate,’ the ‘Bâb-el-Mughâribe,’ is very natural; but the similarity of the name may be misleading. We might however assume that such a gate would be near the Southern extremity of the city, or at any rate not far from the lowest depression in the neighbourhood of the city.

and viewed the walls, &c.] ‘viewed,’ that is, ‘surveyed,’ as in Shakespeare Hen. V. ii. 4, ‘Therefore, I say ‘tis meet we all go forth To view the sick and feeble parts of France.’—So the Vulg. ‘considerabam.’

The Hebrew word, ‘shobhêr,’ which it translates is very unusual in this sense. It ordinarily means to ‘break’ or ‘burst,’ and hence some have rendered ‘and broke my way through the walls,’ and even ‘made my way over the broken fragments;’ while the LXX. has καὶ ᾔμην συντρίβων ἐν τῷ τείχει Ἱερουσαλήμ. The similar late Hebrew verb ‘sabhar,’ rendered ‘hope’ (Esther 9:1; Isaiah 38:18; Psalm 119:166), ‘wait’ (Psalm 104:27; Psalm 145:15), ‘tarry’ (Ruth 1:13), is probably only a variant of the word which occurs here. It was the misunderstanding of this word which caused Rashi to suggest in his note on Nehemiah 2:12 that the object of Nehemiah and his companions was to break down portions of the wall that remained, in order that on the next morning the Jews might the more readily assent to his proposals!

broken down, … consumed with fire] Cf. Nehemiah 1:3, Nehemiah 2:3. It is uncertain whether the Hebrew text had ‘wall’ or ‘walls.’ The LXX. and Latin versions both have the singular (τείχει, murum). The traditional Hebrew vocalization favours the plural.

13–15. Nehemiah’s tour of inspection[1]

[1] The Topography of the Walls of Jerusalem, in pre-Maccabean times, remains in great obscurity. The places mentioned in Nehemiah 2:13-15; Nehemiah 2:3; Nehemiah 12:37-39 cannot as yet be said to have been certainly identified except in one or two instances. So long as those who are best acquainted with the subject, differ widely from one another, we may be content to forbear expressing any decided opinion, until further evidence be brought to light.

Verse 13. - The valley gate. A gate on the western or south-western side of Jerusalem, opening towards the valley of Hinnom. There are no means of fixing its exact position. It was one of those which Uzziah fortified (2 Chronicles 26:9). The dragon well. Dean Stanley suggests that "the dragon well" is the spring known generally as "the pool of Siloam," and that the legend, which describes the intermittent flow of the Siloam water as produced by the opening and closing of a dragon s mouth, had already sprung up ('Lectures on the Jewish Church,' Third Series, p. 125); but the Siloam spring seems to lie too far to the eastward to suit the present passage, and is most likely represented by the "king's pool" of ver. 14. The dung port. "The gate outside of which lay the piles of the sweepings and offscourings of the streets" ('Stanley,' 1. s.c.); situated towards the middle of the southern wall Nehemiah 2:13"And I went out by night by the valley-gate, and towards the dragon-well, and to the dung-gate." אל־פּני, in the direction towards. The dragon-well only occurs here by this name. Judging from its position between the valley-gate and the dung-gate, it is either identical with the well of Gihon (Robinson, Palestine, ii. p. 166), whose waters supply the upper and lower pools in the valley of Gihon, the present Birket el Mamilla and Birket es Sultan, or situate in its immediate neighbourhood. The valley-gate is the modern gate of the city leading to the valley of Gihon, and situated at or near the present Jaffa gate; see rem. on Nehemiah 3:13. The dung-gate (האשׁפּת שׁער), which in Nehemiah 3:13 also is placed next the valley-gate, and was a thousand cubits distant therefrom, must be sought for on the south-western side of Zion, where a road, to the south of Nebi Dd and the Zion gate, now descends into the valley of Hinnom, towards Sr Baher. "And I viewed the walls of Jerusalem which lay broken down, and its gates which were consumed by fire." The word שׁבר, which the lxx read, "I was breaking down," gives no tolerable sense; for it cannot mean, I broke through the walls, or, I made a path through the ruins. Many MSS, however, and several editions, offer שׂבר; and R. Norzi informs us that D. Kimchi and Aben Ezra read שׁבר. שׂבר, of which only the Piel occurs in Hebrew, answers to the Aramaean סבר, to look to something; and to the Arabic sbr, to investigate; and ב סבר means to look on, to consider, to direct the eyes and thoughts to some object. In the open מ of הם Hiller conjectures that there is a trace of another reading, perhaps מפרצים; comp. Nehemiah 1:3. Nehemiah 2:13 Interlinear
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