"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem." (Psalm 51:17-18)
Golden (Mercy) Gate — Facing the Mount of Olives on the eastern side of the Old City, this gate was constructed in the post-Byzantine period. According to Jewish tradition, the Messiah will enter Jerusalem through this gate. To prevent this, the Muslims sealed the gate during the rule of Suleiman.
The ancient city of Jerusalem is situated on a spur of land where three deep wadis, the Kidron, Tyropoean and Hinnom merge to form one valley sloping south toward the Dead Sea. Jerusalem was first settled by the Amorites and Hittites (Ezekiel 16:3,45). The name "Jerusalem" means "founded by the god Shalem" after one of the Amorite gods. Jerusalem's long history is written in its walls as they were built up, seiged, demolished, rebuilt and expanded by its successive inhabitants; so much so that Jerusalem has been the scene of conflict on over 40 occasions during its history.
The earliest walls of ancient settlements were often made of earth or clay bricks mixed with reed. Over time these were vulnerable to erosion from the weather, structural instability or destruction by fire. For this reason they are often difficult to locate or date with certainty (Isaiah 30:13; Amos 1:7,10,14). The earliest known walls of Jerusalem were made of stone and exploited the natural defensible terrain to the east, south and west (Isaiah 2:15; 9:10; Zephaniah 1:16).
Although mentioned in the demarcation of the land taken by Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 18:15), Jerusalem first gained significance to the Israelites when David captured the Jebusite city and made it his capital. He may have done so because it was more central than Hebron to the emerging kingdom formed from the twelve tribes of Israel. David made use of the Jebusite fortifications which may have included only one gate (2 Samuel 15:2). Solomon was probably the first to incorporate the northern hill of Mount Moriah within the city walls having built the Temple there around 1010 B.C. In 722 B.C. with the fall of the Northern kingdom, refugees arrived in Jerusalem and Hezekiah enlarged the walls to the west to contain the burgeoning population.
These walls were sufficiently impregnable to survive the seige of Sennacherib in 702 B.C. and traces remain today (2 Chronicles 32:5). Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, destroyed the city in 586 B.C. following a siege that lasted three years (2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 39). The Temple and palaces were destroyed by fire and the walls again razed to the ground. These were rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah in around 430 B.C. following the return of some of the Israelites from exile in Babylon (Nehemiah 2-3). Nehemiah's description of the walls and gates of Jerusalem is the most comprehensive to be found any where in the Bible. It is likely that use was made of the existing foundations and that the gates were given their former names (Nehemiah 12:31-39).
Josephus, the Jewish historian, provides us with the most detailed record of the walls of the 1st Century A.D. in his book The Jewish Wars. He specifically mentions three walls which incorporated the work of Solomon, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, the Hasmoneans and Herod the Great. Remains of a wall and tower dated to the 7th Century B.C. have been found under the Roman Cardo which are 4 metres thick and 8 metres high. Another discovery known as the Broad Wall, dated to the work of Hezekiah in the 8th Century B.C., is 7 metres wide.
With the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, the city witnessed significant changes to its shape and size. In 41 A.D., for instance, Herod Agrippa doubled the size of the city by building a third wall on the north and west sides of the city which also, incidentally, brought the site of Calvary inside the wall. This was, however, never completed as the entire city was destroyed in A.D. 70 by the Romans. Hadrian eventually rebuilt the city, including its walls, renaming it Colonia Aelia Capitolina. His work included the enlargement of the northern wall which became 6 metres wide and 13 metres high with 90 towers. The walls of Jerusalem today, with their thirty-five towers and eight gates, are largely the work of Suleiman the Magnificent and date from the 16th Century. In places they are built over a patchwork of much earlier walls and gates and the immense layers of rubble accumulated over thousands of years.
Faith Lesson...
In the Bible, walls are used to symbolise many things but especially to describe salvation. It is good to remember that our security should never rest in stone defences but in God alone who is our eternal rock (Isaiah 26:1; 60:18). So often walls are built to exclude or divide people. Jesus Christ has broken down the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile that had once existed in the Temple, enabling all people to come to know God through Him. It is for us to live out this equal grace and common justice in our divided world (Ephesians 2:14). We are called to break down the walls that divide ...
- Posted from my iPad
Location:ג'ורג' וושינגטון,Jerusalem,Israel
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