The Temple in the Days of our Savior Described, Chapter 4
CHAP. IV. Of the two South Gates foreign The Gates of Huldah.
AS the Eaſt quarter of the encloſing wall, did face Mount Olivet, ſo did the South quarter face Ieruſalem the City it ſelfe; For take we the whole City, either built upon ſeven Hils[a]Ielammed. f…l. 52. as Tan…huma aſſerts it, or upon three, Acra, Moriah, and Sion, as it is commonly deſcribed, or adde Bezetha and Ophila if you will, the ſituation of it will be found thus, that foreign [b]Toſaph. ad Kelim.That the Mountaine of the Temple will be found lying Northward of Ieruſalem, and Sion Northward of the Mountaine of the Temple. And thus do the Jewes in their antiquities generally ſeat it, and that not without ſufficient warrant of the Scripture. For how can thoſe words of the Pſalmiſt, Beautifull for ſituation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion on the ſides of the North, Pſal: 48.2. be more properly and plainly interpreted then as Aben Ezra doth interpret them;[c]Aben. Ezr. in Pſal. 46. Sion on the North ſide of Ieruſalem? And thoſe words of Ezekiel, He ſet me upon a Mountaine, by which was the frame of a City towards the South, Ezek: 40.2. who can give them a ſenſe more genuine and proper then Kimchi hath done, when he ſaith[d]Kimch. in Ezek 4.2. The Mountaine is the Mountaine of the Temple, and this City is Ieruſalem on the South?
On this ſide therefore that faced Ieruſalem, or that looked South, there were two Gates that were called[e]Talm. in Mid. per. 1. The Gates of Huldah, and they were ſo placed, as that they were in an equall diſtance from the two Angles of the Wall, Eaſt and Weſt, and of the ſame diſtance one from another. And ſo is Ioſephus to be underſtood when he ſaith foreign [f]Ioſeph. Antiq. lib. 15. c. 14.The fourth part of the Wall was towards the South, and it had gates in the middle; that is, the gates were ſo ſet, as that there was an equall ſpace betwixt gate and gate, and betwixt either gate and the corners of the wall.
From whence theſe gates did take their name to be called The gates of Huldah, is hard to determine, whether from foreign Huldah, which ſignifieth a Weeſell, of which creature[g]Vid. Aruch. in foreign the Hebrewes write many Stories; or[h]Conſt. Lemper. in Mid. pag. 12. from the Syrian word foreign which tranſlateth the Greeke word foreign, To creep into, 2 Tim. 3.6. or from foreign This, or hither is common ground, or[i]Vid. R. Sol. in 2 Kings 22. from the Propheteſſe Huldah, who was of ſo great eſteeme in her time among the Jewes, as that they ſay[k]Avoth R. Na. han per. 34. there was never any buried within Jeruſalem, either man or woman (unleſſe of the houſe of David) but onelyonly ſhee: or from whence elſe they were denominated, it will not countervaile the labour to ſearch, nor is it very hopefull to finde.
We ſhall not need to ſpend time in deſcribing the forme, fabrick and dimenſions of theſe gates, ſince theſe and the reſt of the Gates were all ſutable to that in the Eaſt quarter which we have deſcribed before, ſaving that their Gate houſe was higher, and that they were not charactered with the picture of Shuſhan as that Gate was. Let us therefore onelyonly take the proſpect as we ſtand in either of theſe Gates before us, towards the South upon which they opened, as we did in the other toward the Eaſt.
What Streets, Houſes, Turrets, Gardens, and beauteous buildings were to be ſeen in Jeruſalem as it lay before you, may better be ſuppoſed in ſo goodly a City then deſcribed: only if you will obſerve the ſituation of it, or how it lay, you may view it ſituate thus. It lay upon the Hill Acra, which riſing in the middle, deſcended with an eaſie declining towards the Eaſt and Weſt, and with a deſcent alſo toward the North or toward the Temple. Upon the very higheſt pitch of the Hill, and from whence it had a fall either way there ſprang the ſweet and gentle fountaine Siloam, without the City, and ran to either end of the City, both Eaſt and Weſt in a contrary channell; as it made toward the Eaſt it left the Fullers field upon the right hand and ſaluted the Sheep gate on the left, and ſo turned Eaſtward and fell into the Poole called Solomons Poole, which may well be ſuppoſed to be Betheſda. As it ranne Weſtward, it coaſted along the broad wall, the Tower of the Furnaces, the valley gate, and dung gate, and after a while fell into the Poole of Siloam.