Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GATE

Plan of the six-chambered Iron II gate at Gezer (10th century b.c.e.)

Iron II gate area at Tel Dan. The lower gate had two towers and four guardrooms, two on each side (Phoenix Data Systems, Neal and Joel Bierling)

An entrance to a city (1 Kgs. 22:20), a camp (Exod. 32:26), the tabernacle (27:14-16), the temple (Ezek. 40–48), or a palace (Jer. 22:1-2). In ancient Israel cities defended themselves by building thick, solid or casemate (hollow) walls around the highest and most central part of the city. The gate was basically an opening in the wall through which almost everyone passed every day to get out to their fields or to take care of business inside the walls. The opening needed to be wide and easily approachable for civil needs. However, military needs required that the gate be narrow and hard to enter because it was the most vulnerable part of the city’s defenses. Therefore, many entrances to city gates were built with steps or a right-angle turn to make it easier to defend. The gate was an elaborate structure with a roof (2 Sam. 18:24) and upper story (18:33[MT 19:1]). It was often flanked by two towers which, along with the top of the walls, could be used as strategic firing platforms for soldiers to protect the area in front of the gate. The gate included double doors which were attached to doorposts that turned in stone sockets (Judg. 16:3). When closed (at night, Josh. 2:5; and when attacked, 6:1) the doors were barred from the inside with a heavy beam or metal bar (1 Kgs. 4:13) inserted in slots in the doors. They could not be pushed in from the outside because they rested against an inner doorstop. Though often made of wood, they were vulnerable to fire (Neh. 1:3; Judg. 9:52). Consequently, they were sometimes plated with or made of metal (Ps. 107:16; Isa. 45:2).

The gate included a complex of two, four, or six rooms on both sides of the passage into the city (e.g., Megiddo). Each pair of rooms could have contained guards or soldiers to help prevent the enemy’s passage into the city. For better protection the main gate would be built inside an outer gate with a second set of city walls.

In times of peace this gate complex was the center of city life. Elders administered justice here (Deut. 21:19; Josh. 20:4; Ruth 4:1). Kings sat at the gate to meet their subjects or administer justice (2 Sam. 19:8; 1 Kgs. 22:10). Priests and prophets delivered discourses and prophecies at the gate (Neh. 8:1, 3; Jer. 17:19-20; 36:10). Merchants conducted business at or near the gates (Neh. 13:15-22), and some of the gates of Jerusalem took on the names of the commerce conducted there (Fish Gate, 2 Chr. 33:14; Sheep Gate, Neh. 3:1, 32).

The NT mentions gates infrequently. Jesus healed a paralytic near the Sheep Gate (John 5:2-9). Prayer was conducted outside the gate (Acts 16:13), and the dead were buried beyond the gates (Luke 7:12; Heb. 13:12).

The gate is a symbol of power (cf. Matt. 16:18), of defense and safety (Isa. 28:6), and to “possess the gate” is to capture the city (Gen. 22:17; 24:60). When a city was captured, the loss could be personified as the gates wailing (Isa. 14:31), lamenting and mourning (3:26), and languishing (Jer. 14:2). Perversion of justice for the righteous and needy can be done “in the gate” by corrupting the legal system (Amos 5:12; Prov. 22:22). Jesus used the image of the gate to illustrate the difficulty of entering the kingdom (Matt. 7:13-14).

See Fortress, Fortification.

James C. Moyer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GATE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)