Valley Gate
1:
VALLEY GATE (PLACE) [Heb ša˓ar haggay˒ (שַׁעַר הַגַּיְא)]. A gate of Jerusalem on the W side of the City of David (2 Chr 26:9; Neh 2:13, 15 and 3:13) approximately 500 m N of the Dung Gate (Neh 3:13; Williamson 1984: 83) located at the S tip of the E hill. Earliest mention of the Valley Gate was in regard to its fortification with defensive towers by Uzziah (769–733 b.c.e., 2 Chr 26:9; Williamson 1984: 84, 87 n. 2). It was from this gate that Nehemiah departed for his inspection tour (Neh 2:13, 15), and it is universally accepted that it was from this point that the dedicatory processions began (Neh 12:31–43).
Two primary objections (surveyed by Simons 1952: 125) to the Valley Gate being located on the W slope of the City of David are: (1) the Hinnom Valley (not the Tyropoeon or Central Valley) is usually “the valley” to which the scriptures refer (Jer 2:23) and (2) the maximalist view, that Nehemiah repaired the walls around the western hill, requires that Nehemiah’s dedicatory processionals started on the western hill S of the present-day Zion Gate, which lacks archaeological support. But the increasing weight of evidence (Williamson 1984: 81–88; Avi-Yonah 1954: 244–45) again points to the W slope of the City of David as the location of the Valley Gate and more specifically to the W gate uncovered by Crowfoot and Fitzgerald in 1927–28 (1929).
Bibliography
Avigad, N. 1973. Excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, 1971. IEJ 23: 193–200.
Avi-Yonah, M. 1954. The Walls of Nehemiah—A Minimalist View. IEJ 4: 239–48.
Crowfoot, J. W., and Fitzgerald, G. M. 1929. Excavation in the Tyropoeon Valley, 1927. Palestine Exploration Fund Annual. 5: 23–26.
Simons, J. 1952. Jerusalem in the Old Testament. Leiden.
Williamson, H. G. M. 1984. Nehemiah’s Walls Revisited. PEQ 116: 81–88.
Dale C. Liid
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6:784). New York: Doubleday.
2:
VALLEY GATE Gate from which Nehemiah went out to inspect the walls of Jerusalem and by which he reentered (Neh 2:13–14). It was on the west side of the city facing the Tyropeon Valley. King Uzziah is said to have built and fortified a tower at this gate (2 Chr 26:9).
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (1284). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
3:
VALLEY GATE (Heb. sha˓ar haggay˒). An entrance at the northwestern end of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:13; 3:13; cf. 2 Chron. 26:9; 33:14), probably corresponding to the present Jaffa gate.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
