Gates

City gates frame Scripture's civic life. They mark where wall meets road, where outsiders are received and inhabitants are screened, where elders sit, where kings hold court, where prophets are punished, where commerce is transacted, and where the tongue of judgment is exercised. From the gate the imagery widens — Sheol has gates, righteousness has gates, the heavenly Jerusalem has twelve. The single architectural feature carries the weight of a whole civic and theological vocabulary.

The Fortified Threshold

Gates are the closing act of city construction. Moses describes the conquered cities of Bashan as "fortified with high walls, gates, and bars; besides the unwalled towns a great many" (De 3:5). Joshua's curse on the rebuilder of Jericho ends with the laying of the foundation and the setting up "of the gates of it" (Jos 6:26) — the gate completes the wall. Centuries later Simon Maccabeus, restoring Judean defenses, fortifies his strongholds "with high towers, and great walls, and gates, and bars" (1Ma 13:33), and at Adiada "set up gates and bars" (1Ma 12:38). The city is not a city until the gate is hung.

When the wall is breached, the gate is named: Joash king of Israel "broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits" (2Ki 14:13; 2Ch 25:23). Conversely, restoration is itself catalogued by gate. Nehemiah's wall-builders work piece by piece — "the valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall to the dung gate" (Ne 3:13); the dwellings on Ophel face "the water gate toward the east" (Ne 3:26); the dedication procession passes "the gate of Ephraim, and by the old gate, and by the fish gate, and the tower of Hananel, and the tower of the Hundred, even to the sheep gate" before halting "in the gate of the guard" (Ne 12:39). Sirach remembers Nehemiah by exactly this work: "Who raised up our ruins, And healed our breaches, And set up gates and bars" (Sir 49:13). When the temple itself is desecrated, the desolation is described by its gates: "the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burned, and shrubs growing up in the courts" (1Ma 4:38); rededication is in the same idiom — "they renewed the gates, and the chambers, and hanged doors on them" (1Ma 4:57).

Public Square and Civic Audience

The space at the gate is the city's public square. Lot "sat in the gate of Sodom" at evening when the angels arrived (Ge 19:1). At the gate of Hebron, Ephron and Abraham conclude the purchase of the field and cave of Machpelah "in the audience of the sons of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city" (Ge 23:10), and there Abraham weighs out "four hundred shekels of silver" (Ge 23:16). At Shechem, "Hamor and Shechem his son came to the gate of their city, and communed with the men of their city" about the proposed alliance with Jacob's house (Ge 34:20). Boaz convenes the kinsman-redeemer transaction the same way: "Now Boaz went up to the gate, and sat down there" until the near kinsman passed by (Ru 4:1).

Wisdom takes her stand in the same place. She "cries in the most noisy places; At the entrance of the gates, In the city, she utters her words" (Pr 1:21); "Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, At the coming in at the doors, she cries aloud" (Pr 8:3). The gate is where Judah's mourning is publicly visible: "Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground" (Jer 14:2).

Court of Judgment

The gate is the courtroom. Moses commands, "Judges and officers you will make for yourself in all your gates, which Yahweh your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they will judge the people with righteous judgment" (De 16:18). Capital cases are heard there — the idolater is brought "to your gates" and stoned (De 17:5); the rebellious son is brought "to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place" (De 21:19); the tokens of a damsel's virginity are produced "to the elders of the city in the gate" (De 22:15). The fugitive to a city of refuge "will stand at the entrance of the gate of the city, and declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city" (Jos 20:4). Zechariah summarizes the standard: "execute the judgment of truth and peace in your⁺ gates" (Zec 8:16). To "oppress the afflicted in the gate" is to corrupt this very institution (Pr 22:22).

The throne sits at the gate. Ahab and Jehoshaphat "were sitting each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria" (1Ki 22:10). Absalom intercepts plaintiffs there: "And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate: and it was so, that, when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him" (2Sa 15:2). King Zedekiah is "then sitting in the gate of Benjamin" when Ebed-melech petitions for Jeremiah (Jer 38:7).

The gate is also where the prophet pays for his words. Pashhur "struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of Yahweh" (Jer 20:2). When Jeremiah is tried, the princes "sat in the entry of the new gate of Yahweh's [house]" (Jer 26:10). Hebrews picks up the same idiom for the death of Jesus: "Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate" (Heb 13:12).

Temple Gates

The temple has its own gate-system. Jotham "built the upper gate of the house of Yahweh" (2Ki 15:35). Ezekiel's restored temple regulates worship by gate-cycle: "The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east will be shut the six working days; but on the Sabbath day it will be opened, and on the day of the new moon it will be opened" (Eze 46:1). The gate at God's house is its own honor: "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness" (Ps 84:10). Among the last servants of the first temple were "the three keepers of the threshold" deported by Nebuzaradan (2Ki 25:18); the high priest's house in the gospels likewise has a gate-keeping female slave who confronts Peter (Jn 18:17).

Closed at Night, Guarded by Day

The gate's daily rhythm is open by day, shut by night. At Jericho, the men leave Rahab "about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark" (Jos 2:5). Nehemiah binds the gates to the Sabbath rhythm as well: "when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath: and some of my attendants I set over the gates" (Ne 13:19). The captain in 2 Kings is appointed "to have the charge of the gate" and is trodden in the gate by the people (2Ki 7:17). When Jonathan walks into Ptolemais, "those of Ptolemais shut the gates of the city, and took him" (1Ma 12:48); even pacific approach can be answered by stopped-up gates: "those who were in the city, shut themselves in, and stopped up the gates with stones" (1Ma 5:46-47).

Gates of Death

The figure shifts inward. Job is asked, "Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?" (Job 38:17). The psalmist thanks Yahweh "who lift me up from the gates of death" (Ps 9:13). Hezekiah, sick, says, "In the noontide of my days I will go into the gates of Sheol: I am deprived of the remainder of my years" (Isa 38:10). Ben Sira uses the same language for desperate prayer answered: "And I lifted up my voice from the earth, And from the gates of Sheol I cried" (Sir 51:9).

Gates of Righteousness, Gates of Heaven

The same architectural figure becomes the entrance into God's presence. Jacob at Bethel: "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Ge 28:17). The processional psalm calls the temple gates to attention: "Lift up your⁺ heads, O you⁺ gates; And be⁺ lifted up, you⁺ everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in" (Ps 24:7). The pilgrim asks: "Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will give thanks to Yah" (Ps 118:19); the answer follows: "This is the gate of Yahweh; The righteous will enter into it" (Ps 118:20). Isaiah hears the same command: "Open⁺ the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in" (Isa 26:2). And of restored Zion: "Your gates will also be open continually; they will not be shut day nor night; that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations" (Isa 60:11).

The negative image is just as pointed. Isaiah's bereft daughter Zion sits while "her gates will lament and mourn; and she will sit on the ground emptied" (Isa 3:26).

The Twelve Gates

The figure resolves in the Apocalypse. The new Jerusalem has "a wall great and high; having twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel" (Re 21:12). The arrangement is cardinal: "on the east were three gates; and on the north three gates; and on the south three gates; and on the west three gates" (Re 21:13). The fabric is jewel: "the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl" (Re 21:21). And the daily rhythm of every previous city is finally undone: "her gates will in no way be shut by day (for there will be no night there)" (Re 21:25). The gate, once the hinge between safety and danger, becomes the permanent open door.