Sheep Gate

The Sheep Gate is one of the gates in the wall of Jerusalem, named in the post-exilic accounts of rebuilding and dedication and again in John's narrative as a landmark by the pool Bethzatha.

Rebuilt by the Priests

The work of rebuilding the wall opens at this gate, and it is the priests who do it. "Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even to the tower of the Hundred they sanctified it, to the tower of Hananel" (Neh 3:1). The repair-list that follows runs around the wall and closes back at the same point: "And between the ascent of the corner and the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants" (Neh 3:32).

In the Dedication Procession

When the wall is dedicated, one of the two thanksgiving choirs reaches the Sheep Gate at the climax of its route: "and above 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: and they stood still in the gate of the guard" (Neh 12:39).

Bethzatha

In Jerusalem of the gospel, the gate names a quarter of the city by which a pool stood: "Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep [gate] a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethzatha, having five porches" (John 5:2).