Page:Buried cities and Bible countries (1891).djvu/284

 Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, continues working northward "unto the pool that was made" (berekah, probably the "king's pool" of ii. 14, and the "reservoir between two walls" of Isaiah xxii.). He goes on "unto the house of the mighty men." If this is the house of the king's body-guard, the men of war mentioned in 2 Kings xxv. 4, we shall find that they are conveniently placed about mid-way between the armoury and the king's house.

In the remaining short space on the west side of the Tyropœon we have no less than four bands of workers, indicating that the destruction had been very great, as indeed Nehemiah found it to be when there was no possibility of his beast getting along; and the next indication of locality is in

Verse 19, "the turning" of the wall, "over against the ascent to the armoury." The armoury, therefore, was in or near the north-eastern angle of the suburb.

Verse 20. We are now carried from "the turning" of the wall by the armoury, southward, "unto the door of the house of Eliashib, the high priest;" and we are not surprised to find his house here, for we are close alongside the Temple courts. The workers come unto the door of Eliashib's house, which thus seems to project westward, so as to be quite near to the line of wall; but they only come over against the less important houses which follow.

Verse 24. The sixth worker down this side comes to "the turning" of the wall and "unto the corner." The turning is not the same as the corner; the Hebrew language uses different words for a re-entering and a salient angle. Each of the two turnings at the causeway (vv. 19, 20) is called a miqtzoa (= a re-entering angle); but now, in v. 24, they come to a miqtzoa and to a pinneh (= a projecting angle). It is to be observed that we should not have such angles at this part but for the vacant square which Warren's examination of the masonry compelled him to leave—the