JERUSALEM.
Gates are often mentioned in Scripture as places at which were holden courts of justice to administer the law and determine points in dispute ; hence jxdges in the gate are spoken of (Gen. xix. ; xxiii. ro, IS ; xxxiv. 2o ; Deut. xvi. 18 ; XVii. 8 ; xxi. 19; xxv. 6, 7; Josh. xx. 4 ; Ruth iv. ; Sam.
iv. 18 ; 2 Sam. xviii. 24; xix. 8 ; Kings xxii. ro; Job xxix. 7 ; Prov. xxii. 22 ; xxiv. ; Lam. v.
14 ; Amos V. 12; Zech. viii. 16). The reason of this custom is apparent, for the gates being places of great concourse and resort, the courts held at them were of easy access to all the people ; wit nesses and auditors to all transactions were easily secured (a matter of much importance in the ab sence or scanty use of written documents); and confidence in the integrity of the magistrate was ensured by the publicity of the proceedings. There was within the gate a particular place, where the judges sat on chairs, and this custom must be un derstood as referred to when we read that courts were held under the gates, as may be proved from Kings xxii. ro ; 2 Chron. xviii. 9. Apart from the holding of courts of justice, the gate served for rea.ding the law, and for proclaiming ordinances, etc. (2 Chron. xxxii. 6 ; Neh. viii. 1, 3). We see from Prov. xxxi. 23, Lam. v. 14, that the inferior magistrates held a court in the gates, as well as the superior judges (Jer. xxxvi. To); and even kings, at least occasionally, did the same (i Kings xxii. to, comp. with Ps. cxxvii. 5). The gates at Jerusalem served the same purpose ; but for the great number of its inbabitantsmany places of justice were required. Thus we find that Nehemiah (iii.32) calls a particular gate of this city the counsel-gate, or justice-gate; which seems to have had a preference, though not exclusive, since courts must have been holden in the other gates also. After the erection of the second temple, the celebrated great Sanhedrim, indeed, assembled in the so-called conclave casura [Gazith] of the temple ; but we find that one of the Synedria of Jerusalem, consisting of twenty-three members, assembled in the east-gate, leading to the court of Israel, the other in the gate looking to the temple mount. The same custom prevails to the
present day among other Oriental nations, as in the kingdom of Morocco, where courts of justice are holden in the gate of the capital town (Dopter, Theatrunt pawarion, p. 9, sg.) Respecting the Abyssinians and inhabitants of Hindostan, we are likewise assured that they employed their gates for courts of justice. Homer (Iliad, ff.) states of the Trojans, that their elders assembled in the gates of the town to determine causes, and Virgil (zEn. i. 505) represents Dido as dispensing justice at the gates of a temple. We may refer to J. D. Jacobi's Dissert. de foro in poriis, Leipzig, 1714, where the custom of holding couits in the gates of towns is explained at large (See also Grzevius, Thesaurus Antra. 1?onlan. tom. x. p. 179.
In Palestine gates were, moreover, the places where, sometimes at least, the priests delivered their sacred addresses and discourses to the people ; and we find that the prophets often proclaimed their warnings and prophecies in the gates (Prov. i. 21 ; V111. 3; IS. XX1X. 21; Jer. xvii. 19, 2o ; xxvi. to; xxxvi. to.
Among the heathen gates were connected with sacrifices, which were offered in their immediate vicinity ; in which respect the hills near the gates are mentioned (2 Kings xxiii. 8). Acts xiv. 13, the gates of Lystra are referred to, near which sacrifice was offered; in which passage Camerarius, Dedien, and Heinsius take rtiXavas to mean the town-gate.
The gate was, further, a public place of meeting and conversation, where the people assembled in large numbers to learn the news of the day, and by various talk to while away the too tedious hours (Ps. NIX. 2). It was probably with this view that Lot sat under the gate of Sodom (Gen. xix. 1) ; which is more probable than the Jewish notion that he sat there as one of the judges of the city.