Each of these towns was fortified with high walls, double gates, and crossbars. Outside the towns there were also a great number of villages.

Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates.

Write them on your house’s doorframes and on your city’s gates.

Every third year you must bring the tenth part of your produce from that year and leave it at your city gates.

then you must bring out the man or woman who has done this evil thing to the gates of the city. Stone that person until he or she is dead.

the father and mother will take the son before the elders of that city at its gates.

you must bring both of them to the city gates there and stone them until they die—the young woman because she didn’t call for help in the city, and the man because of the fact that he humiliated his neighbor’s wife. Remove such evil from your community!

At that time Joshua made this decree: “Anyone who starts to rebuild this city of Jericho will be cursed before the Lord. Laying its foundations will cost them their oldest child. Setting up its gates will cost them their youngest child.”

When they chose new gods, then war came to the city gates. Yet there wasn’t a shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel!

To the sound of instruments at the watering places, there they repeat the Lord’s victories, his villagers’ victories in Israel. Then the Lord’s people marched down to the city gates.

The soldiers from Israel and Judah jumped up with a shout and chased the Philistines all the way to Gath and the gates of Ekron. The dead Philistines were littered along the Shaarim road all the way to Gath and Ekron.

So he changed the way he acted with them, pretending to be insane while he was with them. He scratched marks on the doors of the city gates and let spit run down his chin.

When Saul was told that David had gone to Keilah, he said, “God has handed him over to me now because he has trapped himself by entering a town with gates and bars!”

Now David was sitting between the two gates. The watchman on duty went up on the roof of the gate by the wall. He looked out and saw a man running alone.

During Ahab’s time, Hiel from Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He set up its foundations at the cost of his oldest son Abiram. He hung its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub. This fulfilled the Lord’s word spoken through Joshua, Nun’s son.

Then Josiah brought all the priests out of Judah’s cities. From Geba to Beer-sheba, he defiled the shrines where the priests had been burning incense. He also tore down the shrines at the gates at the entrance to the gate of Joshua the city’s governor, which were on the left as one entered the city gate.

David also provided a huge amount of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for the braces, so much bronze that it couldn’t be weighed,

Solomon also built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon as fortress cities with walls, gates, and crossbars;

“Let’s build up these cities,” Asa told Judah. “We’ll surround them with walls, towers, gates, and crossbars while the land is still ours, because we sought the Lord our God and he sought us and surrounded us with rest.” As a result, the people successfully completed their building projects.

This is what you must do: A third of you priests and Levites coming on sabbath duty will guard the gates,

He posted guards at the gates of the Lord’s temple so that no one who was unclean in any way could enter.

Hezekiah’s reform

Hezekiah reappointed the priests and the Levites, each to their divisions and their tasks, to make entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices, to serve, to give thanks, and to offer praise in the gates of the Lord’s camp.

The Asaphite singers also remained at their stations as ordered by David, Asaph, Heman, and the king’s seer Jeduthun, as did the guards at the various gates. They didn’t need to leave their tasks because their fellow Levites prepared food for them.

They told me, “Those in the province who survived the captivity are in great trouble and shame! The wall around Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire!”

and replied, “May the king live forever! Why shouldn’t I seem sad when the city, the place of my family’s graves, is in ruins and its gates destroyed by fire?”

May the king also issue a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, directing him to supply me with timber for the beams of the temple fortress gates, for the city wall, and for the house in which I will live.” The king gave me what I asked, for the gracious power of my God was with me.

I went out by night through the Valley Gate past the Dragon’s Spring to the Dung Gate so that I could inspect the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down, as well as its gates, which had been destroyed by fire.

So I said to them, “You see the trouble that we’re in: Jerusalem is in ruins, and its gates are destroyed by fire! Come, let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we won’t continue to be in disgrace.”

Rebuilding the gates and walls

Then Eliashib the high priest set to work with his fellow priests and built the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set up its doors, then dedicated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred and as far as the Tower of Hananel.

Nehemiah avoids his enemies

Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no gaps left in it (although I hadn’t yet hung the doors in the gates),

I said to them, “The gates of Jerusalem aren’t to be opened during the hottest time of the day. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, have them shut and bar the doors. Also, appoint guards from among those who live in Jerusalem. Station some at their watch posts and some in front of their own houses.”

The gatekeepers: Akkub, Talmon, and their associates who guarded the gates totaled 172.

Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, and Obadiah. Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers standing guard by the storerooms of the gates.

After the priests and the Levites purified themselves, they purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

So when it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I gave orders that the doors should be shut. I also ordered that they shouldn’t be reopened until after the Sabbath. To make sure that no load would come into the city on the Sabbath, I stationed some of my own men at the gates.

I also commanded the Levites to purify themselves and to come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy.

Have death’s gates been revealed to you; can you see the gates of deep darkness?

Have mercy on me, Lord! Just look how I suffer because of those who hate me. But you are the one who brings me back from the very gates of death

so I can declare all your praises, so I can rejoice in your salvation in the gates of Daughter Zion.

Mighty gates: lift up your heads! Ancient doors: rise up high! So the glorious king can enter!

Mighty gates: lift up your heads! Ancient doors: rise up high! So the glorious king can enter!

The Lord loves Zion’s gates more than all of Jacob’s houses combined.

Enter his gates with thanks; enter his courtyards with praise! Thank him! Bless his name!

They had absolutely no appetite for food; they had arrived at death’s gates.

Open the gates of righteousness for me so I can come in and give thanks to the Lord!

Now our feet are standing in your gates, Jerusalem!

Because God secures the bars on your gates, God blesses the children you have there.

Above the noisy crowd, she calls out. At the entrances of the city gates, she has her say:

Evil people will bow down before the good; wicked people are at the gates of the righteous.

Her husband is known in the city gates when he sits with the elders of the land.

Let her share in the results of her work; let her deeds praise her in the city gates.

Her gates will lament and mourn; desolate, she will sit on the ground.

On a bare mountain raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave a hand; let them enter the officials’ gates.

Open the gates and let a righteous nation enter, a nation that keeps faith.

I thought, I must depart in the prime of my life; I have been relegated to the gates of the underworld for the rest of my life.

Cyrus as God’s anointed

The Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whom I have grasped by the strong hand, to conquer nations before him, disarming kings, and opening doors before him, so no gates will be shut:

I will make your towers of rubies, and your gates of beryl, and all your walls of precious jewels.

Your gates will be open continually; day and night they won’t close, to bring to you the wealth of nations, and their kings led in procession.

Violence will no longer resound throughout your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders. You will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

Pass through, pass through the gates; prepare the way for the people! Build, build the road; clear away the stones! Raise up a signal for the peoples.

Stand near the gate of the Lord’s temple and proclaim there this message: Listen to the Lord’s word, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord.

Judah mourns; her gates wither away. The people fall to the ground in sorrow, as sobs of Jerusalem ascend.

I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the gates of their country. I will bereave and destroy my people because they haven’t changed their ways.

The Lord proclaimed to me: Go and stand by the People’s Gate where Judah’s kings go in and out, and then by all the gates of Jerusalem,

and say to them: Listen to the Lord’s word, you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah, and anyone living in Jerusalem who passes through these gates.

The Lord says: Be on guard not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or conduct business at the gates of Jerusalem.

If you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and don’t conduct business at the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, if you keep the Sabbath day holy by not working,

then through the gates of this city will come kings who occupy the throne of David and their officers, all riding on chariots and horses. They will be accompanied by the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem. And this city will always be inhabited.

But if you don’t obey me by keeping the Sabbath day holy, if you carry your loads and conduct your business at the gates of Jerusalem as usual, then I will set fire to those gates that will completely engulf the fortresses of Jerusalem; it will not be put out.

Listen to the Lord’s word, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you and your attendants, and all those who go through these gates.

If you obey this command, then through the gates of this palace will come kings who occupy the throne of David, riding on chariots and horses along with their entourage and subjects.

They will give him a donkey’s burial, dragging him outside the gates of Jerusalem and dumping him there.

Get ready to attack a nation that feels safe and secure, declares the Lord, one without barred gates that lives by itself.

Babylon’s warriors quit fighting; they hide in their fortifications. Their strength is worn out; their courage is gone! Babylon’s houses are burned down, and its gates are smashed.

The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims: Babylon’s massive walls will come down, down to the ground; and its high gates will be burned to the ground. People labor in vain; nations toil for nothing but ashes!

Zion’s roads are in mourning; no one comes to the festivals. All her gates are deserted. Her priests are groaning, her young women grieving. She is bitter.

Zion’s gates sank into the ground; he broke and shattered her bars; her king and her officials are now among the nations. There is no Instruction! Even her prophets couldn’t find a vision from the Lord.

The earth’s rulers didn’t believe it—neither did any who inhabit the world— that either enemy or adversary could enter Jerusalem’s gates.

to make hearts shudder, to make many stumble and fall. I’ve set the slaughtering sword against all their gates. Oh! It’s crafted to flash like lightning, polished for slaughter!

On his right side appeared the omen for Jerusalem: to put battering rams in place, to proclaim war and raise the alarm, to place battering rams against the gates, and to set up siege ramps and build towers.

The dust from all his horses will cover you when he enters your gates as one who enters a breached city. Your walls will quake at the thundering of the charioteers and chariot wheels.

and the pavement came up to the facades of the gates along their entire length. That was the lower pavement.

There were also gates to the inner courtyard opposite the north and east gates. When he measured from gate to gate, it was one hundred fifty feet.

They will keep charge in my sanctuary, and they will oversee the temple gates and keep charge of the temple. They will slaughter the entirely burned offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.

When they come through the gates to the inner courtyard, they will wear linen garments. They won’t wear any wool when they minister at the gates of the inner courtyard or in the temple.

The gates of the city go by the names of the tribes of Israel. There are three gates on the north side: one gate for Reuben, one gate for Judah, and one gate for Levi.

There are three gates on the east side along its 1.28 miles: one gate for Joseph, one gate for Benjamin, and one gate for Dan.

There are three gates on the south side measuring 1.28 miles: one gate for Simeon, one gate for Issachar, and one gate for Zebulun.

There are three gates on the west side along its 1.28 miles: one gate for Gad, one gate for Asher, and one gate for Naphtali.

The sword will strike wildly in their cities; it will consume the bars of their gates and will take everything because of their schemes.

I will break the fortified gates of Damascus, and eliminate the people from the Aven Valley, including the one who rules from Beth-eden; the people of Aram will be forced to live in Kir, says the Lord.

You stood nearby, strangers carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem; you too were like one of them.

The gates of the rivers are opened; the palace melts.

Look, your people are women in your midst. The gates of your land have been flung wide open to your enemies. Fire consumes the bars of your gates.

These are the things you should do: Speak the truth to each other; make truthful, just, and peaceable decisions within your gates.