Bible Strands
Nehemiah 3:13
The Valley Gate was repaired by Hanun and the residents of Zanoah. They rebuilt it, installed its doors, bolts, and bars, and repaired a thousand cubits of the wall as far as the Dung Gate.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nehemiah records the sequential reconstruction of Jerusalem’s fortifications, assigning each segment to specific communities during the post-exilic restoration. The narrator catalogs the workers’ progress as they extend the wall from the Valley Gate toward the Dung Gate.
The words — הֶחֱזִ֣יק (he.che.Zik) denotes the physical act of making good or repairing a structure, while הַ/גַּ֜יְא (ha./Gay') identifies the valley or dry riverbed where the work began.
The thread — The Valley and Dung Gates reappear in Nehemiah 2:13 during the initial inspection of the ruined walls, and Zanoah surfaces in Joshua 15:34 and 15:56 as a settled town in Judah’s territory.
Why it lands — The text demands attention to organized, measured labor and the completion of a specific thousand-cubit stretch before moving to the next section. It requires the reader to track how local communities fulfilled concrete obligations within a larger restoration project.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and a thousand cubits on the wall unto the dung gate.
Cross-references
- Nehemiah 2:13 So I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Well of the Serpent and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and the gates that had been destroyed by fire.
- Joshua 15:34 Zanoah, En-gannim, Tappuah, Enam,
- Joshua 15:56 Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah,
- 1 Chronicles 4:18 These were the children of Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah. Mered also took a Judean wife, who gave birth to Jered the father of Gedor, Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah.
- 2 Chronicles 26:9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the angle in the wall, and he fortified them.
- Nehemiah 11:30 Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages; in Lachish and its fields; and in Azekah and its villages. So they settled from Beersheba all the way to the Valley of Hinnom.