Dung Gate
Dung Gate is a structure mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Jerusalem. It appears across 4 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
The Dung Gate was one of the principal gates in Jerusalem's city wall, located on the southwestern side of the city near the Hinnom Valley, and it served the practical function implied by its name, the removal of refuse, ash, and waste from the city. It appears prominently in Nehemiah's account of the wall's reconstruction (Nehemiah 2:13; 3:13–14; 12:31), where Nehemiah passes by it during his nocturnal inspection and where Malchijah son of Rechab is specifically named as the supervisor of its repair. The gate was situated near the southwestern corner of the city, adjacent to the Pool of Siloam and overlooking the Hinnom Valley, which historically served as Jerusalem's refuse dump. In Nehemiah 12:31, the Dung Gate marks one of two starting points for the great procession of thanksgiving companies that walked the restored wall to dedicate it, a moment of profound communal worship celebrating the completion of the rebuilding project. The gate's utilitarian purpose and its prominence in Nehemiah's narrative both serve to illustrate a central theme of the book: that faithful, practical work in unglamorous circumstances is a form of service to God and to his people.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The Dung Gate of Nehemiah's Jerusalem is generally located by scholars near the modern Dung Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, situated at the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount enclosure. Archaeological work in the City of David and the areas south of the Temple Mount, particularly excavations conducted by Benjamin Mazar and later Eilat Mazar, have revealed significant Iron Age and Persian period remains that illuminate the general topography Nehemiah describes. The southwestern hill of Jerusalem in the Iron Age II period was enclosed by walls whose foundations have been partially traced. The adjacent Hinnom Valley shows evidence of use as a refuse and burial area from the Iron Age onward, consistent with the gate's name and function.
Verse Appearances (4)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]