Gate of the Foundation
Gate of the Foundation 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 1 verse in Scripture.
Biblical History
The Gate of the Foundation appears in a single Old Testament passage, 2 Chronicles 23:5, within the account of Jehoiada the priest's coup that overthrew the usurping queen Athaliah and restored the Davidic line to the throne of Judah. Athaliah had seized power following the death of her son Ahaziah, slaughtering the royal seed, though the infant Joash was hidden by Jehosheba in the temple. After six years, Jehoiada organized the Levites and military commanders into strategic positions around the temple and palace complex to protect the young king during the coronation. He assigned a third of the Levites to the Gate of the Foundation, ensuring all entrances to the sacred precinct were guarded against Athaliah's forces. This careful disposition of forces allowed Joash to be crowned safely, after which Athaliah was seized and executed. The Gate of the Foundation thus played a crucial role in one of the most dramatic moments in Judah's history, the preservation of the Davidic covenant line from which the Messiah would ultimately descend.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The Gate of the Foundation is mentioned only in 2 Chronicles 23:5 and has not been located with certainty archaeologically. It was apparently a gate of the Jerusalem temple complex or adjacent palace precinct, given the strategic military deployment described in the surrounding narrative. The parallel account in 2 Kings 11:6 refers to a gate called Sur in the same context, and scholars have debated whether these are different gates or variant names for the same entrance. Extensive archaeological investigation of the Temple Mount area has been limited by religious sensitivities, making precise identification of gates mentioned in Chronicles difficult. The gate likely fell out of use following the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC.
Verse Appearances (1)
2Chr
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]