Nehemiah 2:13 - Exposition

The valley gate . A gate on the western or south-western side of Jerusalem, opening towards the valley of Hinnom. There are no means of fixing its exact position. It was one of those which Uzziah fortified ( 2 Chronicles 26:9 ). The dragon well . Dean Stanley suggests that "the dragon well" is the spring known generally as "the pool of Siloam," and that the legend, which describes the intermittent flow of the Siloam water as produced by the opening and closing of a dragon s mouth, had already sprung up; but the Siloam spring seems to lie too far to the eastward to suit the present passage, and is most likely represented by the "king's pool" of Nehemiah 2:14 . The dung port . "The gate outside of which lay the piles of the sweepings and offscourings of the streets" ('Stanley,' 1. s.c.); situated towards the middle of the southern wall