The Water Gate was one of the access points on Jerusalem’s eastern wall, near the spring of Gihon, the city’s main water source in ancient times.
The text of Nehemiah suggests that this stretch of the wall, near the gate, did not need new door frames like other points on the wall, perhaps because it stood next to a tower that projected there and near the spring.
More than the structure itself, the place became known for the open square in front of the gate. It was there that the people of Israel, recently returned from the Babylonian exile, gathered as one man to ask the scribe Ezra to read the Book of the Law of Moses.
Ezra read aloud from daybreak until noon, while the Levites moved among the people explaining the meaning of the text. The people’s reaction was first weeping and then great joy, one of the most striking moments of spiritual renewal in the Old Testament.
In the same square, days later, the people set up shelters made of branches to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, obeying what they had rediscovered in the Law. Later, at the solemn dedication of the rebuilt wall, one of the choirs of thanksgiving passed by there.
The Water Gate reminds us that the Word of God can be read and heard in a public square, and that true joy comes from knowing and obeying what God has spoken.
