the one who let sin come within those
very walls.

The priests are building from the Sheep Gate as far as the two towers,
Meah and Hananeel, which stood at the north-east corner of the city.

We pass on, and next we see a number of men building; we notice at once,
by their dress, that they are not priests, so we ask them where they
come from. We find they are men of Jericho, the city of palm trees,
fourteen miles away in the Jordan valley. They are the descendants of
the 345 men of Jericho who returned with the first detachment of Jews in
the time of Cyrus. This piece of the wall has been allotted to them
because it faces their own city Jericho; they are building at the very
spot from which the road started that led from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Passing the Jericho men we come to a bit of the wall where one solitary
man is working. His name is Zaccur. He can only have a small piece of
the wall allotted to him, for we are close now upon the Fish Gate, where
other builders are at work, the sons of Hassenaah. Possibly this Zaccur
was a man of no importance, for we never hear of him again; probably his
share of the work was only a small one, yet it was well and faithfully
done, and his name stands fast in God's honour list, and will stand
there while the world shall last.

We have come now to the Fish Gate, on the north side of the city. Close
by us is the fish-market, for through that gate comes all the fish sold
in Jerusalem. Men of Tyre are there with baskets of fish from the
Mediterranean, and Galilean fishermen with fish from the great inland
sea, on which in later times the apostles toiled for their daily bread.

Three men, who were probably well-known citizens, are repairing the
three next pieces of the wall, their names are Meremoth, Meshullam, and
Zadok. We will notice one of these three men, Meshullam, for we shall
hear more of him presently. If Meshullam's name is honourably mentioned
here as one of the builders of Jerusalem, we shall find it very
differently mentioned as we go on with Nehemiah's story.

Passing these three men, we come to a part of the wall which is being
built by the inhabitants of Tekoa, a small village not far from
Jerusalem, whence came the wise woman whom Joab sent to King David. What
is the matter at this part of the wall? The work does not get on as it
should. They seem to have no leaders, these people of Tekoa, and to have
a long stretch of wall, and but few hands to build it. We ask