how this
is, and we find that some in Tekoa have shirked the work (ver. 5):

'Their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.'

They have been like oxen, too idle to draw the plough, which have pulled
their necks from under the yoke, and have stubbornly refused to go
forward. So have these nobles of Tekoa stood aloof, too proud to work
side by side with the common people of the village, or too idle to join
in anything which requires continuous effort; they have left their
poorer neighbours to bear the burden alone, and to do it or not as they
please.

We are now passing the Old Gate, on the north of the city, the Damascus
Gate of modern days, from which goes the great northern road to Samaria
and Galilee.

The men of Gibeon and Mizpah, whose villages lay near together, we find
next on the wall, working side by side as neighbours should, and
building the part of the wall which faced their own homes, two villages
standing on the hills about five miles from the northern gate.

Coming round the city we find ourselves passing the Gate of Ephraim and
the Broad Wall. Here we see no workmen, for that part of the wall does
not need repairing. Uzziah, King of Judah, had built a strong piece of
wall here, about 200 yards long, and the Chaldeans had not been able to
destroy it with the rest of the city. This wall was twice the thickness
of the rest, and was always called the Broad Wall.

Near this wall we find men of two different trades working, goldsmiths
and apothecaries. Trades in the East are almost always hereditary,
passing down from father to son for many generations. Thus these
goldsmiths and apothecaries were joined together in family guilds or
unions, and came forward together to the work. The apothecaries were the
spice makers, important persons in the East, where spices are so largely
used in cooking, and where so many sweet-smelling and aromatic spices
are employed in embalming the dead.

Then, passing on, we see the tower which protected the furnaces or brick
kilns, in which the bricks were made which had been used in rebuilding
the houses of the city. So unsettled was the country, that it is
supposed it was found necessary to erect a tower for the defence of
these brick-makers, who were often at work by night as well as by day.
Close to the furnace tower we see a strange sight, and one which is well
worthy of our notice. This part of the wall deserves our earnest
attention, for here are actually