Nehemiah 2:14

Neh 2:14 Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but [there was] no place for the beast [that was] under me to pass.

Ver. 14. Then I went to the gate of the fountain] Or well-gate; where was great plenty of water ponds, watering places, &c. Junius saith it was that whereby men went out to the pool of Siloah and Rogel.

And to the king’s pool] The water course made, or repaired, at least, by King Hezekiah, 2Ki 20:20.

But there was no place for the beast, &c.] There was so much rubbish, and such ruins. This was the fruit of sin, which makes of a city a heap, as the prophet speaks, and hurls such confusion over the world, that had not Christ, our true Nehemiah, undertaken the shattered condition thereof to uphold it, it had surely fallen about Adam’s ears.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neh 2:14-16. I went on to the gate of the fountain — That is, which led to the fountain, to wit, of Siloah or Gihon. And to the king’s pool — That which King Hezekiah had made, of which see 2Ch 32:3-30. But there was no place for the beast, &c. — The way being obstructed with heaps of rubbish. Then went I up by the brook — Of Kidron, of which see on 2Sa 15:23. And so returned — Having gone around about the city. Nor to the rest that did the work — Or were to do it, that is, whom he intended to employ in it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:14 The King’s Pool was either the pool of Siloam or another pool southeast of the city; both were created from the overflow of the Gihon Spring (see 2 Kgs 20:20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, conduit.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Then--that is, after having passed through the gate of the Essenes.

I went on to the gate of the fountain--that is, Siloah, from which turning round the fount of Ophel.

to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass--that is, by the sides of this pool (Solomon's) there being water in the pool, and too much rubbish about it to permit the passage of the beast.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. The gate of the fountain] Of Siloah.

The king's pool] Probably the aqueduct made by Hezekiah, to bring the waters of Gihon to the city of David. See 2Ch 32:30.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(14) The gate of the fountain of Siloah (Neh_3:15), called also “the king’s pool.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. I went on] Literally ‘I crossed’ or ‘passed over.’

to the gate of the fountain] R.V. to the fountain gate. On the disputed identification of ‘the fountain gate,’ see Neh_3:15, Neh_12:37. It seems to have stood almost at the southernmost part of the city, at the mouth of the narrow valley of the Tyropoeon. It derived its name either from its proximity to the waters of ‘the only real well at Jerusalem,’ now known as Bîr Eyub, ‘the well of Job’ (probably En-Rogel) ‘a little below the junction of the Kidron and Hinnom valleys’ (Wilson’s Jerusalem, p. 104), or from its proximity to Siloam, called by Josephus ‘a fountain’ (πηγή) in Bell. Jud. v. 4. 1.

the king’s pool] Probably to be identified with the Pool of Siloam, and here called ‘the king’s pool’ because it adjoined ‘the king’s garden.’ It consisted of an upper and a lower reservoir (Isa_7:3; Isa_22:9; Isa_22:11; 2Ki_18:17) fed by a subterranean conduit from the waters of Gihon (cf. 2Ki_20:20).

there was no place] Apparently owing to the ruins of the walls and the steepness of the slope Nehemiah could not continue his investigation, following the line of the wall.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then went I up in the night by the brook,.... The brook Kidron:

and viewed the wall; that was on that side:

and turned back; did not go quite round the wall, the way perhaps being obstructed with rubbish, and was unpassable or he had not time to do it:

and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned; into the city, the same way he went out of it, Neh 2:13.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The gate of the fountain - A gate on the eastern side of the Tyropoeon valley, not far from the pool of Siloam (probably “the king’s pool.” (Compare Neh 3:15).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Aqueduct, or reservoir, made by Ezechias, 2 Paralipomenon xxxii. 30.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The gate of the fountain, i.e. which led to the fountain, to wit, of Siloah or Gibon.

The king’s pool; that which king Hezekiah had made: of which see 2Ch 32:3,30.

There was no place for the beast to pass; the way being obstructed with heaps of rubbish.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Gate of the fountain — This was doubtless the gate situated at the mouth of the Tyropoeon, and near the fountain, or pool of Siloam. It is to be identified with “the gate between two walls,” (2Ki_25:4,) by which king Zedekiah fled from the city.

The king’s pool — Probably that now commonly known as the fountain of the Virgin, a little north of the pool of Siloam, and connected with it by a subterranean passage. By many this is now believed to be the same as the Bethesda of the New Testament. Joh_5:2.

No place for the beast… to pass — So filled had the narrow valley become with the rubbish of the long desolate city.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The gate of the fountain. A gate near the pool of Siloam; (which, though bearing that name in Neh_3:15, seems to be here called "the king"s pool perhaps the "gate between two walls of 2Ki_25:4. There was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. The accumulated rubbish blocked the way. The animal could not proceed. Nehemiah therefore dismounted, and "in the night, dark as it was, pursued his way on foot.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

No place - The way being obstructed with heaps of rubbish.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"And I went on to the fountain-gate, and to the king's pool, and there was no room for the beast to come through under me." The very name of the fountain-or well-gate points to the foundation of Siloah (see rem. on Neh 3:15); hence it lay on the eastern declivity of Zion, but not in the district or neighbourhood of the present Bb el Mogharibeh, in which tradition finds the ancient dung-gate, but much farther south, in the neighbourhood of the pool of Siloah; see rem. on Neh 3:15. The King's pool is probably the same which Josephus (bell. Jud. v. 4. 2) calls Σολομῶνος κολυμβήθρα, and places east of the spring of Siloah, and which is supposed by Robinson (Palestine, ii. pp. 149, 159) and Thenius (das vorexil. Jerus., appendix to a commentary on the books of the Kings, p. 20) to be the present Fountain of the Virgin. Bertheau, however, on the other hand, rightly objects that the Fountain of the Virgin lying deep in the rock, and now reached by a descent of thirty steps, could not properly be designated a pool. He tries rather to identify the King's pool with the outlet of a canal investigated by Tobler (Topogr. i. p. 91f.), which the latter regards as a conduit for rain-water, fluid impurities, or even the blood of sacrificed animals; but Bertheau as an aqueduct which, perhaps at the place where its entrance is now found, once filled a pool, of which, indeed, no trace has as yet been discovered. But apart from the difficulty of calling the outlet of a canal a pool (Arnold in Herzog's Realencycl. xviii. p. 656), the circumstance, that Tobler could find in neither of the above-described canals any trace of high antiquity, tells against this conjecture. Much more may be said in favour of the view of E. G. Schultz (Jerusalem, p. 58f.), that the half-choked-up pool near Ain Silwan may be the King's pool and Solomon's pool; for travellers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries mention a piscina grandis foras and natatoria Silo at the mouth of the fountain of Siloah (comp. Leyrer in Herzog's Realencycl. xvi. p. 372). See also rem. on Neh 3:15. Here there was no room for the beast to get through, the road being choked up with the ruins of the walls that had been destroyed, so that Nehemiah was obliged to dismount.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

And I passed to the Fountain Gate And I wished to pass to those places in the wall of the city and in those breaches, and there was no place in those breaches for riders on animals to pass through because they were so small.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.