THE GLORIOUS CONSUMMATION 513
former ) gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel unto the king s winepresses?
I shall not trouble my readers with topographical letails, all the more as by general confession the gates and owers here named cannot with any certainty be identified, suffice it here to say that " Benjamin s gate," which is very >robably the same as " the gate of Ephraim," mentioned in
- Kings xiv. 13, was in the north wall of the city through
/hich the road to Benjamin, and thence to Ephraim, an.
The first (or " former ") " gate," which no longer existed n Zechariah s time, since only the place where it once tood is referred to, is supposed to have been at the north- astern corner, and the " corner gate " (which is also men- ioned in 2 Kings xiv. I 3 as well as in Jer. xxxi. 38) at he north-western corner.
If these suppositions be correct, this line would describe he whole breadth of the city from east to west, while the ower of Hananel, 1 which stood at the north or north-east orner, and " the king s winepresses," which all are agreed /ere in the king s gardens south of the city, would indi- ate the northern and southern boundaries. But the chief Tiportance of these local and topographical details in this Teat prophecy is the proof which they afford that it must |e literally understood, and that it is of Jerusalem and alestine that the prophet primarily speaks, or what can the .llegorising commentators make of these physical land- ,iarks and boundaries, such as " the gate of Benjamin " nd " the corner gate " ? And in what part of the heavenly erusalem can " the tower of Hananel " and " the king s inepresses " be located ?
V. The i ith verse gives us in three brief sentences glimpse of the blessed condition of the inhabitants of erusalem, which shall be thus renewed and established.
(a) " And they shall dwell in her" that is, permanently and / peace, "nevermore to go forth from it either in captivity r in flight." 2 In the words of one of the former prophets,
1 See Jer. xxxi. 38 ; Neh. iii. I, xii. 39. * Koehler.
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