Page 1056
SECT. II. Parbar Gate, 1 Chron. XXVI. 18.
FROM the Gate Shallecheth or Coponius, that lay most North on this Western quar∣ter, let us walk toward the South, and the next Gate we come to, was called Par∣bar; of this there is mention in the Book of Chronicles in the place alledged; where the Holy Ghost relating the disposal of the Porters at the several Gates of the Mountain of the House, saith, At Parbar Westward, two at the Cawsey, and two at Parbar. By which it is apparent sufficiently, that this Gate was in the West quarter, and reasonably well apparent that it was the next Gate to the Cawsey, or Shallecheth, because it is so named with it, but by that time we have fully surveyed the situation of it, it will appear to have been so plain enough. The word Parbar, admitteth of a double constructi∣on, for it either signifies 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 An outer place, a 1.1 as many of the Jews do construe it, or it concurrs with the signification of the word Parvar, (which differs but one letter from it, and that very near, and of an easie change) which betokeneth Suburbs, both in the Hebrew Text, 2 Kings XXIII. 11. and in the Chaldee Tongue, as b 1.2 David Kim∣chi averreth there.
And here Josephus his words which we produced a little before, may be taken up again, and out of all together we may observe the situation of the Gate in mention. He saith, That of the four Gates upon this Western quarter, one led towards the Kings Palace, (that is Shallecheth that we have viewed already) and the two next, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 into the Suburbs. These Suburbs that he meaneth, were indeed that part of the City which in Scripture is called Millo, which was the valley at the West end of Mount Moriah, in which Jerusalem and Sion met and saluted each other, replenished with buildings by Da∣vid and Solomon in their times, 2 Sam. V. 9. and 1 Kings 11. 27. and taken in as part and Suburbs of Sion, and so owned always in after times.
And to this purpose is the expression of Josephus in his words that we have in hand, observable, when he saith, that two of these Western Gates were into the Suburbs, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and the other into the other City, that is, into Jerusalem, which he maketh as another City from the Suburbs of which he spake. Take the word Parbar therefore in either of the significations that have been mentioned, either for an outer place, or for the Suburbs; this Gate that we have in survey might very properly be called by that name, because it was a passage from the Temple into Millo, which was an outer place, and the Suburbs of Sion distinguished and parted from Sion by a Wall, yet a mem∣ber of it, and belonging to it.
Now whereas the other Gate that stood next to this that we are about, toward the South, did lead also into the Suburbs as well as this, as is apparent from Josephus, yet, is it not called by the same name Parbar: the reason of this may be given, because it bare a name peculiar and proper, suitable to that singular use to which it was design∣ed, or to that place where it was set, rather than suitable to that place whither it gave passage.
And here because we are in mention of the Suburbs, it may not be amiss to look a little upon that Text, that speaketh of the Suburbs, and out of which we have taken that signification of the word Parbar, namely, 2 Kings XXIII. 11. It is said there, that Josiah took away the Horses that the Kings of Judah had given to the Sun, at the entring in of the House of the Lord, by the Chamber of Nathan Melech the Chamberlain which was in the Suburbs. Whether these Horses were given to the Sun, to be sacrificed to it, or to ride on to meet and salute the Sun-rising, as the Jews suppose, we shall not trouble our selves to enquire into, it is the place that we have to look after at this time, rather than the thing.
These Stables of such Horses, (and it is like the Kings common Stables were in the same place) are said to be in the Suburbs, and at the entring in of the House of the Lord, and we cannot better allot the place, than that whereupon we are, namely that they stood here in Millo, before this Gate Parbar, or thereabout, and from thence there was a way to bring the Horses up to the Kings House, when the King would use, either those Horses that they had dedicated to the Sun for their irreligious use, or their other Horses for their common use. As they went out of Millo to rise up into Sion, they passed through a Gate which was in the Wall that parted between Millo and Sion, which Wall and Gate was but a little below the Cawsey that went up to the Gate Shallecheth: and this help∣eth to understand that passage about Athaliah's death, 2 Kings XI. 11. They laid hands on her, and she went by the way by which the Horses came into the Kings House, and there she was s••ain. That is, they got her out of the Mountain of the Temple, brought her down by the Gate Shallecheth and the Cawsey, and when she came near the Horse Gate,