CHAP. XXXII. The Gate, and House Nitsots 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The House of Stone Vessels. (Book 32)
WE are now come to the Gate that was most East of all the three on this North∣side, and it bare the double name of a 1.1 the Gate Nitsots and b 1.2 the Gate of the Song. The word Nitsots 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 betokeneth properly sparkling, as Esa. I. 31. Ezek. I. 7, &c. and so it signifies the beams of the Sun, which as it were sparkle at his ri∣sing or going forth. But sometimes it is used by the Rabbins to signifie Drops, which are as it were the sparks of Water: and sometime as Baal Aruch observes, Froth or Foam: Now to what sense of all these to apply the name of this Gate, and to give the rea∣son of its denomination in that sense, will prove more labour than profit, though the pains be put to the best improvement. I shall leave it upon these two conjectures in the sense of Sparkling: That it was called the sparkling Gate, either because the fire or fla∣ming of the Altar shone upon it, it standing in most opposition to the Altar of all the Gates on this North side: or because the South Sun did give a great dazling light upon the gilding of this Gate, which it did by neither of the other on this North-side, the height of the Temple interposing betwixt the Sun and them: But this Gate lay clearly open to the South Sun, and so the leaves of the Gate being gilt, they gave a sparkling and dazling reflexion into the Court.
But why it is called the Gate of the Song, for ought I can find, is left also only to con∣jecture: And I shall only offer this; Because they that came in at this Gate came in the very face of the Levites as they stood in their desks singing, or playing on their Instru∣ments and making the Temple musick.
Joyning to the East-side of this Gate there was a building was called from the Gate, c 1.3 The House Nitsots, in which the Priests kept a Guard in the upper room▪ and the Le∣vites in the lower: and between this building and the Gate there was as it were a Cloi∣ster passage▪ by which passage there was a way out of the very Gate into the room be∣low where the Levites kept, and there was also a passage out of the Cloyster into the Chel 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And so is that clause in the Talmuds survey of the Temple to be understood when it saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 d 1.4 That this Gate was like a Cloi∣ster, and a Chamber was built over it, where the Priests kept Ward above, and the Levites below, and it had a Door into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel. The meaning of which passage may be con∣ceived to be this: That as you went through this Gate Nitsots out of the Court into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel upon your right hand there was not a plain Wall for the side of the Gate, as the other Gates had, but that side was open with Pillars (as the Cloister sides were of which we have spoken) and within those Pillars there was a little Cloister or Walk which was almost as long as the passage through the Gate was broad: So that when you were in the hollow of the Gate you might step in between the Pillars into this Cloi∣ster, and so into the room where the Levites kept their Guard, and over this Cloister and that room, and over the Gate, was there a place where the Priests kept their ward, and this was one of the three places where they warded: Out of the Levites room there was a door into the Chel.
These buildings ran thus from this Gate of Nitsots Eastward a pretty way, and then there joined to them another building which raught to the very corner of the Court Wall. And it was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The House of Stone: Not as if it were built of Stone and the other buildings of Wood, for the rest were of Stone also; nor as if this differed in manner of building from the rest; but because all the Vessels that were used in it were of Earth or Stone: And so the Gemara upon the Treatise Joma explaineth it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 e 1.5 Before the Temple, at the North-east corner was the Chamber of the House of Stone, and thither they put the Priest apart, that was to burn the red Cow seven days before. And it is called the House of Stone, because the work of it was in Vessels of Dung, Earth, or Stone. In which passage they do not only give the reason of the name, but they also give an evidence of the situation of this place, when they say it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Before the Temple at the North-East corner. And as for the putting of the Priest apart into this room that we are about, who was to burn the red Cow, there is the like Record in the Treatise Parah, in these words, f 1.6 Seven days before the burning