#jerusalem wall

Nehemiah Dedicates the Wall

27 Now at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the Levites in all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to celebrate the dedication with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing, with cymbals and stringed instruments and harps. 28 And the sons of the singers gathered together from the countryside around Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites, 29 from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built themselves villages all around Jerusalem. 30 Then the priests and Levites purified themselves, and purified the people, the gates, and the wall.

31 So I brought the leaders of Judah up on the wall, and appointed two large thanksgiving choirs. One went to the right hand on the wall toward the Refuse Gate. 32 After them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah, 33 and Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam, 34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, Jeremiah, 35 and some of the priests’ sons with trumpets—Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph, 36 and his brethren, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. And Ezra the scribe went before them. 37 By the Fountain Gate, in front of them, they went up the stairs of the City of David, on the stairway of the wall, beyond the house of David, as far as the Water Gate eastward.

38 The other thanksgiving choir went the opposite way, and I was behind them with half of the people on the wall, going past the Tower of the Ovens as far as the Broad Wall, 39 and above the Gate of Ephraim, above the Old Gate, above the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel, the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Sheep Gate; and they stopped by the Gate of the Prison.

40 So the two thanksgiving choirs stood in the house of God, likewise I and the half of the rulers with me; 41 and the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Minjamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets; 42 also Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. The singers sang loudly with Jezrahiah the director.

43 Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and the children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.

Temple Responsibilities

44 And at the same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions specified by the Law for the priests and Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered. 45 Both the singers and the gatekeepers kept the charge of their God and the charge of the purification, according to the command of David and Solomon his son. 46 For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chiefs of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47 In the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, a portion for each day. They also consecrated holy things for the Levites, and the Levites consecrated them for the children of Aaron. — Nehemiah 12:27-47 | New King James Version (NKJV) The Holy Bible; New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Cross References: Numbers 1:8; Numbers 18:21; Deuteronomy 18:8; Deuteronomy 20:5; 1 Kings 8:63; 2 Kings 7:10; 2 Kings 14:13; 1 Chronicles 6:40; 1 Chronicles 9:16; 1 Chronicles 9:33; 1 Chronicles 25:1; 2 Chronicles 8:14; 2 Chronicles 29:30; Ezra 3:11; Nehemiah 2:13-14; Nehemiah 13:4-5; Nehemiah 3:8; Nehemiah 3:11; Nehemiah 3:15; Nehemiah 3:26; Nehemiah 11:23; Nehemiah 13:10; Nehemiah 13:22; Nehemiah 13:30; Psalm 9:2; Psalm 92:4; Psalm 137:4; John 5:2

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Nehemiah’s Wall – Water Gate to Meshullam’s Dwelling

NETHINIM: WATER GATE TOWARD THE EAST NEHEMIAH 3:26     Following Pedaiah (Jah Has Ransomed) were the Nethinim of Ophel. The Nethinim were Temple Servants, formerly known as Gibeonites. As mentioned in verse seven, the Gibeonites dressed as though they were from a very far land. They came to Israel and Joshua and tricked them into making a treaty with them. Joshua and his men thought what could…

A piece of Jerusalem wall falls

A rock of 100 kilos fell from several meters high, forcing the city to close a part of the place, the most sacred to Judaism. The heavy stone fell on the Esplanade in a mixed zone next to the Wall, where men and women can pray without separation. It almost crushes a person.

By Karin Laub, AP, Jan 16, 2013 JERUSALEM (AP)--Dozens of apartment towers sprouting up illicitly in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem are creating a fraught new dynamic in the struggle for control of the sacred city at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Kufr Aqab is one of several Arab areas within Jerusalem's municipal borders that have been separated from the city by the meandering barrier Israel has built to wall off the West Bank.

While Israel tightly controls development anywhere inside the barrier, anything seems to go in Arab neighborhoods outside the structure, like Kufr Aqab.

Palestinians believe Israel is turning a blind eye to the hundreds of cheap wildcat apartments being built there, hoping the abundant housing will lure the city's Arabs to the other side of the barrier. They fear Israel will one day make the barrier the new municipal line to cement a Jewish majority in the city, whose eastern part, including the Old City with its major religious shrines, the Palestinians claim as a future capital.

"They want to empty Jerusalem of Arabs," said Ayoub Burkan, one of the newcomers in Kufr Aqab.

The 45-year-old driving instructor said he couldn't afford to buy in his old neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, close to the Old City, and moved to Kufr Aqab, where apartments cost 75 percent less. Israeli restrictions on Arab construction in the city have produced a drastic housing shortage and priced most Palestinians out of the housing market there.

Since Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has built a ring of settlements to tighten its grip on the area. These settlements, which Israel calls neighborhoods, are now home to nearly 200,000 Jews, compared to 300,000 Palestinians in east Jerusalem. In all, Jerusalem has just over 800,000 residents.

The mini-Manhattan going up helter-skelter on Jerusalem's northern edge is just the most visible sign of a chain reaction of Arab migration triggered by the barrier.

Kufr Aqab started out as a West Bank hamlet, but became part of Jerusalem after Israel captured the eastern sector of the city and the West Bank from Jordan. It extended the city's boundaries eastward into the West Bank, tripling Jerusalem's size in an annexation that is not internationally recognized. Israel included Kufr Aqab, some nine kilometers (six miles) from the city center, because it wanted to add a nearby airfield to Jerusalem's territory, historians say.

In 2002, Israel began building the barrier, portraying it as a temporary defense against Palestinian militants who had killed hundreds of Israelis in an armed uprising.

City officials say the route of the Jerusalem segment, which keeps an estimated 80,000 Palestinians in Kufr Aqab and the Shuafat refugee camp on the West Bank side, was drawn up according to security considerations. However, Haim Ramon, at one point a government minister for Jerusalem affairs, later acknowledged the barrier was also meant to ensure a Jewish majority in the city.

By 2005, the barrier in northern Jerusalem was finished and Kufr Aqab residents now had to endure long waits at barrier checkpoints to reach jobs and schools in their city.

Initially, many Arab city residents moved to areas inside the barrier to avoid such hardships. But this drove up already high housing prices in east Jerusalem.

Moving to cheaper West Bank suburbs was a dangerous option. Leaving Jerusalem's city limits would put them at risk of being stripped by Israel of their Jerusalem residency permits, which grant them freedom of movement and access to Israel's health care and social services.

Suddenly, Kufr Aqab became an attractive option again. After the barrier was built, city building inspectors stopped coming to Kufr Aqab, residents said. Contractors responding to a huge demand began building densely packed apartment towers--a jarring sight in generally low-rise Jerusalem.

These days, Kufr Aqab's main road, which leads from the Jerusalem barrier's Qalandiya crossing to the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian self-rule government, is lined with high-rises, many still under construction.

There are no firm population figures because of the neighborhood's administrative limbo, but estimates range from 40,000 to 60,000. In all, about 120,000 of Jerusalem's 300,000 Arabs live outside the barrier, estimates Ahmad Sublaban of Ir Amim, a group that promotes an equitable solution for Jerusalem.

There are barely any signs of an Israeli presence in Kufr Aqab, except for a clinic linked to Israel's health care service and a city-funded community center. An Israeli army marker near Kufr Aqab, spraypainted in Hebrew on a large cement block, reads "Entrance to Ramallah," a warning to errant Israelis that they should turn back at this point.