The Gate Between Two Walls: Our First Discovery

In II Kings 25:4 we find, "And the City was broken-up and all the men of war fled by the way of the gate between the two walls, which is by the King's garden. [Now the Chaldees were surrounding the city round about.] And the king [Zedekiah] went [out] by the way of the plain [Aravah]. And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains [Aravah] of Jericho...."

The text states that there is a gate between the two walls. People usually build gates within a single wall. Therefore, we must ask the question; how can people build a gate between two walls? There have been endless commentaries and explanations to address this problematic text. Bible scholars sometimes have a penchant for finding the most profound and complicated way to explain a simple statement in the Scriptures. If one, however, seeks the simplest explanation of the text, he will discover the most profound answers. The late Dr. James Grey said: "A great Bible teacher is not one that can express simple truths in great words, but rather one who can express great truths in simple words."

The simplest explanation can be found in the historical biblical information available. The Babylonian army had surrounded Jerusalem and was breaking down the walls. The only escape route was through this cavern. Therefore, a gate should be found between the two walls of the cavern.

(Because of his renal problems, Gershom was a pint-sized 50-pound load of nitroglycerin. His strength and agility were unbelievable. He could kick off his shoes and scale a two-story brick building. He looked like a human fly. No one of normal stature could have managed to worm his way into that niche and still have room to pick up and pitch out the rock chips, in order to open that maw-craw-closed rock gullet.)

On the ninth day of the fourth month in the year 3338 [June 29th], Zedekiah and his men of war fled through this gate. The year in which Gershom and I discovered the gate was 5728 [1967]. This means that we may have been the first to pass through this gate in 2390 years.

However, the Ark of the G-d, which had been in the Tabernacle, was now in the Holy of Holies in the House of G-d, directly above the quarry under Mount Moriah.

In the year 3323, on the command of Jeremiah, King Josiah removed the Ark of G-d and the Incense Altar from the Temple and hid them in the Tabernacle resting in the Genizah that was originally Solomon's Quarry. That same year, Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and, by a truce, put Israel to tribute. Babylonian soldiers occupied the land and took all its produce.

Nine years later, in the year 3331, G-d revealed to Jeremiah that he should command those who were with him to remove the entire Tabernacle from the Genizah under the Temple Mount and hide it away, far from the city. This is recorded in II Maccabees 2:2-6.

Jeremiah's five colleagues, Shimur HaLevi, Zedekiyahu, Yizkiyahu, Haggai the Prophet and Zachariyah, the son of Iddu the Prophet, were in command of 300 priests and Levites "without number." They removed all the treasures of the Tabernacle from the Genizah under Moriah, and carried them through almost 19 miles of the natural cavern, to a place near the cave's exit in the Valley of 'Achor.