See HABITS.
GATE is often used in Scripture to denote a place of public assembly,
where justice was administered, Deut. xvii, 5, 8; xxi, 19; xxii, 15;
xxv, 6, 7, &c. One instance of these judgments appears in that given at
the gate of Bethlehem, between Boaz and a relation of Naomi, on the
subject of Ruth, chap. iv, 2; another in Abraham’s purchase of a field
to bury Sarah, Gen. xxiii, 10, 18. The gate of judgment is a term still
common to the Arabians to express a court of justice, and even
introduced by the Saracens into Spain. “I had several times,” says
Jacob, “visited the Alhambra, the ancient palace and fortress of the
Moorish kings: it is situated on the top of a hill, overlooking the
city, and is surrounded by a wall of great height and thickness. The
entrance is through an archway, over which is carved a key, the symbol
of the Mohammedan monarchs. This gate, called the gate of judgment,
according to eastern forms, was the place where the kings administered
justice.” In Morocco, the gate is still the place where judgment is
held. “All complaints,” says Host, “are brought, in the first instance,
to the cadi, or governor, who, for that purpose, passes certain hours of
the day in the gate of the city, partly for the sake of the fresh air,
and partly to see all those who go out; and, lastly, to observe a custom
which has long prevailed, of holding judgment there. The gate is
contrived accordingly, being built like a square chamber, with two
doors, which are not directly opposite to each other, but on two
adjoining sides, with seats on the other sides. In this manner David sat
between two gates,” 2 Sam. xviii, 24. Gate sometimes signifies power,
dominion, almost in the same sense as the Turkish emperor’s palace is
called the _Porte_. God promises Abraham that his posterity shall
possess the gates of their enemies, their towns, their fortresses,
Genesis xxii, 17. Jesus Christ says to Peter, “Thou art Peter; and on
this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it,” Matt. xvi, 18. This may mean either the powers of
hell, or invisible spirits; or simply death,--the church shall be
replenished by living members from generation to generation, so that
death shall never annihilate it.
Solomon says, “He that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.” The Arabs
are accustomed to ride into the houses of those they design to harass.
To prevent this, Thevenot tells us that the door of the house in which
the French merchants live at Rama was not three feet high, and that all
the doors of that town are equally low. Agreeably to this account, the
Abbé Mariti, speaking of his admission into a monastery near Jerusalem,
says, “The passage is so low, that it will scarcely admit a horse; and
it is shut by a gate of iron, strongly secured in the inside. As soon as
we entered, it was again made fast with various bolts and bars of iron:
a precaution extremely necessary in a desert place, exposed to the
incursions, and insolent attacks of the Arabs.” Mr. Drummond says, that
in the country about Roudge, in Syria, “the poor miserable Arabs are
under the necessity of hewing their houses out of the rock, and cutting
very small doors or openings to them, that they may not be made stables
for the Turkish horse, as they pass and repass.” And thus, long before
him, Sandys, at Gaza, in Palestine: “We lodged under an arch in a little
court, together with our asses; the door exceeding low, as are all that
belong unto Christians, to withstand the sudden entrance of the insolent
Turks.” “To exalt the gate,” would consequently be to court destruction.
Morier says, “A poor man’s door is scarcely three feet in height; and
this is a precautionary measure to hinder the servants of the great from
entering it on horseback; which, when any act of oppression is intended,
they would make no scruple to do. But the habitation of a man in power
is known by his gate, which is generally elevated in proportion to the
vanity of its owner. A lofty gate is one of the insignia of royalty:
such is the _Allan Capi_, at Ispahan, and _Bob Homayan_, or the _Sublime
Porte_, at Constantinople. It must have been the same in ancient days;
the gates of Jerusalem, Zion, &c, are often mentioned in the Scripture,
with the same notion of grandeur annexed to them.”
GATE is often used in Scripture to denote a place of public assembly,
where justice was administered, Deut. xvii, 5, 8; xxi, 19; xxii, 15;
xxv, 6, 7, &c. One instance of these judgments appears in that given at
the gate of Bethlehem, between Boaz and a relation of Naomi, on the
subject of Ruth, chap. iv, 2; another in Abraham’s purchase of a field
to bury Sarah, Gen. xxiii, 10, 18. The gate of judgment is a term still
common to the Arabians to express a court of justice, and even
introduced by the Saracens into Spain. “I had several times,” says
Jacob, “visited the Alhambra, the ancient palace and fortress of the
Moorish kings: it is situated on the top of a hill, overlooking the
city, and is surrounded by a wall of great height and thickness. The
entrance is through an archway, over which is carved a key, the symbol
of the Mohammedan monarchs. This gate, called the gate of judgment,
according to eastern forms, was the place where the kings administered
justice.” In Morocco, the gate is still the place where judgment is
held. “All complaints,” says Host, “are brought, in the first instance,
to the cadi, or governor, who, for that purpose, passes certain hours of
the day in the gate of the city, partly for the sake of the fresh air,
and partly to see all those who go out; and, lastly, to observe a custom
which has long prevailed, of holding judgment there. The gate is
contrived accordingly, being built like a square chamber, with two
doors, which are not directly opposite to each other, but on two
adjoining sides, with seats on the other sides. In this manner David sat
between two gates,” 2 Sam. xviii, 24. Gate sometimes signifies power,
dominion, almost in the same sense as the Turkish emperor’s palace is
called the _Porte_. God promises Abraham that his posterity shall
possess the gates of their enemies, their towns, their fortresses,
Genesis xxii, 17. Jesus Christ says to Peter, “Thou art Peter; and on
this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it,” Matt. xvi, 18. This may mean either the powers of
hell, or invisible spirits; or simply death,--the church shall be
replenished by living members from generation to generation, so that
death shall never annihilate it.
Solomon says, “He that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.” The Arabs
are accustomed to ride into the houses of those they design to harass.
To prevent this, Thevenot tells us that the door of the house in which
the French merchants live at Rama was not three feet high, and that all
the doors of that town are equally low. Agreeably to this account, the
Abbé Mariti, speaking of his admission into a monastery near Jerusalem,
says, “The passage is so low, that it will scarcely admit a horse; and
it is shut by a gate of iron, strongly secured in the inside. As soon as
we entered, it was again made fast with various bolts and bars of iron:
a precaution extremely necessary in a desert place, exposed to the
incursions, and insolent attacks of the Arabs.” Mr. Drummond says, that
in the country about Roudge, in Syria, “the poor miserable Arabs are
under the necessity of hewing their houses out of the rock, and cutting
very small doors or openings to them, that they may not be made stables
for the Turkish horse, as they pass and repass.” And thus, long before
him, Sandys, at Gaza, in Palestine: “We lodged under an arch in a little
court, together with our asses; the door exceeding low, as are all that
belong unto Christians, to withstand the sudden entrance of the insolent
Turks.” “To exalt the gate,” would consequently be to court destruction.
Morier says, “A poor man’s door is scarcely three feet in height; and
this is a precautionary measure to hinder the servants of the great from
entering it on horseback; which, when any act of oppression is intended,
they would make no scruple to do. But the habitation of a man in power
is known by his gate, which is generally elevated in proportion to the
vanity of its owner. A lofty gate is one of the insignia of royalty:
such is the _Allan Capi_, at Ispahan, and _Bob Homayan_, or the _Sublime
Porte_, at Constantinople. It must have been the same in ancient days;
the gates of Jerusalem, Zion, &c, are often mentioned in the Scripture,
with the same notion of grandeur annexed to them.”