And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord.
All Commentaries on Nehemiah 3:5 Go To Nehemiah 3
Bede
AD 735
He gives the name Fish Gate to the gate that faced Joppa and Diospolis (i.e., Lydda). It was nearest to the sea of all of Jerusalem’s roads; today it is said to be called the Gate of David and is the first of the gates to the west of Mount Zion. This view appears to be borne out in Chronicles, in which it is written about Manasseh king of Judah: “After this he built a wall outside the City of David, to the west of Gihon in the valley, from the entrance of the Gate of the Fish in a circuit as far as Ophel, and he erected it much higher.” Typologically, however, just as a flock stands for the Lord’s faithful, so in the same way they are frequently called fish. Thus, just as he says to Peter, “Feed my sheep,” so too he promises Peter together with Andrew and the rest of the apostles, “Come, follow me, and I will make you become fishers of people.” In a parable he likewise says about these same fishermen, “They collected the good fish in baskets but threw the bad away.” Therefore, the Fish Gate is built in Jerusalem when those orders are established in the church through which the elect, separated from the reprobate like good fish from the bad, may be brought into the fellowship of perpetual peace; and the Fish Gate is built when they rescue their neighbors, who observe them, from the waves of worldly agitation and desire and introduce them to the tranquility and peace of the spiritual life.
