The interpretation timeline

Neh 2:13

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Jewish · 2 Reformed · 1 Methodist · 1 Catholic · 1 Lutheran

Neh 2:13 · Douay-Rheims
“And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, and before the dragon fountain, and to the dung gate, and I viewed the wall of Jerusalem which was broken down, and the gates thereof which were consumed with fire.”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“And I went out through the Gate of the Valley I went out through that gate at night with the men who were with me toward En Hattannin and the Dung Gate in the wall of the city; and I broke the wall, and the wall was easily cast down and broken because it had been burned with fire. which were breached which are those places that were breached, and they breached them more.”
Source
666 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1771
A.D.
John Gill Reformed
1697–1771
“Then I went on to the pool of the fountain, and to the king's pool..... That led to the fountain Siloah or Gihon, so called; it was the way to the potter's field, to Bethlehem, Hebron, Gaza, and Egypt. Rauwolff says (t) there is still standing on the outside of the valley Tyropaeum (which distinguishes the two mountains Zion and Moriah) the gate of the fountain, which hath its name, because it leadeth towards the fountain of Siloah, called the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass; because of the heaps of rubbish that lay there. (t) Travels, par. 3. c. 3. p. 227.”
Source
1832
A.D.
Adam Clarke Methodist
1762–1832
“The dragon well - Perhaps so called because of the representation of a dragon, out of whose mouth the stream issued that proceeded from the well. Dung port - This was the gate on the eastern side of the city, through which the filth of the city was carried into the valley of Hinnom.”
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Valley of Cedron, on the east, (Calmet) or west, near Calvary. (Menochius) (Tirinus) — Dragon. Hebrew Tannin, or “great fish,” which might be kept there, unless the fountain was famous for the appearance of some dragon, or the water proceeded from the mouth of a brazen one. Septuagint have read thanim, “figs.” The fountain of Siloe might have many names. (Calmet) — Viewed. Septuagint, “I walked upon the wall of Jerusalem, which these men are demolishing or clearing away,” &c. (Haydock)”
Source
1871
A.D.
1871
“I went out by night by the gate of the valley--that is, the Jaffa gate, near the tower of Hippicus. even before the dragon well--that is, fountain on the opposite side of the valley. and to the dung port--the gate on the east of the city, through which there ran a common sewer to the brook Kedron and the valley of Hinnom.”
Source
1875
A.D.
Keil & Delitzsch Lutheran
1861–1875
“"And I went out by night by the valley-gate, and towards the dragon-well, and to the dung-gate." אל־פּני, in the direction towards. The dragon-well only occurs here by this name. Judging from its position between the valley-gate and the dung-gate, it is either identical with the well of Gihon (Robinson, Palestine, ii. p. 166), whose waters supply the upper and lower pools in the valley of Gihon, the present Birket el Mamilla and Birket es Sultan, or situate in its immediate neighbourhood. The valley-gate is the modern gate of the city leading to the valley of Gihon, and situated at or near the present Jaffa gate; see rem. on Neh 3:13. The dung-gate (האשׁפּת שׁער), which in Neh 3:13 also is placed next the valley-gate, and was a thousand cubits distant therefrom, must be sought for on the south-western side of Zion, where a road, to the south of Nebi Dd and the Zion gate, now descends into the valley of Hinnom, towards Sr Baher. "And I viewed the walls of Jerusalem which lay broken down, and its gates which were consumed by fire." The word שׁבר, which the lxx read, "I was breaking down," gives no tolerable sense; for it cannot mean, I broke through the walls, or, I made a path through the ruins. Many MSS, however, and several editions, offer שׂבר; and R. Norzi informs us that D. Kimchi and Aben Ezra read שׁבר. שׂבר, of which only the Piel occurs in Hebrew, answers to the Aramaean סבר, to look to something; and to the Arabic sbr, to investigate; and ב סבר means to look on, to consider, to direct the eyes and thoughts to some object. In the open מ of הם Hiller conjectures that there is a trace of another reading, perhaps מפרצים; comp. Neh 1:3.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.