MIPHKAD (; R. V. HAMMIPHKAD):

Name of a gate mentioned in connection with the repair of the wall of Jerusalem by Nehemiah (Neh. iii. 31). It seems that this gate was not in the wall of Jerusalem, but that the part of the wall facing it was to the east, between the Horse Gate and the Sheep Gate. Indeed, it is not mentioned among the gates of Jerusalem in Neh. xii. 31 et seq. The word designates in Ezek. xliii. 21 the place near the Temple where the sin-offering was burned, and it seems to mean "an appointed place," to which the name of this gate may refer. But, while the Septuagint renders by πήλη τοῦ Μαφεκάδ, Jerome translates it by "porta judicialis," which induces Lightfoot ("Horæ Hebraicæ," ii. 27) to suggest that it may refer either to the hall of judgment in the Prætorium or to the east gate of the Temple. Barclay ("City of the Great King," p. 156), however, identifies the gate Miphkad with the "high gate of Benjamin" (Jer. xx. 2), locating it at the west end of the bridge which crosses the Tyropæon.

S. M. Sel.
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