129. The Seat of Justice

The Seat of Justice

(1 Samuel 4:18) The gates being used as the place of judgment, a seat in the gate became a seat of honor and authority. The aged Eli (who had "judged Israel forty years") was sitting in the gate when the messenger arrived with the news that the ark of God was taken by the Philistines; and we are told that both Mordecai and Daniel sat in the king’s gate, an expression which denotes the authority that was vested in them.

We learn also from Scripture that the husband of a virtuous woman was "known in the gates," when he sat "among the elders of the land" (Proverbs 31:23). It is related of the Persians, that when one of their great men build a palace it is the custom to feast the king and his grandees in it for several days. "Then the great gate of it is open: but when these festivities are over they shut it up, never more to be opened." The custom is one of great antiquity, and may, perhaps, be alluded to in the passage, "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. It is for the prince" (Ezekiel 44:2-3).