Judges and officers in your gates
Parshat Shoftim (Dvarim 16:18) opens with the following words:
Judges and officers shall you appoint in all of your gates- which HaShem your God gives you- for your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
In Biblical days, the gate was not just the entrance to the city. It was also a place for gathering, business, defence, law and sentencing.
When Avraham bought Maarat HaMachpela (Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs) to bury Sara (Breisheet 23:18), the transaction was done “in view of the children of Chet, among all who came to the gate of his city.”
The entrance to the city was a good spot for the marketplace as this way they didn’t have to endanger the residents of the city by allowing strangers to come in.
A visitor to the city was only invited in with permission from the elders as we see in reference to the Arei Miklat, Cities of Refuge (Yehoshua 20:4):
When he flees to one of these cities, he shall stand by the entrance of the city gate and plead his case before the city elders, and then they will receive him into the city and give him a place to live among them.
The officers were careful to watch the gates so that nobody unwanted would sneak in. They also had to deal with resolving arguments and keeping order.
The king would also sit in the gates as we see in Shmuel II 19:9:
And the king (David) got up and sat by the gate. All the troops were told, “The king is now sitting at the gate.” And all the troops came before the king…
By appearing in the most public part of the city, King David showed the people that he welcomed their company.
The gates are mentioned many times throughout the TaNaCh, including in Breisheet 19:1: “The two angels came to Sdom in the evening and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sdom…” as well as in Breisheet 34:20: “Hamor- with his son Shechem- came to the gate of their city…”
The gate was where important proposals were discussed. That is why Hamor chose the gate for the meeting.
Next time you travel in Israel, keep an eye out for archeological excavations near the city gates where the judges and officers were likely to have gathered.
