Nehemiah 3:32

‘And between the ascent of the corner and the sheep gate repaired the goldsmiths and the merchants.'

In Nehemiah 3:1 the description of the building works had commenced with the building of the Sheep Gate in the northern wall by the priests. Now the final section of the building work, that between the north east corner and the Sheep Gate, is described. This involved the activity of the goldsmiths and the merchants, probably because they had a thriving religious market in that area connected with the Temple. Thus the goldsmiths and merchants worked on the wall side by side with the priests (Nehemiah 3:1). It was an indication of the unity of purpose of all God's people, both spiritual and secular, as they worked together on the wall.

But it is also a vivid reminder of how Temple worship and purity was always in danger of becoming mixed up with, and polluted by, secular greed, something which had clearly been in Zechariah's mind in Zechariah 14:21, where some decades previously he had declared that in the coming age ‘there shall no more be a trafficker in the house of YHWH of Hosts'. It was a theme which Jesus took up when He ‘cleansed' the Temple and declared, ‘do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise' (John 2:16). This was what they were in grave danger doing. It can also become a great danger for us.