He is horrified to find that all manner of fruit and all kinds of food are being bought and sold, as on any other day of the week.

Wine, and oil, and merchandise of all kinds is being bargained for, and the streets are filled with the noisy cries and shouts of the sellers and purchasers.
Going on to the Fish Gate, Nehemiah finds that a colony of heathen Tyrians have come to live there, in order that they may hold a fish-market close to the gate.

The fish was caught by their fellow-countrymen in Tyre and Sidon, and was sent down to Jerusalem slightly salted, in order to preserve it from corruption.

Nehemiah finds that these Tyrians are doing a grand traffic in salted fish, especially on the Sabbath day.

The Jews loved fish, and always have loved it.