This gate is supposed to have been somewhere at the south-east of the temple courts, and to have taken its name from the fact that through it the temple servants, the Nethinims and the Gibeonites, carried water from the dragon well into the city.
Here a huge pulpit had been erected, not such a pulpit as we find in our churches, but such an one as is to be seen in the synagogues of Jerusalem, a pulpit as large as a small room, and capable of holding a large number of persons.
The pulpit by the water-gate was a raised platform, made for the purpose.

In it stood Ezra the scribe, and beside him stood thirteen of the chief men of Jerusalem.

Meshullam was there; but one man was conspicuous by his absence.

Eliashib, the high priest, who should surely have been found taking a principal part in the solemn service of the day, was nowhere to be seen.
Before the great pulpit was gathered together an enormous crowd, men, women, and children, all those who were old enough to understand anything having been brought there, that they might listen to all that went on.
It was early in the morning, soon after sunrise, when the great company met together.

The blowing of the trumpets ceased, and there was brought out by a Levite an old roll of parchment.