In ancient Israel, gates served as more than just an entrance to enter a city. Like in the ancient city of Dan, they were places where prophets shouted out, monarchs rendered judgment, and people gathered.

According to the Genesis text, "Lot was sitting in the gates of Sodom." The phrase "in the gates" may seem strange to modern ears, but in biblical times, a gate (or "gates") was more than just an entrance in or out of the city's protective wall. It was often a large, intricate structure with a gap in between two gates that served as the first and second lines of defense.
The Bible refers to the area between those two gates as being "in the gates," which can either be a narrow corridor with concealed guardrooms or a larger courtyard. Within that gate area, there was a lot of activity. According to biblical allusions and archaeological findings, that location once served as a town hall, temporary court, marketplace, park bench, and Hyde Park Corner.

In nonliterate communities, witnesses

Agreements were verbally sealed in the presence of witnesses at the city gate, where people regularly passed by. This practice was necessary in the time before written contracts were commonplace.

The Hebrew patriarch Abraham negotiated the purchase of the Cave of Machpelah as a mausoleum for his wife Sarah sometime in the second millennium B.C.E. near Hebron, south of Jerusalem: And "it passed to Abraham as a possession in the presence of those who walked in through the gate of his city" (Genesis 23). The deal was completed when the agreement was witnessed.
Several decades later, in the gate of the nearby city of Bethlehem of Judah, the Hebrew Bible records another negotiation. A particular Boaz desired to use his kinship privilege to wed Ruth, the young Moabite widow of a relative.
However, Boaz was not first in line, and the marriage could only take place if a different male relative who was higher up the family tree publicly forfeited his right to refuse. Boaz seated 10 city elders at the gate after taking their "hands." When Boaz was satisfied with how the conversation between the two kinsmen had turned out, he turned to the audience and said, "Today you are witnesses. The elders and everyone else present at the gate then declared, "We are witnesses" (Ruth 4).
An ancient stone bench with seating for exactly ten persons can be found at Tel Dan, the location of the biblical city of Dan, which lies halfway across the world.

Justice at the door

The Israelite prophets of old, the tenacious social reformers of their time, used the city's gate as a pulpit. Amos said, "Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate."

According to the adage, justice must not only be done, but also be perceived as having been done. The city gate was the only location in the ancient Israelites' city where openness was assured.

Although it was a remarkably progressive legal system for its time, it appears that official corruption was not fully prevented. Amos scathingly observed, seemingly in reference to himself, "They loathe the one who reproves in the gate," and he railed against those "who afflict the righteous, who demand a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate" (Amos 5).

Israelite entrance at Dan

In northern Israel, close to the Lebanese border, on a massive 70-acre mound called Tel Dan, there is a well-preserved example of a city gate. The late Dr. Avraham Biran of Hebrew Union College excavated the site for many years, revealing an outstanding Israelite city-gate complex.

Biran assigned the early 9th century B.C.E., or King Ahab's reign, as the date for the Israelite gate.

A cobblestone approach way climbs to the outer gate from the outside of the city. The courtyard, which is beyond the door jambs, threshold, and door stop, has an inner gate comparable to the first one on its far side. There seems to have been higher-story buildings overlooking the city's weak entrance, which were likely a part of its fortifications.

Another intriguing element of the Israelite gate at Tel Dan is a raised square platform with two stairs leading up to it. The platform's corners include round, ornate stone receptacles that may have been used to accommodate a canopy's poles.

Scholars are inclined to believe that the platform served as the base of the king's seat in the city gate, even if it is likely that it served a cultic purpose. Next to it is an unadorned "standing stone," which is frequently thought of as an abstract representation of a deity. He may use this location to render judgment or merely to display his magnificence.

Unusually for the time, the Israelite king would walk out and interact with his subjects, practically acting as a constitutional monarch in an era of absolutism.

A notable Canaanite-era gate, one of the oldest of its sort remaining surviving in the world, can be seen in ancient Dan as well:
"In the gate" is King David.

Although it did not occur in Dan, a fascinating biblical illustration of this royal phenomenon is Absalom's uprising against King David in the early 10th century B.C.E.

After Absalom's initial victory, David was compelled to cross the Jordan River and seek safety at Mahanaim. At the height of the uprising, David's army defeated the loyalist and rebel troops in a battle in the woodland of Ephraim.

Awaiting word from the front lines, the king "was sitting between the two gates" of the city (perhaps Mahanaim). A runner informs him that the triumph is achieved, but Absalom has passed away. The king was deeply touched and went up to the apartment over the gate to weep.

According to the Bible, David's army was disheartened and their victory "changed into sadness." The king was fiercely confronted by Joab, David's commander, who chastised him for giving in to his personal grief and neglecting his troops and forewarned him of calamity if he didn't exercise his royal authority once more.

The king then rose and seated himself in the gate. All of the troops gathered in front of the king after being informed that he was sitting in the gate (2 Sam 18 & 19). After the restoration of allegiance, the rest is history, as they say.