15 And Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David.
The town of Mizpah, located some 13 kilometres north of Jerusalem, was a district capital in Nehemiah’s time (Nehemiah 3:15, Nehemiah 3:19). This city is featured several times in the Old Testament (Judges 10:17; Judges 11:17; 1 Samuel 7:5–12; 1 Kings 15:22; 2 Kings 25:23–25). Interestingly, the record of returnees makes no mention of folk from Mizpah repatriating from Babylon to their hometown. Yet clearly men from this town came to Jerusalem to assist in its reconstruction.
7 And next to them repaired Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, the seat of the governor of the province Beyond the River.