Glad-U-See

After their captivity in Babylon, a remnant of Judah returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple and the wall, under the supervision of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra recorded that the Temple edifice was completed in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the Persian, in Ezr 6:15. However, the previous verse said that the Temple construction extended into the reign of the succeeding king, the second Artaxerxes (Ezr 6:14). There appears to be a contradiction until we understand that the Wall of Jerusalem is part of the Temple. It was during the reign of the second Artaxerxes that the wall was finished and the Temple was considered complete (Neh 6:15).

The length of time from preparing the foundation of the Temple (Hag 1:14-15; Ezr 3) until the wall of the City was completed (Neh 6:15) was 46 years (Joh 2:20).

The wall of Jerusalem is an integral part of the Temple:

1Kin 3:1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh King of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his Palace, and the House of YHVH and the Wall of Jerusalem round about the city.

Psalm 51:18-19 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the Walls of Jerusalem, then shalt thou be pleased with a slaughter of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Mic 3:12 Therefore shall Mount Zion for your sake be plowed as a field (even Jerusalem shall become heaps), and the Mountain of the Temple (the Ophel) shall be as funeral mounds in the forest.

The 7 mountains that make up the region of Moriah are: Nob, Mount of Olives, Mount of Offense, the Rock, the Southwestern Hill, the Southeastern Hill or Mount Zion, and the Ophel, 2Chr 27:3; Gen 22:2; Rev 17:9; Psa 125:2.

Lam 2:7-8 Adonai hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his Sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the Walls of her Citadels, that is they have made a noise in the Temple of YHVH, as in the day of a solemn feast. YHVH hath purposed to destroy the Wall of the daughter of Zion; he hath stretched out a line; he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying; therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Dan 9:25-26a Know and understand this: from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Leader (Isa 55:3-4) will be 7 weeks and 62 weeks. During the 7 weeks, Jerusalem will be rebuilt, with a Place and a mound of roughly hewn stones for a Wall (Deu 12:5; Ezr 6:12-15), but in difficult times. Then, after the 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing for himself. The people of the coming leader will make into ruins: the City, the Wall, and the Place.

Keep in mind that the legions that destroyed Jerusalem were Roman citizens, but not necessarily Italian; see Act 22:25-28. The Roman legion, Legio X Fretensis was made up of units from Thrace and the Seleucid territories. The "coming leader" arises out of these territories, namely the former Greek Empire. He will not operate within a so called one-planet government or from a revived Roman Empire, but within a confederated Middle East, Dan 8:5,8-11).

Dan 9:26b-27 The end will come with a flood, that is, until the end there will be war; desolations are decreed. He will make succeed a covenant with many nations (Psa 83) for one week. In the middle of the week he will put a stop to slaughtered animals and meal-offerings. The abomination of desolation will be upon a wing of the actual temple site until the decreed destruction is poured out on the desolator.

Luke 19:41-44 And when Yeshua was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, if you Jerusalem had known, at least in this day, the things which belong to Jerusalem’s Shalom! But now Shalom is hid from Jerusalem’s eyes because the days shall come upon Jerusalem, that Jerusalem’s enemies shall cast a trench about Jerusalem, and compass Jerusalem round, and keep Jerusalem in on every side, and shall raze Jerusalem, and Jerusalem’s children within; and they shall not leave in Jerusalem one stone upon another. Instead, Jerusalem was unaware of this opportunity, when it was offered.

Mat 24:1-2 And Yeshua went out, and departed from the Temple. And his students came to him for to show him the buildings of the Temple. And Yeshua said unto them, see ye not all these? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.

The wall that surrounded the city of Jerusalem was part of the Temple. Think of the Wall as the pericardium (the pericardium is the fluid filled sac that surrounds the heart), the City as the arteries and veins, and the Temple as the heart. If the Temple were to be destroyed, then the Wall and City must be destroyed (compare Joh 2:18-22; Joh 19:34 & Joh 20:27). Today, there is a site that has several stones of a wall, “one stone upon another”. Consequently, this site cannot be part of the original city nor the location of the original Temple.

What structure was at this site? It was Fort Antonia:

Josephus - The Wars of the Jews VII 1, 1: Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other work to be done) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus (named after Herod's brother), and Hippicus (named after a friend of Herod), and Mariamne (named after Herod's wife); and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. This wall was spared, in order to continue to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison (Fort Antonia), as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.

Josephus - The Wars of the Jews VII 8, 7: And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? The great city is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing but that monument of it preserved, I mean the camp (Fort Antonia) of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins; some unfortunate old men also lie upon the ashes of the temple, and a few women are there preserved alive by the enemy, for our bitter shame and reproach.