Ophel

Ophel was a part of Jerusalem, and the Bible mostly mentions it when walls were being built. Of Jotham it says, “on the wall of Ophel he built much” (2 Chronicles 27:3). Later Manasseh “compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height” (33:14). In Nehemiah 3, after the exile, the Nethinims dwell in Ophel and the Tekoites repair a piece of wall “unto the wall of Ophel.” Nehemiah 3 reads like a roll call of the people rebuilding their city.

4 verses

2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 27:3

He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and on the wall of Ophel he built much.

2 Chronicles 33:14

Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 3:26

Moreover the Nethinims dwelt in Ophel, unto the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lieth out.

Nehemiah 3:27

After them the Tekoites repaired another piece, over against the great tower that lieth out, even unto the wall of Ophel.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Hill; mound, the long, narrow, rounded promontory on the southern slope of the temple hill, between the Tyropoeon and the Kedron valley (2 Chr. 27:3; 33:14; Neh. 3:26, 27). It was surrounded by a separate wall, and was occupied by the Nethinim after the Captivity. This wall has been discovered by the engineers of the Palestine Exploration Fund at the south-eastern angle of the temple area. It is 4 feet below the present surface. In 2 Kings 5:24 this word is translated “tower” (R.V., “hill”), denoting probably some eminence near Elisha’s house.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(hill), a part of ancient Jerusalem. Ophel was the swelling declivity by which the mount of the temple slopes on its southern side into the valley of Hinnom--a long, narrowish rounded spur or promontory, which intervenes between the mouth of the central valley of Jerusalem (the Tyropoeon) and the Kidron, or valley of Jehoshaphat. Halfway down it on its eastern face is the ("Fount of the Virgin," so called; and at its foot the lower outlet of the same spring--the Pool of Siloam. In (2 Chronicles 27:3) Jotham is said to have built much "on the wall of Ophel." Manasseh, among his other defensive works, "compassed about Ophel." Ibid. (2 Chronicles 33:14) It appears to have been near the "water-gate," (Nehemiah 3:26) and the "great tower that lieth out." ver. (Nehemiah 3:27) It was evidently the residence of the Levites. (Nehemiah 11:21)