During Absalom’s rebellion it was around this fountain that Jonathan and Ahimaaz secreted themselves, waiting instruction from Hushai, which was brought to them by a “wench;”[157] and years after, when the venerable David was sinking into the grave, his ungrateful son Adonijah conspired against the youthful Solomon, and was proclaimed king“by the stone Zoheleth, which is by En-Rogel.”[158]
At this well the Valley of the Kidron and the Vale of Hinnom form a conjunction, after which the valley passes between the Hill of Evil Council on the west and the Mount of Offense onthe east, pursuing its course through the wilderness of Judea to Mâr Sâba, where it takes the name of Wady en-Nâr, and thence continues southeastward to the Dead Sea. From En-Rogel the Valley of Hinnom runs due west for half a mile, when, turning abruptly northward, it extends as far as the Yâffa Gate, from which point it gently inclines westward to the Upper Pool of Gihon.
The generic name of this deep winding gorge is“The Valley of the Son of Hinnom,” so designated by Joshua as bounding Jerusalem on the south.[159] Who Hinnom was, or why this valley bears his name, are facts on which sacred and profane historians are silent. He is, however, one of those men who have left to posterity a name without a biography.
Historically this vale is divided into two sections. From En-Rogel to the southwestern spur of Mount Zion it is known in Scripture as Tophet—meaning “tabret-drum”—from the custom of beating drums to drown the cries of those children which were here burnt in sacrifice to Moloch. Here, in this deep retired glen, stood the brazen image of the idol of Ammon, with the body of a man and the head of an ox. Within the statue was a large furnace, into which, at the appointed time, and amid the wild shouts of the multitude and the beating of drums, the tender victims were thrown. First placed on the burning arms and legs of the idol, they were then caused to fall into the devouring fires within. Significantly does the name of this monster imply “Horrid King,” as here, at his shrine, were practiced the most revolting rites ever witnessed under the sun. It is to such scenes Jeremiah refers in his denunciation of the children of Judah:“They have built the high places of Tophet, which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.”[160] Revolting at such a sight, Jehovah sends the same prophet to curse the ground for man’s sake:“Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place.”[161]In less than fourteen years from the announcement of these fearful words the valley was defiled by King Josiah, who filled it with the bones of the dead, and thereby rendered it ceremonially unclean,so that no Jew could enter it.[162] But a more terrible doom awaited it, and a more literal fulfillment of prophecy was to take place.Here, where the shrine of Moloch had stood, the last struggle between the Jews and the Romans occurred,[163] and from the carnage of that bloody scene the vale received the name of “The Valley of Slaughter.” The dead were here interred till there was no room to bury others, and the historian verifies prophecy by this ghastly picture: “Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time, and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate no fewer than 115,880 dead bodies, in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, when the Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus. This was itself a prodigious multitude; and though this man was not himself set as a governor at that gate, yet was he appointed to pay the public stipend for carrying these bodies out, and so was obliged of necessity to number them, while the rest were buried by their relatives; though all their burial was this, to bring them away and cast them out of the city.After this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and that no fewer than 600,000 were thrown out of the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered.”[164]
It was in view of the detestable custom of burning human beings to Moloch in this valley, together with the perpetual fire kept burning to consume the filth from the city thrown here, that the latter Jews regarded it a fit emblem of hell, and applied the Greek name of the valley—Gehenna—to the place of future torments. The receptacle of the dead carcasses of beasts and of refuse matter, both animal and vegetable, here the worm sought its food, which, together with the perpetual fires of the vale, suggested to the Savior’s mind those solemn words,“Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”[165] And now, as if by appointment, a deep gloom hangs near this doomed spot, and the physical features of the valley reflect its horrid history. The gorge is deep and narrow, the cliffs are broken and barren, the hill on the north throws its shadow to meet below the deeper shades of thehill on the south, while the rocks are red as if scorched by eternal fires. The sides of the Hill of Evil Council, which rises from its southern side, are perforated with tombs, now the abode of shepherds and homeless wanderers.Midway up this hill is Aceldama, the “Potter’s Field,” the price of “thirty pieces of silver.”[166] Unmarked by boundaries, the field contains a gloomy vault, sixty feet square and thirty deep; over it is a long massive building of stone, with an arched roof, but open at each end, and on the bottom lay the bones of some poor stranger. Strangely inclined to invest all things connected with New Testament history with the supernatural, the monks assert that the soil of this field possesses the rare power of reducing dead bodies to a perfect mould in the brief space of twenty-four hours; and, according to early writers, the Empress Helena caused 270 ship-loads of it to be removed to Rome, where it was deposited in the Campo Santo, and where it preserved the bodies of the Romans, but consumed those of strangers dying in the Eternal City. On the summit of the hill is a small Latin chapel, standing on the legendary site of the “country house of Annas,” in which the Jews conspired against Jesus, and from their “evil council” the hill takes its name.Within the court of the chapel is the traditional olive-tree on which “Judas hanged himself.”[167] It is gnarled, pealed, and split, and is the most villainous-looking tree that ever offended human sight.
The second section of the ravine is called “The Valley of Gihon.” Running north and south, its sides and bottom are tilled, covered with patches of wheat, barley, and lentils, and dotted with olive and other fruit-trees. Situated in the broadest part of the vale, and directly opposite the Tomb of David on Mount Zion, is the Lower Pool of Gihon. It is a reservoir 600 feet long, 260 broad, and forty deep, and, when full, contains a sheet of water of more than three and a half acres in extent. Its sides are formed by the opposite hills, which have been excavated for the purpose, and the ends are inclosed with walls forty feet high. It is now dry, and the flat ledge of rocks on its eastern side is used by the peasants for a threshing-floor. Seventy-three yards to the west is Solomon’s Aqueduct, which, first running parallel with the western side of this pool, crosses the valley at its northern end, and, after winding round thebase of Zion, gradually ascends the mount, and enters the Temple inclosure at the southwest corner. It was from this aqueduct that the Lower Pool was formerly supplied with water. At the southern end of the pool there is an embankment sufficiently broad for a road, leading from the Gate of Zion to Bethlehem and Hebron. In the centre of the path is an artificial fountain, into which water was conducted from the aqueduct by means of a branch pipe, and thence distributed into troughs for the accommodation of man and beast.
LOWER POOL OF GIHON.
It was at this pool the youthful Solomon was anointed king in the room of his father David, and up the slopes of Zion he ascended,“and all the people came out after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.”[168]
From this point the Valley of the Gihon gradually ascends. Opposite the Yâffa Gate it is forty feet deep and 500 wide. Here in its ancient bed three roads meet, one leading to Bethlehem, a second to the home of Samson, a third to the “hill country of Judea.” From here the hills recede on either side, and the valley becomes broad and shallow, covered with grain and planted with olives. Seven hundred yards above the gate is the Upper Pool of Gihon. It is situated at what may be properly called the head of the valley, which spreads out into an almost level plain. Around it is the oldest Moslem cemetery in the environs of Jerusalem. Like its companion, it is a large tank, 300 feet long, 200 wide, and twenty deep, formed of hewn stones laid in cement, and coated with the same. The bottom is reached by two flights of stone steps. Near the top a stone spout projects from the northern wall, through which the waters that come down the inclined plains around it flow into the pool. As there are neither springs nor the remains of ancient conduits adjoining the reservoir, the original source of its supply is a matter of conjecture.It probably had some connection with the Fountain of Gihon, located on the same side of the city, and which was sealed by King Hezekiah when the Assyrians threatened an invasion.[169]