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King's Vale

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( עמק־המּכך , ‛ēmeḳ ha - melekh ; Septuagint in Gen reads tó pedı́on ("the plain") basiléos , in 2 Sam, hē koilás ("valley") toú basiléōs ; the King James Version King's Dale): The place where the king of Sodom met Abram ( Genesis 14:17 ), and the situation of Absalom's monument (2 Samuel 18:18 ). It was identical with the Vale of Shaveh, and was evidently near Salem, the city of Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17 ). If SALEM (which see) is Jerusalem, then Absalom's pillar was also near that city, Josephus writes (Ant. , VII, x, 3), "Absalom had erected for himself a marble pillar in the king's dale, two furlongs (stadia) from Jerusalem, which he named Absalom's Hand." In all probability this "pillar" was a rough upright stone - a maccēbhāh - but its site is lost. The traditional Greek-Egyptian tomb of perhaps 100-200 years BC which has been hewn out of the rock on the eastern side of the Kidron valley is manifestly misnamed "Absalom's pillar," and the Kidron ravine (naḥal ) cannot be the King's Vale (‛ēmeḳ ).