the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Gihon
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or 1. Gi´hon, a fountain near Jerusalem. The place outside the city to which the young Solomon was taken to be anointed king, was called Gihon, but its direction is not indicated (; ). Subsequently king Hezekiah 'stopped the upper water-course [or upper out-flow of the waters] of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David' (; ). This was, perhaps, on occasion of the approach of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib, when, to prevent the besiegers from finding water, great numbers of the people labored with much diligence in stopping the water of the fountains without the city, and in particular of 'the brook that ran through the midst of the land' (). The author of the book of Sirach () also states, that 'Hezekiah brought water into the midst of the city; he dug with iron into the rock, and built fountains for the waters.' The fountain of Gihon is also mentioned by Josephus. From a comparison of these passages the editor of the Pictorial Bible (on 2 Chronicles 32) arrived at the conclusion, since confirmed by Dr. Robinson, that there existed anciently a fountain of Gihon, on the west side of the city, which was 'stopped' or covered over by Hezekiah, and its waters brought by subterraneous channels into the city. Before that time it would naturally have flowed down through the valley of Gihon, and probably formed the brook which was stopped at the same time. 'The fountain may have been stopped, and its waters thus secured very easily by digging deep and erecting over it one or more vaulted subterranean chambers.'
Gihon, 2
Gihon; The name of one of the rivers of Paradise [PARADISE].
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Gihon'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/g/gihon.html.
