Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EN-ROGEL

(Heb. ʿên rōgēl)

A spring near Jerusalem. An important landmark on the boundary between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (cf. Josh. 15:7; 18:16), En-rogel served as the place where Jonathan and Ahimaaz gathered information for David during Absalom’s revolt (2 Sam. 17:17). It was also where Adonijah held his sacrificial feast when he anticipated his father’s death, expecting to seize the throne.

Some have interpreted the name to mean “the spring of the fuller” or “the fountain of feet,” from the belief that here fullers worked their cloth with their feet. However, the meaning of rōgēl (also translated “spies,” “explorers,” “treaders”) is uncertain.

En-rogel is generally identified as Bir Ayyûb (“the well of Job”), ca. 210 m. (690 ft.) beyond the junction of the Kidron and the Hinnom valleys. Some object to this association on the basis that Bir Ayyûb is a well, not a spring. However, it is possible that the original spring was covered as a result of an earthquake. Josephus (Ant. 9.10.4) connects En-rogel with the earthquake in the time of Uzziah (cf. Amos 1:1; Zech. 14:5). Whether or not the present well is the location of the ancient “spring,” En-rogel was most certainly in this vicinity.

John L. Harris

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

EN-ROGEL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)