Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GIHON

(Heb. gîḥôn, giḥôn)

1. One of the four rivers that branched off of that which watered the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:13). Since the Gihon flowed through the land of Cush (usually an OT reference to a region south of Egypt, i.e., Nubia or North Sudan), it has sometimes been equated with the Nile. However, because the Tigris and Euphrates are rivers in West Asia and the Cush of Gen. 2:13 may also be there, the Gihon River may have been in West Asia rather than North Africa.

2. A spring (ʿEn Sittī Maryam/ʿAin Umm ed-Daraǵ) in the Kidron Valley that was the principal water supply for Jerusalem in OT times. The water gushes from a natural cave between one and five times daily (supplying from 7000 to 40,000 cu. ft. of water), depending on the season of the year. Solomon was anointed king at this site (1 Kgs. 1:33, 38, 45). Hezekiah blocked the waters of the spring and diverted them into a reservoir (the Pool of Siloam; cf. John 9:7, 11) by means of a tunnel that he ordered dug (2 Kgs. 20:20; 2 Chr. 32:30) to protect the water supply during the Assyrian invasion of 701 b.c. In the mid-7th century Manasseh built an outer wall to bolster Jerusalem’s defenses west of Gihon (2 Chr. 33:14).

Bibliography. Z. Abells and A. Arbit, “Some New Thoughts on Jerusalem’s Ancient Water Systems,” PEQ 127 (1995): 2-7; Y. Shiloh, Excavations at the City of David 1: 1978-1982. Qedem 19 (Jerusalem, 1984).

Stephen R. Miller

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GIHON

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)