Gihon

Gihon is a name carried by two distinct waters in scripture. The first is one of the four rivers of Eden; the second is the spring outside Jerusalem whose waters were the city's lifeline through the monarchy and into the post-exilic period. Around the Jerusalem spring cluster three set-pieces: Solomon's anointing, Hezekiah's tunnel and pool-system, and Nehemiah's wall-circuit. Ben Sira preserves a later memory of Gihon as a figure of overflowing wisdom.

The River of Eden

In the geography of Eden, Gihon is the second of the four rivers branching from the garden's source: "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that circles the whole land of Cush" (Gen 2:13). Its companions are named in the same passage — "The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which circles the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold" (Gen 2:11), and "the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it, which goes in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates" (Gen 2:14). The Eden Gihon is set beside Cush; the other three are set beside Havilah, Assyria, and the named Euphrates.

Solomon Anointed at Gihon

The Jerusalem Gihon is the site David designates for Solomon's anointing as co-regent. The order is given to Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah: "And the king said to them, Take with you⁺ the slaves of your⁺ lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon" (1 Kgs 1:33). The procession carries it out as commanded: "So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride on king David's mule, and brought him to Gihon" (1 Kgs 1:38). The report that returns to the city celebrates the place as the site of the act: "Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon; and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you⁺ have heard" (1 Kgs 1:45).

Hezekiah's Waterworks

The largest cluster of Gihon material concerns Hezekiah's diversion of the spring inside the walls in the face of Assyrian invasion. The Chronicler reports the engineering directly: "This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works" (2 Chr 32:30). The same campaign included a wider stoppage of surface water outside the city: "So many people were gathered together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?" (2 Chr 32:4). The Kings parallel summarizes the same project: "Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?" (2 Kgs 20:20).

The conduit Hezekiah built is the same conduit named in the Assyrian confrontation. The first encounter places the Assyrian officers there: "And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field" (2 Kgs 18:17). The Isaiah parallel preserves the same setting: "And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field" (Isa 36:2). The same conduit had served as a meeting-place a generation earlier, in Ahaz's day: "Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field" (Isa 7:3).

Isaiah's later survey of the city's defensive water management lists the connected pools and the reservoir built between the walls: "And you⁺ saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you⁺ gathered together the waters of the lower pool; and you⁺ numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you⁺ broke down the houses to fortify the wall; you⁺ also made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you⁺ didn't look to him who had done this, neither had you⁺ respect to him who purposed it long ago" (Isa 22:9-11). The fortification continues under Manasseh on the same ground: "Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he surrounded Ophel [with it], and raised it up to a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah" (2 Chr 33:14).

Ben Sira looks back on the same project: "Hezekiah fortified his city By bringing water into the midst of it; And he hewed the rocks with iron, And dammed up the pool with mountains" (Sir 48:17).

Nehemiah's Circuit and the Pool of Shelah

When Nehemiah inspects the broken walls, his night-circuit reaches the same cluster of pools: "Then I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass" (Neh 2:14). The wall-rebuild at this stretch is recorded house by house, naming the gate, the pool of Shelah, and the king's garden: "And the fountain gate repaired Shallun the son of Colhozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, even to the stairs that go down from the city of David" (Neh 3:15). The next builder picks up at the city-of-David tombs and at "the pool that was made": "After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, to the place across from the tombs of David, and to the pool that was made, and to the house of the mighty men" (Neh 3:16). The Siloam pool, named in the gospels, sits in the same waterway: "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went away therefore, and washed, and came seeing" (John 9:7).

Gihon as Wisdom-Image

Ben Sira uses the four-river geography of Eden as a figure for wisdom's overflow, and Gihon takes its place beside the Nile in the closing line of the catalogue: "Which fills [men] with wisdom, like Pison, And like Tigris in the days of new [fruits]; Which overflows, like Euphrates, with understanding, And as Jordan in the days of harvest; Which pours forth, as the Nile, instruction, And as Gihon in the days of vintage" (Sir 24:25-27). The river of Eden has become a measure of seasonal abundance.