Gihon Spring

Biblical Text

The Gihon Spring lay directly below the City of David, the ancient core of Jerusalem. It appears in three episodes in Scripture.

• Solomon's accession: In 1 Kings 1, when Adonijah tries to make himself king, David commands his servants to "cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon" to anoint him (1 Kings 1:33). Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon at Gihon, and the sound of the people's great rejoicing reached Adonijah and his party as they feasted at En-rogel (1 Kings 1:38–45).
• Hezekiah's conduit: 2 Chronicles 32 records that Hezekiah, preparing for the Assyrian invasion, stopped the springs outside the city (2 Chronicles 32:3–4), and that he "stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David" (2 Chronicles 32:30). Second Kings 20:20 likewise reports that Hezekiah "made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city," but the name Gihon does not appear there.
• Manasseh's wall: Manasseh "built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley" (2 Chronicles 33:14).

Background

The name Gihon is generally understood to be related to a Hebrew word meaning "to gush forth." The spring is known for flowing not steadily but intermittently, in surges. Because Jerusalem stood on high ground, this spring close to the city was effectively its only perennial water source. Protecting it in wartime was therefore directly tied to the city's survival.

A rock-cut tunnel believed to be Hezekiah's conduit still survives. It runs from the Gihon Spring toward the Pool of Siloam and is reported to be about 530 meters long. In the late nineteenth century a Hebrew inscription (the Siloam Inscription) was discovered inside the tunnel, describing how workers digging from both ends met. The view that the tunnel was constructed during Hezekiah's reign in the late eighth century BC is widely accepted, though scholars differ on its dating and on how it was built.

The River of Eden of the Same Name

Genesis 2:13 names Gihon as the second of the four rivers that branch out from the Garden of Eden, stating that it "compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia" (Hebrew: Cush). This river and Jerusalem's Gihon Spring share only a name; in the text they are distinct places. Some interpreters link the two and read Jerusalem as a restoration of Eden, but this connection is drawn by interpreters rather than stated directly by the text.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

The waters of Gihon are thought to have flowed through Hezekiah's conduit into the Pool of Siloam. The scene in John 9 in which Jesus tells a man blind from birth, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (John 9:7), is thus indirectly connected to the Gihon Spring. Some interpreters also explain the river whose streams "make glad the city of God" (Psalm 46:4), the waters flowing from the temple (Ezekiel 47), and the "living waters" that "go out from Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:8) in light of the imagery of the Gihon Spring. These passages, however, do not mention Gihon by name.

Interpretations and Debates

• Some have identified the "gutter" (water shaft) mentioned in connection with David's attack on the Jebusite city (2 Samuel 5:8) with a vertical shaft connected to the Gihon Spring. Later excavations, however, have raised doubts about whether this shaft was actually used, and the question remains debated.
• Many scholars regard "the conduit of the upper pool" in Isaiah 7:3 and "the waters of Shiloah that go softly" in Isaiah 8:6 as channels fed by the Gihon Spring, but this is not settled.
• Explanations of why Solomon was anointed at Gihon often add that it was a water source where people could easily gather. The text itself, however, gives no reason.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, the Gihon Spring is mentioned mainly in sermons on Hezekiah's response to crisis or on Solomon's accession. Israel pilgrimage itineraries frequently include a walk through the City of David archaeological site and Hezekiah's Tunnel, making the spring a familiar place to pilgrims.