Joshua 15:8

8. Valley of the son of Hinnom A long-standing and almost unanimous opinion of all explorers of the Holy Land identifies this valley with the deep and narrow ravine that bounds Jerusalem on the west and south. But Capt. Warren, of the Palestine Exploration Company, is convinced that the Hinnom is identical with the Kedron Valley, which is on the east of Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 19:2, the valley is said to be “by the entry of the east gate,” but there the Hebrew is the Charsuth, or Potter’s Gate, and the precise meaning is by no means clear. But Robinson (Bib. Res., vol. i, p.

269) says that several Arabic writers of the twelfth century call the Kedron valley Jehennam. According to Capt. Warren the border of Judah and Benjamin ran over the southern slope of the mount of Olives, “across from the rock Zoheleth in Siloam to the Virgin’s Fount, thence up the Kedron until nearly opposite the south-southeast angle of the noble sanctuary, where it crossed over the hill of Moriah at the southern side of the temple, thence up the Tyropoean Valley to the Jaffa Gate, and so on to Lifta.” But this needs confirmation, and ill agrees with what follows.

South side of the Jebusite That is, the boundary line ran south of Jerusalem, the city of the Jebusite. The Jebusite citadel, which was taken by David and called the stronghold of Zion, (2 Samuel 5:7,) is commonly supposed to have been on the modern Zion; but Capt. Warren’s topography places the boundary on the north side of the modern Zion.

The mountain that lieth before the valley of Hin-nom westward This most naturally indicates the eminence west of Jerusalem which forms the western side or wall of the upper part of what is now commonly called the Valley of Hinnom. The brow of this hill, according to Robinson, is a rocky ridge.

Which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward This is obscure. What is at the end of the valley? and is this point north of the valley, or the valley north of the point in question? We take the meaning to be, that the mountain (just mentioned) is at the northern end of the Valley of the Giants. The valley of the giants, or of Rephaim, is usually identified with the upland plain to the southwest of Jerusalem. “This plain,” says Robinson, “is broad, and descends gradually towards the southwest until it contracts in that direction into a deeper and narrower valley, called lower down Wady el-Werd, which unites further on with Wady Ahmed, and finds its way to the western plain.” So it is sufficiently enclosed with hills to be called a valley, ( emek,) and no other valley or plain so well answers the Scripture notices as this. Here the Philistines encamped when they came to war with David. 2 Samuel 5:18.]