Below En-Rogel the Kidron has little of his torical or sacred interest. It runs in a winding course east by south, through the Wilderness of Judxa, to the Dead Sea. For about a mile below En-Rogel the bottom of the valley is cultivated and thickly covered with olive trees. Farther down a few fields of corn are met with at intervals, but these soon disappear, and the ravine assumes the bleak and desolate aspect of the surrounding hills. About seven miles from Jerusalem the features of the valley assume a much wilder and grander form. Hitherto the banks have been steep, with here 3.nd there a high precipice, and a jutting cliff, giving variety to the scene. Now they suddenly contract to precipices of naked rock nearly 3oo feet in height, which look as if the mountain had becn torn asunder by an earthquake. About a mile far ther, on the side of this frightful chasm, stands the convent of St. Saba, one of the most remarkable buildings in Palestine, founded by the saint whose name it bears, in the year A.D. 439 (see Handbook, p. 2o4 ; Ritter, ii. 6o8, seq.) The sides of the chasm both above and belovv. the convent are filled with caves and grottos, once the abode of monks and hermits ; and from these doubtless this section of the valley has got its modern name, Waa'y er R a he b, Monk's Valley' (Wolcott, Researches in Pal., in Biblical Cabinet, vol. xliii. p. 38). Below Mar Saba the valley is called Wady en-Nar, Valley of Fire'—a name descriptive of its aspect, for so bare and scorched is it, that it seems as if it had participated in the doom of Sodom. It runs on, a deep, narrow, wild chasm, until it breaks through the lofty line of cliffs at Ras el-Feshkhah on the shore of the Dead Sea (Hana'boak,i. 245;
Robinson, B. R., i. 531).
R will thus be seen that the head of the Kidron is just on the verge of the water-shed of the moun tain-chain of Judah, about 2600 feet above the sea. Its length, as the crow flies, is only twenty miles, and yet in this short space it bas a descent of no less than 3912 feet—the Dead Sea having a depres sion of 1312 feet (cf. Van de Velde, Memoir, pp. 179, 182 ; Ritter, /. c.) Various opinions have been formed regarding the origin of the name Kidron. Some derive it from the root 17p, to be black' (Gesenius, Thesaurus; Stanley, S. and P.); but they are not agreed as to the cause of this name. It may arise from the gloominess of the glen, or from the turbid' stream ; or from the blood and refuse of the temple sacrifices running into it (Reland, p. 294). Others think that it was so called from Cedar trees which grew in it. This is founded on the reading in the Text. Rec. of John xviii. TWV KeSpWv, which would seem to be the gen. pl. of 42 Kgpos, a cedar-tree' (Lightfoot, Opera, ii. 667). There can be no doubt, however, that KeSpctiv is just the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew irrip. it is not so easy to account for the raw if it be genuine. It is important to note, however, that some of the best MSS. have 1-00, a reading which Lachmann adopts. The Cad. Sinait. has TOV Keopou.
It was doubtless the Kidron valley which was in the mind of the prophet Ezekiel when he described the vision of the holy and healing waters flowing from the temple through the desert into the sea 11 (xlvii. 8 ; cf. Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. 32 ; Stanley, S. and P., 2SS).—J. L. P.