KING'S GARDEN

gan-ha-melekh): In Nehemiah 3:15, mention is made of "the pool of Shelah by the king's garden"; in 2 Kings 25:4 Jeremiah 52:7, "All the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden"; see also Jeremiah 39:4. The "king's winepresses" (Zechariah 14:10), which must have been to the extreme South of the city, were clearly in this neighborhood. The references all point to the one situation in Jerusalem where it is possible for gardens to flourish all the year round, namely, the part of the Kidron valley below the Tyropoeon which is watered by the overflow from the Pool of Siloam (see SILOAM). Here the vegetable gardens of the peasants of Siloam present an aspect of green freshness unknown elsewhere in Jerusalem.

E. W. G. Masterman