Kidron

The brook Kidron runs through a valley just east of Jerusalem. Kings used it as a place to get rid of idols. Asa burned his mother’s idol there, and Josiah stamped an altar’s remains “small to powder” and cast it into the same valley (2 Kings 23). Solomon, in 1 Kings 2, told Shimei that crossing it would cost him his life. And on the night he was betrayed, Jesus “went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron,” as John 18 begins. Read John 18 to see the valley in its best-known scene.

6 verses

1 Kings

1 Kings 2:37

For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.

1 Kings 15:13

And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.

2 Kings

2 Kings 23:6

And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.

2 Kings 23:12

And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 2:15

Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.

John

John 18:1

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

= Kedron = Cedron, turbid, the winter torrent which flows through the Valley of Jehoshaphat, on the eastern side of Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives. This valley is known in Scripture only by the name “the brook Kidron.” David crossed this brook bare-foot and weeping, when fleeing from Absalom (2 Sam. 15:23, 30), and it was frequently crossed by our Lord in his journeyings to and fro (John 18:1). Here Asa burned the obscene idols of his mother (1 Kings 15:13), and here Athaliah was executed (2 Kings 11:16). It afterwards became the receptacle for all manner of impurities (2 Chr. 29:16; 30:14); and in the time of Josiah this valley was the common cemetery of the city (2 Kings 23:6; comp. Jer. 26:23).

Read the full entry

Through this mountain ravine no water runs, except after heavy rains in the mountains round about Jerusalem. Its length from its head to en-Rogel is 2 3/4 miles. Its precipitous, rocky banks are filled with ancient tombs, especially the left bank opposite the temple area. The greatest desire of the Jews is to be buried there, from the idea that the Kidron is the “valley of Jehoshaphat” mentioned in Joel 3:2.

Below en-Rogel the Kidron has no historical or sacred interest. It runs in a winding course through the wilderness of Judea to the north-western shore of the Dead Sea. Its whole length, in a straight line, is only some 20 miles, but in this space its descent is about 3,912 feet. (See KEDRON.)

Recent excavations have brought to light the fact that the old bed of the Kidron is about 40 feet lower than its present bed, and about 70 feet nearer the sanctuary wall.

From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(turbid), The brook, a torrent or valley, not a "brook," or, as in the margin of Revised Version, "ravine;" Gr. winter torrent. It was close to Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives. it is now commonly known as the "valley of Jehoshaphat." The channel of the valley of Jehoshaphat is nothing more than the dry bed of a wintry torrent, bearing marks of being occasionally swept over by a large volume of water. It was crossed by David in his flight, (2 Samuel 15:23) comp. 2Sam 15:30 And by our Lord on his way to Gethsemane. (John 18:1) comp. Mark 14:26; Luke 22:39 The distinguishing peculiarity of the Kidron valley --mentioned in the Old Testament-- is the impurity which appears to have been ascribed to it. In the time of Josiah it was the common cemetery of the city. (2 Kings 23:6) comp. Jere 26:23