_Adonijah’s Banquet at the Stone of Zoheleth._--After Absalom’s death David returned to Jerusalem. But by-and-bye he grew old and infirm, and then there were speculations and plots about the succession to the throne. Adonijah thought to gain favour by assuming royal state and showing princely generosity. He set up chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him; and he slew sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En Rogel. Abiathar the priest was at the banquet, and Joab the veteran general; all was going merrily, and the guests shouted, “God save King Adonijah!” (1 Kings i.) But news of these proceedings was carried to David at his house on Ophel. Bathsheba came in and told him what was occurring, and reminded him of his oath that Solomon her son should sit upon the throne. While the queen was yet speaking, Nathan the prophet was announced, who confirmed the story, and inquired anxiously who was to reign. Then David called for Zadok and Nathan, the priests, and Benaiah, the soldier, chief of the king’s bodyguard, to go with them as the representative of force, and indeed to take his men, and said, “Cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon (_i.e._, Siloam Pool), anoint him there, and blow the trumpet, and say, God save King Solomon. Then ye shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead.” This was done, and all the people said, “God save King Solomon!”
We shall realize these events better when we look at the position of Zoheleth, the discovery of which was one of the happy results of M. Clermont Ganneau’s investigations in 1870. Nearly in the centre of the line along which stretches the village of Siloam there exists a rocky plateau surrounded by Arab buildings, which mask its true form and extent: the western face, cut perpendicularly, slightly overhangs the valley. Steps rudely cut in the rock enable one to climb it, not without difficulty, and so to penetrate directly from the valley to the midst of the village. By this road, troublesome, and even dangerous, pass habitually the women of Siloam, who come to fill their vessels at the so-called Virgin’s Fountain. Now this passage and this ledge of rock in which it is cut are called by the fellahin, “Ez Zehweile,” which means “a slippery place,” or perhaps “the serpent stone.” This was M. Ganneau’s discovery, and he knew at once the bearings of it, in helping to fix En Rogel at the Virgin’s Fountain, and the king’s garden somewhere in its neighbourhood. Perhaps the discovery would have been made earlier, only that the village of Siloam, owing to the turbulence of its inhabitants, is almost unvisited by Europeans.