At the south-east corner of Jerusalem, near the termination of the Kedron, lies the valley of Hinnom, where once sacrifices were offered to Moloch on Tophet. They bent their course around the Water-gate and went through this valley which lies on the southern side, along the aqueduct of Siloah, which had been erected by Solomon. They came first to the lower pool, then to the remains of a noble garden, and at last, opposite to the south-west side of the city to the upper pool, near which was the highly-prized fountain of Siloah, which Manasseh, on his return, had connected with the city by means of a well. Isaiah describes the waters of Siloah as “flowing softly.”[3]
This is the holy spot where the wisest king of Israel was anointed. David, then grey with years, said, “Set Solomon my son on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon (so this fountain was then called) and let Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, anoint him there king over Israel. So Zadok and Nathan, and Benaiah and the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down thither, and Zadok took a horn of oil out of the sanctuary and anointed Solomon, and they blew the trumpet, and all the people came up after him piping and rejoicing, so that the earth was rent with their sound.”[4]
“It was not without reason,” said Elisama, “that I brought thee hither to-day. As the king is the anointed of a people, so is the priest of a family. For thy own sake I led thee to the valley of Jehoshaphat; it shall serve as an omen to myself that I have brought thee hither.”
They were both silent. Passing by the Fuller’s Field,[5] as it was called from ancient times, and bending round the western side of the city, by the ruins of the aqueduct of Hezekiah, they entered the valley of Siloah. Between the gate of the Fountain and the gate of the Valley they saw the tower of Zion, formerly called the tower of the Jebusites,[6] and now the city of David, rising in the midst of the Higher City which had been built around it. The Higher and Lower City were separated by a valley, which was called the Tyropœon (valley of the cheese-makers.) They entered by the gate of the Valley and thus reached again the house of Iddo, in the Higher City, and in the Broad-street.