2 Samuel 15:23

15:23 All the land was weeping loudly ¹  as all these people were leaving. ²  As the king was crossing over the Kidron Valley, all the people were leaving ³  on the road that leads to the desert.

Jeremiah 31:38-40

Jerusalem Will Be Enlarged

31:38 “Indeed a time is coming,” ⁴  says the Lord, ⁵  “when the city of Jerusalem ⁶  will be rebuilt as my special city. ⁷  It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate. ⁸  31:39 The boundary line will extend beyond that, straight west from there to the Hill of Gareb and then turn southward to Goah. ⁹  31:40 The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown ¹⁰  and all the terraced fields ¹¹  out to the Kidron Valley ¹²  on the east as far north ¹³  as the Horse Gate ¹⁴  will be included within this city that is sacred to the Lord. ¹⁵  The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.”

John 18:1

Betrayal and Arrest

18:1 When he had said these things, ¹⁶  Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷  There was an orchard ¹⁸  there, and he and his disciples went into it.

[15:23]  ¹ tn Heb “with a great voice.”

[15:23]  ² tn Heb “crossing over.”

[15:23]  ³ tn Heb “crossing near the face of.”

[31:38]  ⁴ tc The words “is coming” (בָּאִים, ba’im) are not in the written text (Kethib) but are supplied in the margin (Qere), in several Hebrew mss and in the versions. It is part of the idiom that also occurs in vv. 27, 31.

[31:38]  ⁵ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[31:38]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[31:38]  ⁷ tn Heb “the city will be built to [or for] the Lord.” The words “of Jerusalem” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity. However, the word occurs in a first person speech so the translation has accommodated the switch in person as it has in a number of other places (compare also NIV, TEV, ICV).

[31:38]  ⁸ tn The word “westward” is not in the text but is supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[31:39]  ⁹ tn The words “west” and “southward” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give some orientation.

[31:40]  ¹⁰ sn It is generally agreed that this refers to the Hinnom Valley which was on the southwestern and southern side of the city. It was here where the people of Jerusalem had burned their children as sacrifices and where the Lord had said that there would be so many dead bodies when he punished them that they would be unable to bury all of them (cf. Jer 7:31-32). Reference here may be to those dead bodies and to the ashes of the cremated victims. This defiled place would be included within the holy city.

[31:40]  ¹¹ tc The translation here follows the Qere and a number of Hebrew mss in reading שְׁדֵמוֹת (shÿdemot) for the otherwise unknown word שְׁרֵמוֹת (shÿremot) exhibiting the common confusion of ר (resh) and ד (dalet). The fields of Kidron are mentioned also in 2 Kgs 23:4 as the place where Josiah burned the cult objects of Baal.

[31:40]  ¹² sn The Kidron Valley is the valley that joins the Hinnom Valley in the southeastern corner of the city and runs northward on the east side of the city.

[31:40]  ¹³ tn The words “on the east” and “north” are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to give orientation.

[31:40]  ¹⁴ sn The Horse Gate is mentioned in Neh 3:28 and is generally considered to have been located midway along the eastern wall just south of the temple area.

[31:40]  ¹⁵ tn The words “will be included within this city that is” are not in the text. The text merely says that “The whole valley…will be sacred to the Lord.” These words have been supplied in the translation because they are really implicit in the description of the whole area as being included within the new city plan, not just the Hinnom and terraced fields as far as the Kidron Valley.

[18:1]  ¹⁶ sn When he had said these things appears to be a natural transition at the end of the Farewell Discourse (the farewell speech of Jesus to his disciples in John 13:31-17:26, including the final prayer in 17:1-26). The author states that Jesus went out with his disciples, a probable reference to their leaving the upper room where the meal and discourse described in chaps. 13-17 took place (although some have seen this only as a reference to their leaving the city, with the understanding that some of the Farewell Discourse, including the concluding prayer, was given en route, cf. 14:31). They crossed the Kidron Valley and came to a garden, or olive orchard, identified in Matt 26:36 and Mark 14:32 as Gethsemane. The name is not given in Luke’s or John’s Gospel, but the garden must have been located somewhere on the lower slopes of the Mount of Olives.

[18:1]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the wadi of the Kidron,” or “the ravine of the Kidron” (a wadi is a stream that flows only during the rainy season and is dry during the dry season).

[18:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “a garden.”