Kidron

The Kidron (meaning turbid or dark stream) was the valley and seasonal brook running along the eastern side of Jerusalem between the city wall and the Mount of Olives, draining southward toward the Dead Sea. In summer it was dry; after winter rains it ran with dark, muddy water. The valley served as the eastern boundary of the sacred precincts of ancient Jerusalem, and crossing it carried symbolic weight in the biblical narrative.

Several defining moments of Israelite and Jewish history occurred at the Kidron: King David crossed it weeping during Absalom's rebellion; Shimei's crossing of it cost him his life by Asolomon's order; reforming kings Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah threw the implements of idolatry into the Kidron valley to defile them. On the night of his arrest, Jesus crossed the Kidron with his disciples to go to the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1)—a crossing that early Christian interpretation linked typologically to David's weeping flight. The Kidron valley is identified in Jehoshaphat's vision (Joel 3:2, 12) with the eschatological Valley of Judgment.