King's Dale

The King's Dale (also known as the King's Valley) is mentioned twice in Scripture. In Genesis 14:17, after Abraham's defeat of the four kings, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the King's Valley—the same location where Melchizedek king of Salem blessed Abraham and was given a tithe. The name suggests it was a valley associated with royal meetings or ceremonial gatherings, possibly near Jerusalem.

The second reference is in 2 Samuel 18:18, where Absalom during his lifetime had erected for himself a pillar in the King's Valley, saying he had no son to keep his memory alive—a poignant note given that his sons are mentioned elsewhere and the text may reflect a moment of insecurity about his legacy. This Absalom's pillar was still known in the narrator's day. Josephus identified the King's Valley with the Kidron valley, and the ancient so-called Tomb of Absalom still standing in the Kidron valley may be a later monument inspired by this tradition, though it dates to the first century BC at earliest.