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Through this mountain ravine no water runs, except after heavy rains in the mountains round about Jerusalem. Its length from its head to en-Rogel is 2 3/4 miles. Its precipitous, rocky banks are filled with ancient tombs, especially the left bank opposite the temple area. The greatest desire of the Jews is to be buried there, from the idea that the Kidron is the “valley of Jehoshaphat” mentioned in Joel 3:2.
Below en-Rogel the Kidron has no historical or sacred interest. It runs in a winding course through the wilderness of Judea to the north-western shore of the Dead Sea. Its whole length, in a straight line, is only some 20 miles, but in this space its descent is about 3,912 feet. (See KEDRON.)
Recent excavations have brought to light the fact that the old bed of the Kidron is about 40 feet lower than its present bed, and about 70 feet nearer the sanctuary wall.
•KINAH an elegy, a city in the extreme south of Judah (Joshua 15:22). It was probably not far from the Dead Sea, in the Wady Fikreh.
•KINE (Hebrews sing. parah, i.e., “fruitful”), mentioned in Pharaoh’s dream (Genesis 41: 18). Here the word denotes “buffaloes,” which fed on the reeds and sedge by the river’s brink.
•KING is in Scripture very generally used to denote one invested with authority, whether extensive or limited. There were thirty-one kings in Canaan (Joshua 12:9, 24), whom Joshua subdued. Adonibezek subdued seventy kings (Judges 1:7). In the New Testament the Roman emperor is spoken of as a king (1 Peter 2:13, 17); and Herod Antipas, who was only a tetrarch, is also called a king (Matthew 14:9; Mark 6:22).
This title is applied to God (1 Timothy 1:17), and to Christ, the Son of God (1 Timothy 6:15, 16; Matthew 27:11). The people of God are also
called “kings” (Daniel 7:22, 27; Matthew 19:28; Revelation 1:6, etc.). Death is called the “king of terrors” (Job 18:14).
Jehovah was the sole King of the Jewish nation (1 Samuel 8:7; Isaiah 33:22). But there came a time in the history of that people when a king
was demanded, that they might be like other nations (1 Samuel 8:5). The prophet Samuel remonstrated with them, but the people cried out, “Nay, but we will have a king over us.” The misconduct of Samuel’s sons was the immediate cause of this demand.
The Hebrew kings did not rule in their own right, nor in name of the people who had chosen them, but partly as servants and partly as representatives of Jehovah, the true King of Israel (1 Samuel 10:1). The limits of the king’s power were prescribed (1 Samuel 10:25). The officers of his court were, (1) the recorder or remembrancer (2 Samuel 8:16; 1