GIHON (SPRING) gī’ hŏn (גִּחֹֽון; LXX Γηων, a bursting forth). The more important of the two springs that supplied water to Jerusalem in OT times. It was Gihon that determined the original site of the city on the hill called Ophel, just W of the spring. Because it lay outside the wall of the fortified city, the pre-Israelite inhabitants cut a tunnel down through the rock of Ophel to provide protection for those drawing water when the city was under siege. It is generally thought that David’s men gained access to the city through this tunnel (2 Sam 5:6-9). The fact that Gihon was chosen as the proper place to anoint Solomon as David’s successor (1 Kings 1:33, 38, 45) may have been symbolic; just as David became master of the city at Gihon, so did Solomon. In any event, the selection of this site underscores its ceremonial as well as its strategic importance. It is hardly surprising that an aqueduct was later constructed to make the water more accessible (Isa 7:3). Some two and a half centuries after Solomon’s accession, when Sennacherib attacked Judah (2 Chron 32), Hezekiah built a new water system, constructing the famous Siloam tunnel to provide a safer means of getting Gihon’s water into the fortified area (2 Chron 32:30) and re-fortifying the wall in its vicinity (2 Chron 33:14). In postexilic times, the demand for water outgrew this supply, and the city constructed aqueducts to bring in water from farther away. Pontius Pilate either built or repaired one of these aqueducts, using Temple funds.

Bibliography G. E. Wright and F. V. Filson, The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, 2nd ed. (1956), 105; K. M. Kenyon, Jerusalem: Excavating 3000 Years of History (1967), 15, 16, 31, 69-77.