Gikhon, masculine noun (Strong’s 1521). From verb giakh, meaning “to burst forth” or “gush” (Strong’s 1518).
Root: גּיחַ
Sounds like: Gee’khown / Gee’akh
Simply put, the Gihon Spring is the water source for Jerusalem. That doesn’t sound all that exciting, I realize, but considering life can’t survive without water, the Gihon Spring was of utmost importance to the city of Jerusalem and the Hebrew people.
The word Gihon (Gikhon) makes a very early appearance in the Bible. In the beginning God created a garden and the garden needed a water source:
Genesis 2:8-14
YHWH God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground YHWH God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there as well. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Gihon River flowed around Cush and Cush was the Ancient Near East name for Ethiopia, which is quite a distance from Jerusalem. But in Jerusalem it was the Gihon Spring, not the Gihon River and the reason it was called the Gihon Spring was because it was named after the verb giakh, meaning “to burst forth” or “to gush”. This powerful spring in Jerusalem was a gusher and the people called it what it was.
To Burst forth!
So let’s look at where we see this verb, giakh. Probably the most vivid image of “bursting forth” was childbirth. YHWH had a conversation with Job where he described creation as bursting forth from a womb:
Job 38:4-11
[YHWH to Job:] “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the measuring line over it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who enclosed the sea with doors when it went out from the womb, bursting forth [b-gikhow]; when I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling bands, and I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and I said, ‘As far as this point you shall come, but no farther; and here your proud waves shall stop?’”
The prophet Micah used birth imagery to describe the experience of being ripped out of your homeland and sent to into exile:
Micah 4:10
“Writhe and scream burst forth [wa-gokhi], daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth; for now you will go out of the city, live in the field, and go to Babylon. There you will be rescued, there YHWH will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.”
Just like an infant that gushes out of the womb, exile out of Jerusalem was shocking, and jarring, and scary for the Israelite people. They would feel exposed and unprotected.
In Psalm 22, King David cried out to YHWH, saying:
Psalm 22:9-11
…You are He who brought me forth [burst me: gokhi] from the womb; You made me trust when upon my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near; for there is no one to help.
David felt like an exposed infant at the mercy of his enemies, but he had a parental God who loved him, and with YHWH’s help he would be protected.
Giakh wasn’t just used in birth imagery, sometimes it was used to describe enemies that burst forth to create chaos. YHWH spoke to Ezekiel and told him to sing a song of mourning over the Pharaoh of Egypt and say to the Pharaoh the following words:
Ezekiel 32:2b
[Ezekiel to Pharaoh:] “You compared yourself to a young lion of the nations, yet you are like the monster in the seas; and you burst forth [wa-ta-gakh] in your rivers and muddied the waters with your feet and fouled their rivers.”
Pharaoh was like a sea monster that polluted the waters… a gusher of chaos. He did not bring living water, like YHWH, he brought the fouled waters of death and chaos.
Solomon Anointed
The Gihon Spring was a gusher of pure water and it was extremely valuable to the people of Jerusalem. It was a life source to them and without it, they could not stay in the city. But the Gihon Spring was more than a watering hole; it was also the place of anointing.
When David was ready to give up his throne he called on the leaders of his court (a priest, a prophet, and a military advisor) and told them to anoint his son, Solomon in the Gihon Spring:
1 Kings 1:32-40
Then King David said, “Summon to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” And they came into the king’s presence. And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon [Gikhon]. And have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, and he shall be king in my place; for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.” Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, “Amen! May YHWH, the God of my lord the king, say the same. Just as YHWH has been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!”
So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon [Gikhon]. And Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” And all the people went up after him, and the people were playing on flutes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth shook at their noise.
The Gihon Spring was the perfect place for anointing… it was a sacred place of hope and renewal that was quintessential to life and abundance.
The Redirected Gihon
With Solomon, the Kingdom grew in wealth and stature… and foreign eyes took notice of its success. Eventually, after Solomon’s reign, the Kingdom fell to civil unrest and split into two: the Northern Kingdom (often called Ephraim) and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
This weakened Israel and the Assyrians took advantage of Israel’s vulnerability. They took down the Northern kingdom and then came after Judah. The king in Judah, at the time, was Hezekiah and he knew the ferocity of the Assyrians. As they marched towards his kingdom he ordered his workers to redirect the Gihon Spring so that it was accessible only within the city walls.
2 Chronicles 32:30
It was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon [Gikhon] and directed them to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah was successful in everything that he did.
Hezekiah knew he needed to have full control over the water source so they could withstand a long-lasting siege from the Assyrians. He built a tunnel, diverted the waters of the Gihon, and created a pool to hold the water (later identified as the Pool of Siloam). The hard work paid off. They outlasted the Assyrians, and by God’s miraculous power the Assyrians were defeated and Jerusalem was saved (see 2 Kings 19:35-37).
Hezekiah has been celebrated as one of Judah’s most beloved kings and the Bible highlights his devotion to YHWH and his intelligent actions in the midst of the terrifying Assyrian invasion.
2 Kings 20:20-21
Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he constructed the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? So Hezekiah lay down with his fathers, and his son Manasseh became king in his place.
The Pool of Siloam has been identified, archaeologically, as the pool mentioned in the above passage, and today you can see that pool and the tunnels dug by Hezekiah’s builders in Jerusalem.
After Hezekiah’s death, the Assyrian’s came back and Judah, under the leadership of Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, was forced to become allies to Assyria as a vassal state. Manasseh had to pay tribute to the Assyrian king and demonstrate his allegiance. Perhaps to appease the Assyrians, Manasseh rejected his father’s devotion to YHWH and reintroduced pagan worship to the kingdom of Judah.
Although Manasseh tried to play by Assyrian rules, for some reason they were unimpressed and he was forcibly taken by the Assyrians and imprisoned in Babylon (which was also under Assyrian control at the time):
2 Chronicles 33:10-13
YHWH spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore YHWH brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains, and led him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he appeased YHWH his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, He was moved by him and heard his pleading, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that YHWH alone is God.
According to the Bible, this experience caused Manasseh to reevaluate his actions. He recognized the power of YHWH and changed his tune:
2 Chronicles 33:14-17
Now after this he [Manasseh] built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon [l-Gikhon], in the valley, up to the entrance of the Fish Gate; and he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah. He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of YHWH, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of YHWH and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of YHWH and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve YHWH God of Israel. However, the people still sacrificed on the high places, although only to YHWH their God.
In response to his redemption, Manasseh refortified the city walls to the West of the Gihon. He removed the pagan images and altars in his kingdom and reinstated YHWH worship for all the people.
Yeshua and the Pool of Siloam
The Gihon was connected to Creation as a River flowing from Eden; it was connected to life as a water source for Jerusalem, and it was connected to the place of anointing… where God’s anointed one would stand. This was sacred space!
Solomon was the first to be anointed at the Gihon Spring but Yeshua was no stranger to the Gihon Spring either. We know that one of Yeshua’s miracles took place at the Siloam Pool, which was fed by the Gihon:
John 9:1-7
As Jesus passed by, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must carry out the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” When He had said this, He spit on the ground, and made mud from the saliva, and applied the mud to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he left and washed, and came back seeing.
The man’s eyes were opened at a life source and a place of anointing… that was not a coincidence. Yeshua knew what He was doing. The Pharisees saw it too, and it made them angry. They questioned the man about Yeshua, and then they also questioned the man’s parents. Dissatisfied, they returned to the man and demanded answers:
John 9:24-33
So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind, and said to him, “Give glory to God; we know that this man is a sinner.”
He then answered, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
So they said to him, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”
He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?”
They spoke abusively to him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.”
The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is the amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes! We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”
This was not the response the Pharisees were looking for, so they turned the man away. Yeshua heard what had happened and sought the man out for His own questioning:
John 9:35-39
Jesus heard that they had put him out, and upon finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered by saying, “And who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?”
Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” A
nd he said, “I believe, Lord.” And he worshiped Him.
And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
It was the waters of the Siloam Pool, fed by the Gihon Spring, that cleared the mud out of the man’s eyes, but it was Yeshua who brought the technicolour world alive for this man. It wasn’t just seeing the world, though. This man saw the face of God in Yeshua. He saw God’s image before him and he bowed down in worship.
The Gihon and Siloam Pool, Today
Today the Siloam Pool is at the centre of an archaeological dig that is revealing its original shape to the world. A small portion of the pool was revealed in 2004, but it wasn’t until this year, with the purchase of adjacent land, that a complete excavation could occur. This will allow us to see the full extent of the place where the man cleared the mud from his eyes in order to see Yeshua, face to face.
Archaeology has also shown us that the pool was used as a giant mikveh, or ritual bath. It’s where the pilgrims who came to Jerusalem for the feast days could purify themselves before heading up the hill towards the Temple. To get a better understanding of the historical importance of the Pool of Siloam, and how it was originally discovered, check out this video presented by the City of David.
However, as lovely as it would be, we don’t need to go to the pool to see Yeshua. He has cleared the mud out of our eyes already. He is the anointed life source for us. He is the refreshing waters in a thristy land. He gives us life so we can go back to the source… back to the Garden Kingdom with the Tree of Life and the every-flowing waters, where YHWH awaits with open arms. As Yeshua said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3b). The day we go home to the Father will be a day where we will burst forth [giakh] like a new creation and celebrate with overwhelming joy. Oh, what a day that will be.
Next week: FRUITFUL
Hebrew Word Lessons 