Bible Dictionary
GARDEN, THE KING'S
The King’s Garden was near Jerusalem’s Pool of Shelah or Siloah, by the Fountain Gate and the city walls. Zedekiah fled through the area when Jerusalem fell.
Definition
The King’s Garden was a garden near Jerusalem, associated with the Pool of Siloah or Shelah and the Fountain Gate. It was located near the city wall and the passage between two walls.
Biblical Usage
Zedekiah fled from Jerusalem through the area of the King’s Garden when the city was captured. Nehemiah places the garden near the Pool of Siloah and the Fountain Gate.
Historical Background
The garden lay at the mouth of the Tyropeon, near the southern part of Jerusalem. It has also been suggested that it was the garden of Uzza, though this identification is not certain.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>Mention is made of "the king's garden" in 2Ki 25:4; Jer 39:4; 52:7 (fundamentally the same passage), in connection with the flight of Zedekiah from Jerusalem; and again in Ne 3:15. The last passage shows that the "garden" was at the pool of Siloah (the Revised Version (British and American) "Shelah"), at the mouth of Tyropeon, near the "fountain gate." This would seem to be "the gate between the two walls which was by the king's garden" of the passages in 2Ki and Jer (compare 2Ch 32:5). On the topography, see JERUSALEM; also Robinson, Palestine, II, 142. Arnold (in Herzog) thinks the garden is probably identical with "the garden of Uzza" of 2Ki 21:18,26.</p><p>James Orr</p>