Biblical Insights, Geographical Parables Part 6: The Brook Kidron, A Portrait of Hell
Introduction
The Brook Kidron is a relatively insignificant geographical feature that runs south between the eastern wall of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives and begins near the Garden of Gethsemane. While topographically it does not appear to be very significant, it nonetheless has great Biblical significance as this study will show. The Brook Kidron is another example of a Geographical Parable that God provides in the Bible. A Geographical Parable is a real “earthly” physical place, which serves to represent a real “spiritual” place and convey a “spiritual” meaning.
The Brook Kidron is mentioned several times in the Bible, but, in each case, it provides us with a consistent theme. The theme is that the Brook Kidron is used by God in the Bible as a “typological” of “allegorical” reference to “Hell”. Can this claim be documented and proven? Indeed it can!
Taking a Closer Look… at the Kidron Brook
The Setting of the Brook (נַחַל (naḥal))H5158 Kidron (קִדְרוֹן (qiḏrôn))H6939
The Brook Kidron is the name of a seasonal stream and valley, technically only now a wadi, as water runs through it only after heavy rains, although in Biblical times likely was also fed by springs, notably the Gihon spring (please see the above map). The brook’s course runs down along the eastern flank of Jerusalem beginning near the Garden of Gethsemane and flowing down through a valley of Kidron, having the Mount of Olives on the east, and ultimately continuing all the way into the “Dead Sea” (or the “Salt Sea”).
Kidron Ominously Means “Darkness“
The name “Kidron” (“Cedron” in the Greek New Testament) in the original Hebrew is קִדְרוֹן (qiḏrôn)H6939 meaning “dark”, but not just any dark, it means “turbid”or “murky” and “very black” and “full of darkness”.
Kidron is derived from the root word, קָדַר (qāḏar)H6937 , which in the original Hebrew is most often translated as “mourn” and “black” as in “sackcloth.” So we should first take a closer look at the meaning and use of the root word for “Kidron” as we find in Ezekiel 32:7&8, where God is condemning Pharaoh and Egypt to hell within the context of the entire chapter we read, “And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make (קָדַר (qāḏar))H6937 ➔ the stars thereof dark (קָדַר (qāḏar)) H6937; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark (קָדַר (qāḏar))H6937 over thee, and set darkness (חֹשֶׁךְ (ḥōšeḵ))H2822 upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.“ What is particularly noteworthy here is that God uses two different words for “dark” and “darkness” together to convey the same meaning.
We can also see this correlation when we look at the use of these two words when we compare Joel 2:10, “The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark (קָדַר (qāḏar)) H6937, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:” with Isaiah 13:10, “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened (חָשַׁךְ (ḥāšaḵ))H2821 in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.“ The Hebrew word חָשַׁךְ (ḥāšaḵ))H2821 meaning “to be, or become, dark” or “darkened” and is is the root word for חֹשֶׁךְ (ḥōšeḵ)H2822, meaning “darkness”.
We should therefore also note that the word חֹשֶׁךְ (ḥōšeḵ)H2822 is found in a total of 80 instances in the Bible in a consistently ominous way as this example in Job 17:13 shows, “If I wait, the grave (actually “Hell”) [is] mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness (חֹשֶׁךְ (ḥōšeḵ))H2822.“
It is also notable that while the “Brook Kidron” is not mentioned in the Book of Job explicitly, it is nonetheless implicitly mentioned in Job 6:15&17, where we can see another connection between the words “brook” and the same root word for “Kidron”, “My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook (נַחַל (naḥal))H5158, [and] as the stream of brooks (נַחַל (naḥal))H5158 they pass away; Which are blackish (קָדַר (qāḏar))H6937 by reason of the ice, [and] wherein the snow is hid:“
Jesus Compared Hell to “Outer Darkness”
These three verses, quoting Jesus, make a very clear connection between Kidron (“darkness”) and Hell:
Matthew 8:12, “But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Matthew 22:13, “Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast [him] into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.“
Matthew 25:30, “And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.“
Finally, the last reference in the Bible where the sun and the moon and the stars are described as being darkened can be found in Revelation 8:12, where we read, “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.“ Clearly this is a case where judgment has come into view (and given the number one third it is likely coming upon the corporate church in the Final Tribulation).
Mentions of the Brook Kidron in the Bible
The Brook Kidron is mentioned directly only 11 times in the Bible, but is also alluded to at least two more times as we will see, but in each case there is an unequivocal association with sorrow, death, and judgment. The above ontology of the Hebrew words connected with “Kidron” are at least suggestive that the Brook Kidron might be a reference to Hell in the Bible.
King David “Passed Over the Brook Kidron“
The first direct reference to the Brook Kidron is found in 2 Samuel 15:23, where we read how King David fled Jerusalem with some faithful servants and his household during Absalom’s rebellion, “And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.” This traumatic event was also accompanied shortly thereafter by a verbal cursing and “casting stones” assault by a man named Shimei (“renowned”). According to 2 Samuel 16:5-24, Shimei was a Benjamite, the son of Gera (“a grain”), of the village of Bahurim (“young men’s village”), and perhaps most significantly, he was also a man of the family of the house of former king Saul. Later, when King David crossed the River Jordan on his way back to regain his throne in Jerusalem after Absalom died in battle, Shimei begged for, and was granted, King David’s forgiveness.
Before we move on the reader should be aware of the significance of Shimei casting stones at King David 2 Samuel 16:6-13, “And he cast stones at David,…” This happened after King David passed over the Brook Kidron with his faithful servants and it correlates well with Jesus going forth over the Brook Kidron (Cedron in Greek) to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went a “stones cast” from his disciples. Please see below under the heading of “A Stone’s Cast”.
The “Valley of the Shadow of Death“
Later, we read in 1 Kings 2:8&9, King David, when nearing his death, instructed Solomon, his son and heir, to ultimately bring Shimei into account such that Shimei would not live to a normal old age. Upon the death of King David, when Solomon ascended the throne of Israel, in 1 Kings 2:36-46, we see the Brook Kidron highlighted in a crucial role involving the ultimate fate of Shimei in fulfillment of King David’s instruction. King Solomon warned Shimei that if he wanted to remain alive, then Shimei had to remain confined within Jerusalem and to never pass over the Brook Kidron, otherwise, according to 1 Kings 2:37, King Solomon told Shimei, “For it shall be, [that] on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.“
Although Shimei promised King Solomon that he would remain in Jerusalem, we read next in 1 Kings 2:39, “¶And it came to pass at the end of three years,…“, that, in an effort to retrieve two of his servants who had run away to Gath (which is west of Jerusalem in what was then Philistine, while the Brook Kidron is east), Shimei left his Jerusalem confinement in violation of his word to Solomon (which in all likelihood involved his having crossed over the Brook Kidron). When Shimei’s movement was made known to Solomon, Shimei was put to death in 1 Kings 2:46.
The Brook Kidron Is a Place for Destroyed and Burned Idols and Altars
King Asa and the Brook Kidron
In the Book of 1 Kings, we learn how Asa, King of Judah of the line of King David, removed idols and in particular he dethroned his own mother, and destroyed her idol and burned it by the Brook Kidron. We see this in 1 Kings 15:11-13, “And Asa did [that which was] right in the eyes of the LORD, as [did] David his father. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from [being] queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.” This information is repeated in 2 Chronicles 15:16, “And also [concerning] Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from [being] queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped [it], and burnt [it] at the brook Kidron.“
King Josiah and the Brook Kidron
In 2 Kings 23:1-3, we read where King Josiah gathered all the people of Judah and Jerusalem to hear the Words of God and to renew their commitment to obeying God, “¶And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all [their] heart and all [their] soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.“
Immediately following, we see that King Josiah orders the destruction of all idolatry related articles to be burned at the Brook Kidron and the ashes scattered over graves in the valley of the Brook Kidron. In 2 Kings 23:4-6, “And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped [it] small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.“ So we can also deduce that, in the time of Josiah, the Valley of Kidron served as a cemetery.
King Josiah took similar action with the altars to false gods in 2 Kings 23:12, “And the altars that [were] on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake [them] down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
King Hezakiah and the Brook Kidron
King Hezakiah also ordered the Levites to cleanse the temple of idolatrous materials and carry them to the Brook Kidron as we read in 2 Chronicles 29:16, “And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse [it], and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took [it], to carry [it] out abroad into the brook Kidron.” and then again in 2 Chronicles 30:13&14, “¶And there assembled at Jerusalem much people to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great congregation. And they arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the altars for incense took they away, and cast [them] into the brook Kidron.“
The last Old Testament direct reference to the Brook Kidron is in Jeremiah 31:40, “And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, [shall be] holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.” The context seems suggest that once Judgment Day comes and there is the New Jerusalem created, then the place representing by the Brook Kidron and its contents will remain for ever and be considered holy by God. Judgment Day, with the torment in Hell that will follow forever, God likens to a “sacrifice” as indicated by Isaiah 34:6, Jeremiah 46:10, Ezekiel 39:17, Zephaniah 1:7&8 and Revelation 14:11.
Two Indirect References to the Brook Kidron
There are two other instances that the Brook Kidron is mentioned in the Bible, but those are indirect. It is mentioned one time as the “valley” and the other time as the “brook”, as is translated in English from the original Hebrew word, נַחַל (naḥal). In 2 Chronicles 33:14, we read “¶Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley H5158, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.” The geographical context (the Gihon spring is in the Kidron valley) indicates it can only be referring to the Brook Kidron. Then in Nehemiah 2:15, “Then went I up in the night by the brookH5158, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned.“ Again, when we look at the setting and geographical context, it is also clear that the “brook” can only be referring to the Brook Kidron.
Nehemiah and the Brook Kidron
The second time where the Brook Kidron is mentioned indirectly, as described above, is of particular interest, because it has to do with Nehemiah and his three days and three nights sojourn outside the walls of Jerusalem that we read about in Nehemiah chapter 2. The significance and spiritual implications are profound because Nehemiah’s activities, as are described in Chapter 2, clearly point to the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ as is explained in this other post: https://bereansearching.com/2015/12/28/seeing-the-person-and-work-of-jesus-christ-in-nehemiah-chapter-2/.
Jesus and the Brook Kidron
Jesus must have crossed the Valley of Kidron many times in His travels, but only one time is such a crossing specifically mentioned in the Bible. We should all be aware that the Garden of Gethsemane is just east of Jerusalem at the base of the Mount of Olives by the uppermost part of the valley of the Brook Kidron, and this is where Jesus’ Atonement began on Passover evening/night as we read in John 18:1, ”When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron (“Cedron” is Kidron in Greek), where was a garden (Gethsemane), into the which he entered, and his disciples.”
The account of Jesus suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane can be also be found in three other places in the Bible, in Matthew 26:36–46, Mark 14:32–42, Luke 22:39–46. From those three descriptions, we learn that Jesus was in the Garden with the disciples, then Jesus told them to remain, while He went further with Peter, James, and John, and then, alone, a bit farther.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, after Jesus had separated Himself from His disciples “about a stone’s cast” as we read in Luke 22:41 “¶And he (Jesus) was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,“) and Jesus prayed three times (Matthew 26:44 and e.g., Luke 22:42, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”) The “cup” was the cup of God’s wrath that Jesus had to take in penalty for the sins of God’s elect. Remember also shortly afterward where Jesus reprimanded Peter for trying to protect Him in John 18:11, “Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Moreover we know that the Garden was where the agony of the Atonement had begun because we read in Luke 22:44, “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
A Stone’s Cast?
The significance of Luke 22:41 should not be missed by the reader. “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,” The language of “a stone’s cast” is extremely important because the casting of stones has great significance in the Bible. It is used to condemn someone to death in the Bible.
The reality is that Jesus was condemned to death on the behalf of all those who would believe on Him as their Lord God and Savior. Any sin is sufficient to justify death by stoning, not just blasphemy against God or murder. Remember that in Numbers 15:32-36, we read of a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath was subsequently taken outside of the camp and stoned to death by God’s command to Moses.
More significantly, there is another case that we should all be aware of regarding “stoning”. In Deuteronomy 21:18 we read, “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and [that], when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; [he is] a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.¶ And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged [is] accursed of God), that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.”
We should all remember that Jesus was accused, falsely, of being a glutton and a drunkard in Luke 7:34, “The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!” And following Jesus’s Passion in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was spiritually deemed to have been worthy of stoning on behalf of the elect, Jesus hung on the cross on that same Passover day, and that cross, being hewn of wood, served as a “tree” as we read in Galatians 3:13 , “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:” And Jesus’s body was buried before sun down that day in the Tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea as recorded in Matthew 27:57-60.
The mention of “a stone’s cast” was placed there by God to show that Jesus had at that point come under judgment for the sins of God’s elect. 2 Corinthians 5:21 makes clear that, “For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.“
Jesus was subsequently tormented in every way until His death on the cross, that occurred just outside the walls of Jerusalem on Friday afternoon (the ninth hour, or 3:00 p.m.). Then Jesus’s body was buried in the tomb and remained there, Friday night (the second night) through Saturday (the sabbath day and the second day), through Saturday night until the resurrection early Sunday morning, which marked the third day.
For more on the significance of the three days and three nights associated with Jesus’ Atoning Sacrifice please see the detailed post on the Book of Jonah
Conclusion
Again to review, Kidron (קִדְרוֹן (qiḏrôn)) H6939 means “Very Black, Full of Darkness”. Jesus describes Hell three times as “outer darkness”: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12, Mat 22:13, Matthew 25:30). And remember when king David was fleeing from Absalom, leaving Jerusalem, that he also crossed over the brook Kidron. Moreover, we also read of the people “weeping” in 2 Samuel 15:23, “And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.“
So then, Spiritually, the Brook Kidron has to be considered representative of the eternal fires of Hell, as the Brook Kidron is where all the refuse was dumped and continually burned from the ancient city of Jerusalem, and which notably empties into the “Dead” Sea. It is mentioned explicitly in eleven verses in the Bible (ten in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament), and every time, in some form or another, it relates to Hell. This is because the brook Kidron was where all the false idols were broken, stamped to powder, and then burned (e.g. 1Kings 15:13, 2 Kings 23:6, 2 Kings 23:12 and 2 Chronicles 15:16), and also to where the priests, the Levites, carried out all of the uncleannesses out of the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:16). The Kidron valley is also associated with “dead bodies” and “ashes”, as we read in Jeremiah 31:40 where God declared, “And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, [shall be] holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.”
The bottom line is that the Kidron valley, the valley of the Brook Kidron, is an abominable place where the dust and ashes of false idols belong and an indisputable allegorical picture of Hell. We can see that two “Types” of the Lord Jesus Christ, King David and Nehemiah, had to each pass over the Brook Kidron in difficult circumstances, and each in there own way pointed to Jesus’ Atoning Sacrifice that became reality on Passover evening in 33AD when Jesus went over the Brook Kidron to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus’s suffering began. Jonah, another great “Type” of the Lord Jesus Christ, was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale foretelling the agony of Jesus who spent the equivalent of an eternity in Hell in the space of the same span of three days and nights, outside the gates of Jerusalem, and beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the Good News is that we know that Jesus also arose from the dead, and that His resurrection proved that the full payment for the sins of His elect had been paid, and therefore Jesus, like Nehemiah, “returned“! Hallelujah!
Today’s Application: Are You Ready?
The Bible makes it clear that if God was willing to put His own Son through Hell to save a people for Himself, how much more would He be willing to send the wicked who reject Him to Hell for their sins (please see Romans 8:32). Jesus is the only Way of escape from the just penalty for our sins. All other ways that man can devise will lead only to Hell. Have you made peace with God through Jesus Christ? Please pray to God for mercy through Jesus Christ and He will show you mercy.
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