Ein Rogel

31°46′04″N 35°14′08″E / 31.7677°N 35.2355°E / 31.7677; 35.2355

Ein Rogel (

En Rogel was one of the boundary marks between Judah and Benjamin (Joshua 15:7, 18:16). During Absalom's uprising against David, Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed at Ein Rogel, "for they dared not be seen coming into the city (Jerusalem); so a female servant would come and tell them, and they would go and tell King David". However, "a lad saw them, and told Absalom", and so they had to flee to Bahurim (2 Samuel 17:17–18). Ein Rogel lay close to a stone, Zoheleth, where Adonijah, Solomon's half-brother of, held a sacrificial feast when he attempted to assert his claims to the throne (1 Kings 1:9).^[5][6] The obviously sacred character of the spring suggests that it is the same as the Dragon Well or Serpent Well of Nehemiah 2:13.^[5]

As of 1901, the meaning of the name was uncertain.^[5] The interpretation 'Fuller's Well' does not bear the mark of antiquity. It is probable that, like Zoheleth, the original name had some sacred or mythic significance.^[5] The etymology according to Strong's Concordance is that the word originally meant "eye of a traveller"; springs were seen as an "eye" in the landscape.^[7][8]

This section is missing information about what the Gezina document says about the spring: does it provide any geographical identification? Do we have a translation? This jstor thing could help. Please expand the section to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page. (December 2023)

Ein Rogel is mentioned in "Topography of Jerusalem", a document found in the Cairo Geniza, which describes how the water breaks through to the riverbed after a winter of plentiful rainfall.^[9]

Bir Ayoub

Some scholars identify Ein Rogel with Bir Ayyub.

The name, "Job's Well", is said to have been given to the site on account of an Arab legend which claimed that when the prophet Job was sick and eaten of worms, he went and bathed in a hole full of water, which stood where the well now stands, and that, at length, Job recovered his health and his body turned youthful, while the pool turned into a plenteous spring.[11]

The application of the Biblical name Ein Rogel to this well in Silwan is long-standing amongst early European travellers to Jerusalem.^[3]

Well of Nehemiah or Well of Fire

It is also known as the Well of Nehemiah, or Puteus ignis (well of fire), in reference to the location in which the sacred fire was hidden during the Jewish captivity in 2 Macc. i. 19-22. This name started in the 16th century.^{[3][12][13][14]}

Description

Robinson, during his tour of Palestine in 1838, describes Bir Ayoub (Job's Well) as being "a very deep well, of an irregular quadrilateral form, walled up with large squared stones, terminating above in an arch on one said, and apparently of great antiquity. There is a small rude building over it, furnished with one or two large troughs."^[15] The well, he said, went down to a depth of 125 feet (38 m).

A water plant was established near Bir Ayoub, which involved large expenses and a lot of labor. A canal was hewn in the rock, 2 meters high and 0.5 to 1 meter wide.^[16] The conduit is more than 600 meters long and passes under the western side of the stream channel at a depth of 23 to 30 meters below the surface.^[16] The place can be reached by a staircase that is interrupted in some places.^[16] It appears that the purpose of this conduit was to store the water flowing between the layers of limestone.^[16] It is located just south of the junction of the three valleys -

Gustaf Dalman who visited Palestine in the early 20th-century mentions a custom of the local inhabitants of Silwan to visit Bir Ayoub (Well of Job) and to recite a blessing for the coming rain.^[18] During periods of great rain downpour, as happened in February 1927, a gushing spring would issue out of the earth some 47 metres (154 ft) downstream from the Well of Job.^[19]

Dispute

As of 1901, the identification of the well with Biblical Ein Rogel was uncertain, Charles Warren being one of its skeptics.^[2] Bir-Ayoub is a well, not a spring (although it may have formerly been a spring), and is said to lie too far from ez-Zehweleh, although it lies near a large stone in Siloam village called Zehwillat. As Bir Ayoub is in full view of the city, it does not suit the context of 2 Sam. 17:17, and its antiquity is uncertain.^[5]

The

• 
  Nehemiah's Well on double, or

  Bonfils

  , ca. 1870.
• 
  Bir Ayub in 1910
• 
  Ein Rogel in the mid 19th century

External links

• Sacred Springs and Sabils

References