492 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTS
gaatha. The LXX, perhaps to fill a lacuna in its Vorlage, adds a city detail
about which no one would argue, kai perikuklothesetai kuklo ex eklekton li-
thon, "and it shall be enclosed with a circle of choice stones," but where it
gets this supplement one cannot say. Snaith ( 1945: 32) suggests Rev 21: 19-20.
- And all the valley land, the corpses and the ashes, and all the terraces up
to the Brook Kidron, up to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be
holy for Yahweh. Both valleys, the Ben-Hinnom and the Kidron, also the ter-
races above them on the city slopes, shall be holy for Yahweh, just as the city
itself shall be (v 23). "All the valley land" refers not just to the Ben-Hinnom
(pace Giesebrecht; Cornill; Rudolph; Weiser) but to both valleys. The word
translated "valley land" is <erneq, not ge>, as used in "Valley of Ben-Hinnom"
(7:31-32). The term "Kidron Valley" does not occur in the OT, only nabal
qidron ("Brook Kidron") and in 2 Kgs 23:4, 8adrn6t qidron ("terraces of the
Kidron"). Neither valley is here named; <erneq simply balances sedemot ("ter-
races"), the two areas outside and below the city wall needing reconsecration.
The Ben Hinnom has suffered defilement on account of the Topheth (19: 13;
2 Kgs 23:10), which is where child sacrifices to Molek occurred (2:23; 19:4-5;
32:35). The Kidron had been a dumping area for fat-soaked Temple ashes
(Lev 1:16; 4:12; cf. Milgrom 1991: 240; Theod: ten spodian, "the ashes") and
destroyed cult images; it was also a burial place for the common people ( 1 Kgs
15: 13; 2 Kgs 2 3 :4, 6, 12). Milgrom says that sectaries at Qumran required that
the ash dump lie not simply outside the Temple (Ezek 43:21) but outside the
confines of Jerusalem. A large ash dump from later times has been found
north of the present-day old city (near the former Mandelbaum Gate), which
puts it beyond the Herodian "third wall." This dump contained the remains
of animal flesh, bones, and teeth. Also, with the Babylonian slaughter of Jeru-
salem's population having just recently occurred, the Ben-Hinnom suffered a
further indignity by being heaped with corpses (cf. 7:32; 19:6, 11). The T re-
calls that the valleys around Jerusalem were filled earlier with the bodies of
Sennacherib's army, which is mentioned in this connection by both Rashi
and Calvin (cf. 2 Kgs 19:35). Burials of a more dignified nature (some as early
as the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., and some from the first century A.D.
and later) have been found in the Kidron and Ben-Hinnom Valleys, most re-
cently on the eastern slope below Mount Zion and on the Western Hill below
the Scottish Church (Galling 1936, with map; Kloner 1982-83: 37-38; Barkay
1986, with pictures of finds; NEAEHL 2: 706-7, with map). A modern grave-
yard exists in the terraced area above the Kidron outside the old city wall and
another on the southwestern hill above the Ben-Hinnon, where a number of
well-known people are buried.
And all the valley land, the corpses and the ashes. Hebrew wekol-ha<erneq
happegarfrn wehaddesen. The LXX omission, as Barthelemy ( 1986: 692) has
noted, is doubtless another loss due to haplography (whole-word plus: wkl-h
... wkl-h). These words, or just "the corpses and the ashes," should therefore
not be deleted (pace Duhm; Volz; Weiser; Bright; Holladay; McKane; NEB;
