Valley of Jehoshaphat

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The Valley of Jehoshaphat is mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible, in the Book of Joel 3:2, 3:12 (AV). There, after the present devastation of the land, when the northern army is repelled, Yahweh would gather all the heathen nations and would sit in judgment on their misdeeds to Israel. The significance of the name Jehoshaphat is "Yahweh judges". According to the Midrash Tehillim (viii, noted in Jewish Encyclopedia), no "valley called Jehoshaphat" exists. Thus some commentators and translators have thought the designation "Valley of Jehoshaphat" to represent only a rhetorical valley of judgment. Thus Theodotion renders it τὴν χώραν τὶς κρίσεως ("the land of judgment"), Targum Jonathan rendering it "the plain of the settlement of judgment".

The designation of a Valley of Jehoshaphat is applied as a specific toponym for the first time by Egeria, the pilgrim of Bordeaux, in 333. Since her time it has become a general designation for the Kidron Valley, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, which is repeatedly mentioned in the Old Testament and the New, under its own name.

Many Christians believe that the Last Judgment will be held in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, interpreting the words of Yahweh in Joel:

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (KJV)

[edit] References

• Jewish Encyclopedia: "Valley of Jehoshaphat"