(עמק־המּכך, ‛ēmeḳ ha-melekh; Septuagint in Gen reads tó pedı́on (“the plain”) basiléos, in 2 Sam, hē koilás (“valley”) toú basiléōs; the King James Version King’s Dale): The place where the king of Sodom met Abram ([Gen 14:17]), and the situation of Absalom’s monument ([2Sa 18:18]). It was identical with the Vale of Shaveh, and was evidently near Salem, the city of Melchizedek ([Gen 14:17]). If SALEM (which see) is Jerusalem, then Absalom’s pillar was also near that city, Josephus writes (Ant., VII, x, 3), “Absalom had erected for himself a marble pillar in the king’s dale, two furlongs (stadia) from Jerusalem, which he named Absalom’s Hand.” In all probability this “pillar” was a rough upright stone - a maccēbhāh - but its site is lost. The traditional Greek-Egyptian tomb of perhaps 100-200 years BC which has been hewn out of the rock on the eastern side of the Kidron valley is manifestly misnamed “Absalom’s pillar,” and the Kidron ravine (naḥal) cannot be the King’s Vale (‛ēmeḳ).
