THE FULL ARTICLE — from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), general editor James Orr — public domain, printed whole.

(dal, `emeq hamelekh) :

(1) "Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king's dale" (2Sa 18:18). According to Josephus (Ant., VII, x, 3) this was a marble pillar, which he calls "Absalom's hand" and it was two furlongs from Jerusalem. Warren suggests that this dale was identical with the KING'S GARDEN (which see), which he places at the open valley formed at the junction of the Tyropoen with the Kidron (see JERUSALEM). The so-called Absalom's Pillar, which the Jews still pelt with stones in reprobation of Absalom's disobedience, and which a comparatively recent tradition associates with 2Sa 18:18, is a very much later structure, belonging to the Greco- Roman period, but showing Egyptian influence.

(2) King's Vale (Ge 14:17; the King James Version dale). See KING'S VALE; VALE.

E. W. G. Masterman