Valley of Jehoshaphat
Valley of Jehoshaphat is a location mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. It appears across 2 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
The Valley of Jehoshaphat occupies a prominent place in Old Testament eschatological prophecy, appearing in Joel 3:2 and 3:12 as the divinely appointed arena for God's final judgment of the nations. The name means "the LORD judges" (from the Hebrew roots YHWH and shaphat), and whether it refers to an actual place named for King Jehoshaphat or is itself a symbolic theological designation remains debated among scholars. In Joel's vision, God declares He will gather all nations into this valley to plead with them regarding their treatment of His people Israel, their scattering among foreign lands, their selling of children as slaves, and their plundering of the temple treasury. The valley becomes a cosmic courtroom where the great harvest of judgment is executed: "Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe" (Joel 3:13). Some scholars connect this valley with the scene in 2 Chronicles 20, where King Jehoshaphat witnessed God's miraculous deliverance of Judah, a victory in which the LORD was praised for judging Israel's enemies. By the early centuries of the common era, the Kidron Valley east of Jerusalem had become firmly identified in Jewish and Christian tradition as the eschatological Valley of Jehoshaphat.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
The Valley of Jehoshaphat is most consistently identified in religious tradition with the Kidron Valley, the narrow ravine separating the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Old City from the Mount of Olives. This identification, established by at least the fourth century AD, has shaped centuries of burial practice: the Kidron and adjacent slopes are densely filled with Jewish, Christian, and Muslim tombs whose occupants sought burial near the anticipated site of the final resurrection and judgment. Archaeological excavations in and around the Kidron have uncovered ancient tombs including the Tomb of Absalom, the Tomb of Zechariah, and the Bene Hezir tomb, all Second Temple period monuments. The valley's bedrock has been extensively quarried in antiquity, contributing to its characteristic appearance.
Verse Appearances (2)
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]