Jackal's Well

JACKAL'S WELL

(`en ha-tannin; Septuagint has pege ton sukon, "fountain of the figs"; the King James Version dragon well):

A well or spring in the valley of Hinnom between the "Gate of the Gai" and the Dung Gate (Nehemiah 2:13). No such source exists in the Wady er Rababi (see HINNOM, VALLEY OF) today, although it is very probable that a well sunk to the rock in the lower parts of this valley might strike a certain amount of water trickling down the valley-bottom. G.A. Smith suggests (Jerusalem, I, chapter iv) that this source may have arisen as the result of an earthquake, hence, the name "dragon," and have subsequently disappeared; but it is at least as likely that it received its name from the jackals which haunted this valley, as the pariah dogs do today, to consume the dead bodies which were thrown there.

See HINNOM, VALLEY OF; JACKAL.

E. W. G. Masterman