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Elisha’s Fountain

Elisha’s Fountain

Ain es-Sultan, Elisha’s Spring, by which Jericho was once supplied with water, still exists and wells forth copiously from the earth. It flows into a pond or reservoir. The temperature is eighty degrees Fahrenheit. Near it stand two mills in a state of dilapidation. The fountain is shaded by a large fig tree. Enough water flows from this spring to irrigate the whole plain of Judea. This is supposed to be Elisha’s Spring, referred to in 2 Kings, chapter 2, 19–22—the waters which Elisha healed. The land around the spring now belongs to the Sultan of Turkey. His agents had the land sown in wheat in this neighborhood, which was ripe when we passed through it in April. Between this fountain and the modern Jericho the Russians have secured three or four acres of land, where they have a convent and a school. They irrigate the soil with the water from Elisha’s Spring, and the wealth of vegetation seen on these premises gives us some idea of what the land was in the days when it was all cultivated and watered. The remains of a paved Roman road have been found in the vicinity. The site of the house of Rahab was shown as being a short distance above the spring, and it is supposed that the ancient town must have stood at this spot. Certainly there was opened here at the baptism and fasting and temptation and triumph of Jesus a fountain for the healing of the nations. His fierce struggle was like the smiting of a rock.

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